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...)

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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 originally 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 2024 in spaceflight.

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Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930–25 August, 2012) was an American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He is the first person to set foot on the Moon. After serving as a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952 in the Korean War, Armstrong joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1955. Over the next 17 years, he was an engineer, test pilot, astronaut and administrator for NACA and its successor agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a research pilot, Armstrong served as project pilot on the F-100 Super Sabre A and C aircraft, F-101 Voodoo, and the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2½ hours exploring making him the first human to walk on the Moon, while Michael Collins remained in orbit in the Command Module. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

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Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory via NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This is a composite of images taken of Pluto and Charon during the fly-by of New Horizons on July 14, 2015. The image has been compiled so their relative positions and sizes are correct. Both images were taken by the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on the Ralph telescope experiment. The image of Pluto was taken from a distance of 150,000 miles (240,000 km).

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On This Day

23 December

1969 - A Tsyklon-2 launches the Kosmos 316 satellite.
1969 - A Voskhod launches the Kosmos 317 satellite.
1977 - A Kosmos-3M launches the Kosmos 971 satellite.
1978 - A Vostok-2M launches the Kosmos 1066 satellites.
1980 - A Kosmos-3M launches eight Strela satellites.
1981 - A Molniya-M launches a Molniya-1 satellite.
1982 - A Soyuz-U2 launches the Kosmos 1425 satellite.
1987 - A Kosmos-3M launches the Kosmos 1904 satellite.
1988 - A Tsyklon-3 launches the Kosmos 1985 satellite.
1997 - A Pegasus-XL launches eight Orbcomm satellites.
2004 - A Soyuz-U launches the Progress M-51 spacecraft to resupply the ISS.
2007 - A Soyuz-U launches the Progress M-62 spacecraft to resupply the ISS.
2008 - A Long March 3A launches the Feng Yun 2E satellite.
2011 - A Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat fails to launch the Meridian 5 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?
Angara

…that the South Korean launch system Naro-1, which made its first flight on 25 August 2009, is based on the Russian Angara (pictured)?

…that Project Juno resulted in the launch of the first British astronaut, Helen Sharman, aboard Soyuz TM-12?
…the record for the longest crewed spaceflight stands at 437.7 days, which was set by Valeriy Polyakov aboard Mir?

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