Portal:Spaceflight

The Spaceflight Portal

Introduction

Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflights operate either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The first spaceflights began in the 1950s with the launches of the Soviet Sputnik satellites and American Explorer and Vanguard missions. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs. Other current spaceflight are conducted to the International Space Station and to China's Tiangong Space Station. (Full article...)

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Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with Mir during STS-71.

STS-71 was the third mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program and the first Space Shuttle docking to Russian space station Mir. It started on June 27, 1995 with the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

As part of the mission, Atlantis engaged in the Shuttle program's first space station crew transfer. The shuttle delivered the Mir Expedition 19 crew of Anatoly Solovyev and Nikolai Budarin; and returned the Expedition 18 crew of cosmonauts Gennadi Strekalov and Vladimir Dezhurov, and astronaut Norman Thagard. It was the first of seven straight missions to Mir flown by Atlantis.

For the five days the shuttle was docked to Mir they were the largest spacecraft in orbit at the time. In addition to the crew transfer, STS-71 marked the first docking of a space shuttle to a space station, and the 100th manned space launch by the United States. The mission carried Spacelab, and included a logistical resupply of Mir. Together the shuttle and station crews conducted various on-orbit joint US/Russian life science investigations with Spacelab along with the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment-II (SAREX-II) experiment.

Atlantis returned to Earth on July 7, becoming the first mission to land with a crew of eight since STS-61-A in 1985.

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Next scheduled launch

For a full schedule of launches and deep-space rendezvous, see 2025 in spaceflight.

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Sally Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American physicist and astronaut.

Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978 and became the first American woman in space in 1983. She remains the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space, having done so at the age of 32. After flying twice on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She worked for two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego as a professor of physics, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering.

She served on the committees that investigated the Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle disasters, the only person to participate on both.

Ride died following a 17-month-long battle with pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012. Shortly before her death, she came out as a homosexual in a statement through her philanthropic enterprise, Sally Ride Science.

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Credit: SpaceX

The first stage of a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket lands at Landing Zone 1, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, during Falcon 9 Flight 20 at 01:38 UTC on December 22, 2015 (8:38pm December 21 EST). This was the first successful ground landing of a first stage that was used to launch an orbital payload. The payload it launched, eleven Orbcomm G2 satellites, were successfully placed in orbit, its orbital insertion occurring at the same time as the first stage's landing.

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On This Day

11 January

1964 - A Thor-Agena launches an array of technology development spacecraft.
1965 - A Vostok-2 rocket launches a Zenit spy satellite.
1967 - A Delta E launches the Intelsat 2 F-2 communication satellite.
1968 - A drop test of parachutes intended for use on the Apollo spacecraft ends in failure.
1968 - Explorer 36 is launched by a Delta E.
1973 - A Voskhod rocket launches a Zenit-4M spy satellite.
1979 - A Soyuz-U launches a Zenit-2M spy satellite.
1980 - A Molniya-M launches a Molniya-1 communication satellite.
1984 - A Soyuz-U launches a Zenit-6U spy satellite.
1984 - A Parus navigation satellite was launched by a Kosmos-3M rocket.
1990 - The crew of Mir perform an EVA to conduct materials experiments.
1996 - Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on mission STS-72.
2004 - Estrela do Sul 1 is launched atop a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket.
2007 - China tests an Anti-satellite weapon, destroying the Fengyun 1C satellite.

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Did you know...

... that Iran's first three-stage satellite carrier, Qaem 100, successfully passed its suborbital test?
... that astrophysicist Suzanna Randall continued her research at the European Southern Observatory while training for the spaceflight programme Die Astronautin?

…that to date, Britain has launched only one satellite, Prospero X-3? It was launched in 1971, using a Black Arrow rocket (pictured).

…that the Voskhod spacecraft was so cramped that the crew of Voskhod 1 were unable to wear spacesuits?
…that the backup crew of Apollo 11 consisted of Jim Lovell, Bill Anders and Fred Haise, although after Anders announced his intention to retire, Ken Mattingly was also assigned in case the mission was delayed until after Anders had left? The backup crew, with Mattingly replacing Anders, was later assigned to Apollo 13.

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