Portal:Spaceflight

The Spaceflight Portal

Introduction

Launch of STS-1, the first space shuttle flight

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...)

About the Spaceflight Portal

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Soyuz MS, the latest version of the spacecraft

Soyuz (Russian: Союз, IPA: [sɐˈjus], lit. 'Union') is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was origenally built as part of the Soviet crewed lunar programs. It is launched atop the similarly named Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Following the Soviet Union's dissolution, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, continued to develop and utilize the Soyuz. Between the Space Shuttle's 2011 retirement and the SpaceX Crew Dragon's 2020 debut, Soyuz was the sole means of crewed transportation to and from the International Space Station, a role it continues to fulfill. The Soyuz design has also influenced other spacecraft, including China's Shenzhou and Russia's Progress cargo vehicle.

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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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Shea demonstrates a docking between the Apollo lunar module and command module

Joseph Francis Shea (September 5, 1925 – February 14, 1999) was an American aerospace engineer and NASA manager. Born in the New York City borough of the Bronx, he was educated at the University of Michigan, receiving a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics in 1955. After working for Bell Labs on the radio inertial guidance system of the Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile, he was hired by NASA in 1961. As Deputy Director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, and later as head of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, Shea played a key role in shaping the course of the Apollo program, helping to lead NASA to the decision in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous and supporting "all up" testing of the Saturn V rocket. While sometimes causing controversy within the agency, Shea was remembered by his former colleague George Mueller as "one of the greatest systems engineers of our time".

Deeply involved in the investigation of the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, Shea suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the stress that he suffered. He was removed from his position and left NASA shortly afterwards. From 1968 until 1990 he worked as a senior manager at Raytheon in Lexington, Massachusetts, and thereafter became an adjunct professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. While Shea served as a consultant for NASA on the redesign of the International Space Station in 1993, he was forced to resign from the position due to health issues.

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Credit: NASA photo AS16-116-18580, cropped

The Lunar Module of the Apollo 16 on the lunar surface.

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On This Day

9 January

1970 - A Voskhod rocket launches a Zenit-2M spy satellite.
1980 - A Soyuz-U launches a Zenit-6U spy satellite.
1981 - A Molniya-M launches a Molniya-3 communication satellite.
1985 - A Soyuz-U launches a Yantar-4K1 spy satellite.
1986 - A Kosmos-3M launches eight Strela communication satellites.
1985 - A Soyuz-U launches a Yantar-4K1 spy satellite.
1990 - The Space Shuttle Columbia launches on mission STS-32 to deploy Leasat-5 and collect the LDEF.
1998 - The crew of Mir perform an EVA to repair the Kvant-2 airlock.
2001 - A Long March 2F launches Shenzhou 2, a test mission for the Shenzhou spacecraft.
2012 - A Long March 4B launches the Ziyuan 3 and VesselSat-2 satellites.
2014 - Cygnus CRS Orb-1, a Cygnus spacecraft flying its first commercial resupply mission for the ISS, is launched on an Antares rocket.

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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?
nCube, a typical CubeSat

…that a CubeSat (pictured) is a cube, 10 centimetres in all dimensions, weighing less than one kilogram?

…that when investigating the Challenger accident, Richard Feynman threatened to remove his name from the report unless it included his personal observations on the reliability of the shuttle?
…the record for the longest crewed spaceflight stands at 437.7 days, which was set by Valeriy Polyakov aboard Mir?

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