Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in July 2011, America has been unable to put any astronauts into orbit around the Earth. Instead, it has been in the difficult situation of having to rely on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). This situation may change… Continue reading American manned spaceflight in 2019
Tag: SpaceX
Soyuz – What next?
Many of my readers will be aware the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft failed to get into orbit on Thursday 11 October. It was on a mission to take fresh crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Mission patch for Soyuz MS-10 A major fault occurred at an altitude of about 50 km when the booster rocket… Continue reading Soyuz – What next?
The International Space Station updated
Since the publication of the original post on 2 August 2018, NASA have delayed the planned launch dates for the American spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. In my original post I referred to the Boeing and SpaceX spacecraft taking astronauts this year, which was an ambitious target, bearing in mind that it… Continue reading The International Space Station updated
The International Space Station
Note 10 September 2018. The information in the section 'Getting to and from the ISS' has been superseded by information in the updated version of this post. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS). Image from NASA. The first module of the ISS, called Zarya, was launched by a Russian… Continue reading The International Space Station
American manned spaceflight in 2018?
This post has been superseded by the later post American spaceflight in 2019 As readers of a previous post will know, since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in July 2011, America has been unable to put any astronauts into orbit around the Earth. Instead, it has been reliant on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to… Continue reading American manned spaceflight in 2018?
Explaining Science 