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...)

About the Spaceflight Portal

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The Dragon spacecraft used on Dragon C2+, its second and final COTS demo flight, as it approached the ISS on May 25, 2012.

Dragon is a spacecraft developed by SpaceX. During its maiden flight in December 2010, Dragon became the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to be recovered successfully from orbit. On May 25, 2012, a cargo variant of Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with and be attached to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX is contracted to deliver cargo to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program, and Dragon began regular cargo flights in October 2012.

The spacecraft is currently launched atop a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket. Earlier missions, through SpaceX CRS-2, used the original Falcon 9 rocket. Dragon has been launched on seven missions, with one, SpaceX CRS-7, suffering a launch failure.

Dragon was renewed for the second round of the Commercial Resupply Services in 2016. It is also the basis for the Dragon V2 manned spacecraft, which was selected under the CCDev program in 2014 to deliver astronauts to the ISS.

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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: NASA [1]

SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour approaching the International Space Station with open nosecone preparing for docking during the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, carrying NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

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On This Day

13 February

1974 - A Titan 24B launches a KH-8A satellite.
1979 - A Vostok-2M launches the Kosmos-1077 satellite.
1981 - A Soyuz-U launches the Kosmos-1245 satellite.
2012 - The first Vega rocket launches LARES and eight other satellites.

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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?
VAB

…that the Vehicle Assembly Building is so large that rain clouds are reported to form inside it on humid days?

…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?
...that the USSR had its own Space Shuttle, Buran?

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