ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch. May 18, 2023 The engines of the Progress MS-22 spacecraft, docked to the Russian service module Zvezda, were turned on at 19:43 Moscow time and worked for 353.1 seconds, generating an impulse of 0.55 m/s. As a result, according to preliminary data, the average altitude of the station's orbit increased by 1 km and amounted to 416.6 km. ISS reboost by Progress Cargo Spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA For the entire duration of the ISS flight, 339 corrections of its orbital altitude were carried out, including 187 with the help of Progress spacecra ..read more

  ISS - Expedition 69 Mission patch. May 18, 2023 The Expedition 69 crew members continue preparing the International Space Station for the arrival four private astronauts early next week. Meanwhile, the orbital residents also stayed focused on their life science activities and lab maintenance tasks. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon Freedom crew ship attached, rolled out to its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday morning. It is scheduled to launch four Axiom Mission-2 (Ax-2) astronauts at 5:37 p.m. EDT on Sunday to the orbital outpost. Former ..read more

  ISS - Expedition 69 Mission patch. May 16, 2023 Mission managers have given the go for the launch of the second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station on Sunday. The Expedition 69 crew is preparing to meet the new astronauts while also keeping up its human research, maintaining orbital lab systems, and stowing spacewalk tools. Image above: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon crew spacecraft launched in April 2022 on Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) to the International Space Station. Axiom Mission 2, targeted for launch in May 2023, will carry cr ..read more

  NASA - Lunar Flashlight Mission patch. May 16, 2023 With its primary mission over, the CubeSat will zoom by Earth late Tuesday, May 16, and NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System app will track it, providing a chance to say farewell. Image above: This screenshot from NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System 3D visualization tool shows Lunar Flashlight making its close approach with Earth late on May 16. The CubeSat will pass about 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers) from our planet’s surface over Brazil’s east coast. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission to the Moon h ..read more

  Stratolaunch logo. May 16, 2023 Roc, the biggest airplane in the world, aced its first drop test over the weekend. The world's biggest airplane just notched another huge milestone. Talon-A hypersonic vehicle. Image Credit: Stratolaunch Stratolaunch's Roc carrier plane aced its first-ever drop test on Saturday (May 13), successfully releasing a prototype of the company's Talon hypersonic vehicle high above the Pacific Ocean off the central California coast. Everything went well, paving the way for an even more ambitious test in the coming months, Stratolaunch representatives sai ..read more

  ESA - Juice Mission patch. May 15, 2023 More than three weeks after efforts began to deploy Juice’s ice-penetrating Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna, the 16-metre-long boom has finally escaped its mounting bracket. During the first attempt to extend the folded-up antenna, only the first segments of each half were deployed. Flight controllers suspected that a tiny stuck pin jammed the other segments in place. ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) Fortunately, the flight control teams at ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt had lots of ideas up their sleev ..read more

  SpaceX - Falcon 9 / Starlink Mission patch. May 14, 2023 Falcon 9 carrying Starlink 83 liftoff A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched 56 Starlink satellites (Starlink-83 / Starlink 5-9) to low-Earth orbit, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, on 14 May 2023, at 05:03 UTC (01:03 EDT). SpaceX Starlink 83 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing, 14 May 2023 Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship,  stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Falcon 9’s first stage (B ..read more

  ESA / NASA - Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich logo. May 12, 2023 Kelvin waves, a potential precursor of El Niño conditions in the ocean, are rolling across the equatorial Pacific toward the coast of South America.   Animation above: This animation shows a series of waves, called Kelvin waves, moving warm water across the equatorial Pacific Ocean from west to east during March and April. The signals can be an early sign of a developing El Niño, and were detected by the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich sea level satellite. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. The most recent sea level ..read more

  VAST Space logo. May 12, 2023 The American startup Vast aims to put Haven-1 into orbit within two years. It will become the first representative of a new generation of private stations that will redefine humanity's relationship to space. Image above: An illustration of the future Haven-1 space station. Image Credit: Vast Space. In a press release spotted by Space.com, the American startup Vast has just announced that it intends to deploy its commercial space station Haven-1 in 2025. If it achieves its goal, it will be the very first private space station of the history of human ..read more

  ISS - Expedition 69 Mission patch. May 12, 2023 Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations during the week of May 8 that included monitoring how spaceflight affects immune function, testing a student-designed camera mount, and assessing a platform for automated analysis of cardiovascular health. Image above: The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a relocation maneuver as the International Space Station orbits 265 miles above the U.S-Canadian border. Image Credit: NASA. Here are details on some of the microgravity investigations cu ..read more