SpaceX are continuing to make progress with their NASA commercial crew contract, with the latest milestone involving the firing of their SuperDraco thruster engine, an integrated element of the Dragon which will be used as its Launch Abort System (LAS). However, these engines are hoping to gain additional roles, including the ability to land Dragon [...]

The uncrewed Russian Progress M-14M resupply spacecraft, also going by its US designation of 46P, has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday morning (GMT). Ahead of the M-14M events, the recently undocked Progress M-13M/45P performed the unusual procedure of deploying a microsatellite into space prior to de-orbiting.

Russia’s failed Fobos-Grunt spacecraft has re-entered on Sunday, following its failure to leave Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on what was supposed to be a sample return mission to the moon of Phobos. An accurate prediction of the spacecraft’s re-entry time and location will require some time to confirm, although Russian officials claim the spacecraft should [...]

Russia has conducted the final orbital launch of 2011, as their Soyuz-2-1a/Fregat deploying six Globalstar communications satellites into orbit on Wednesday on behalf of Arianespace and Starsem. Liftoff was on schedule at 17:09:01 UTC (23:09 local time), from Site 31/6 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Just hours before the Soyuz TMA-03M successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS), another Russian Soyuz launch vehicle failed during its task to loft the Meridian-5 satellite into orbit. The failure became the main subject of a post-docking media briefing for TMA-03M, resulting in Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin portraying serious internal issues at the [...]

The Russian Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft, also known by its US designation of 29S, successfully docked to the ISS at the Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) “Rassvet” Nadir docking port, vacated just over one month ago by Soyuz TMA-02M/27S, at 3:19 PM GMT on Friday.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft – also known by its US designation of 29S – has launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) from the wintry Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today at 1:16 PM GMT (7:16 PM local Kazakh time), carrying three crewmembers for the station’s current Expedition 30 and future Expedition 31 crews.

A Russian government Proton-M launch vehicle has successfully launched with two satellites – Russia’s Luch-5A and Israel’s AMOS-5 – on Sunday. Launch was nominal and on schedule at 11:17 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, ahead of a long flight profile which involved four burns of the Briz-M (Breeze-M) Upper Stage.

Despite a small period of time where it was hoped communications and commanding might be established with the stricken Fobos-Grunt spacecraft, it now appears the Russian probe’s future is one which will see it head towards a fiery end, as its orbit continues decay over time. The likely scenario now points to a destructive re-entry [...]

Russia has successfully launched another Kosmos (Glonass-M) class satellite into orbit, following lift-off of their Soyuz 2-1B launch vehicle from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Launch occurred at 08:25 UTC on Monday, with a successful spacecraft separation confirmed just over three hours later.

After nearly all hope was lost, the silence of the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft has been broken, following a major breakthrough via a European Space Agency (ESA) tracking station in Perth, Australia. With the earlier confirmation a carrier signal having been established during one pass, the pace of progress is picking up, with news that received telemetry data [...]

The Russian Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft, also going by its US designation of 27S, has undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and returned to Earth on Tuesday morning, carrying three members of the outgoing Expedition 29 crew. As the second of the new “digital” Soyuz TMA-M variants, a special attitude control test was performed post-undocking.

Russia’s Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft has successfully docked to the International Space Station (ISS) after a two day free flight following a flawless launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday. The arrival of Soyuz TMA-22 with three crewmembers has averted a possible de-crewing of the station following the failure of a Soyuz booster in August.

In what was a critical launch for the Russian space program, the Soyuz FG launch vehicle has successfully lofted the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft into orbit ahead of a two day trip to the International Space Station (ISS). Launch took place at 04:15am on Monday morning from the very snowy Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Despite several valiant attempts, Russian experts are still unable to command the Fobos-Grunt spacecraft back to nominal operations – which is required for it to carry out two critical burns to head to its Phobos destination. The spacecraft is expected to wander around in Low Earth Orbit for some time, although controllers only have two [...]

A Russian Zenit-2 launch vehicle lofted Russia’s Fobos-Grunt spacecraft into orbit – launching  at 02:16 local time on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome – ahead of its sample return mission to Phobos, along with China’s first Mars probe, Yinghuo-1. However, both of the two planned burns to send it on its way to Mars failed, related to problems with the flight computer. [...]

A Russian government Proton-M launch vehicle has successfully launched with three Glonass-M – the Russian Global Positioning System (GPS) – satellites on Friday. Launch was on schedule at 12:52 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, as the Russian fleet of vehicles continue their fight back from recent failures.

Just over two months after the launch failure of the Progress 44P unmanned resupply craft to the International Space Station, Russian Federal Space Agency officials have successfully docked the Progress 45P spacecraft to the International Space Station in a return to flight event that paves the way for the resumption of manned Soyuz launches to [...]

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has successfully returned the venerable Soyuz booster to flight via the launch of the Soyuz-U booster carrying the uncrewed Progress M-13M/45P resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch is the first successful Soyuz booster flight to the ISS since the 24th August failure of the Soyuz-U booster carrying [...]