2015 In Spaceflight
In 2015, the maiden spaceflights of the Chinese Long March 6 and Long March 11 launch vehicles took place. A total of 87 orbital launches were attempted in 2015, of which 82 were successful, one was partially successful and four were failures. The year also saw seven EVAs by ISS astronauts. The majority of the year's orbital launches were conducted by Russia, the United States and China, with 27, 20 and 19 launches respectively. Overview In February 2015, the European Space Agency's experimental lifting body spacecraft, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle, successfully conducted its first test flight. In March 2015, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to be visited by a spacecraft when Dawn entered orbit. In July 2015, New Horizons visited the Pluto-Charon system after a 9-year voyage, returning a trove of pictures and information about the former "ninth planet" (now classified as a dwarf planet). Meanwhile, the MESSENGER probe was deliberately crashed into Mercu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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COSPAR
The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established on October 3, 1958 by the International Council for Science, International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU) and its first chair was Hildegard Korf Kallmann-Bijl. Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in outer space, space on an international level, with emphasis on the free exchange of results, information, and opinions, and providing a forum, open to all scientists, for the discussion of problems that may affect space research. These objectives are achieved through the organization of symposia, publication, and other means. COSPAR has created a number of research programmes on different topics, a few in cooperation with other scientific Unions. The long-term project COSPAR international reference atmosphere started in 1960; since then it has produced several editions of the high-atmosphere code COSPAR international reference atmosphere, CIRA. The code "IRI" of the URSI-COSPAR working grou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Launch Vehicle
A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage rocket, but the term is more general and also encompasses vehicles like the Space Shuttle. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, supported by a missile launch control center, launch control center and systems such as vehicle assembly and fueling. Launch vehicles are engineered with advanced aerodynamics and technologies, which contribute to high operating costs. An orbital spaceflight, orbital launch vehicle must lift its payload at least to the boundary of space, approximately and accelerate it to a horizontal velocity of at least . Suborbital spaceflight, Suborbital vehicles launch their payloads to lower velocity or are launched at elevation angles greater than horizontal. Practical orbital launch vehicles use chemical prope ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spaceflight
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. Spaceflights include the launches of Earth observation and telecommunications satellites, interplanetary missions, the rendezvouses and dockings with space stations, and crewed spaceflights on sci ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2016 In Spaceflight
Several new rockets and spaceports began operations in 2016. Overview Russia inaugurated the far-Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome on 28 April 2016 with a traditional Soyuz-2.1a flight, before expanding it for the Angara (rocket family), Angara rocket family in the following years. The Chinese Long March 7 flew its maiden flight from the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island on 25 June, and the maiden flight of the Long March 5 took place on 3 November. Two years after its Cygnus CRS Orb-3, 2014 accident, the Antares rocket returned to flight on 17 October with its upgraded Antares 230, 230 version featuring the Russian RD-181 engine. After Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests, many failed attempts, SpaceX began landing its Falcon 9 first stages on autonomous spaceport drone ships, edging closer to their long-stated goal of SpaceX reusable launch system development program, developing reusable launch vehicles. The company indicated that the recovered engines and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2014 In Spaceflight
In 2014, the maiden flight of the Angara A5, Antares 120 and Antares 130 took place. A total of 92 orbital launches were attempted in 2014, of which 88 were successful, two were partially successful and two were failures. The year also saw seven EVAs by ISS astronauts. The majority of the year's orbital launches were conducted by Russia, the United States and China, with 34, 23 and 16 launches respectively. Overview An Ariane 5 ES launched the ''Georges Lemaître'' Automated Transfer Vehicle, the last one of the series, which also marked 60 successfully completed Ariane 5 launches in a row. On 22 August 2014, Arianespace launched the first two Full Operational Capability Galileo satellites for the European satellite navigation system. A number of significant events in planetary exploration occurred in 2014, including the entry of the Rosetta spacecraft into orbit around the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August 2014 and the deployment of the Philae lander to it ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Timeline Of Spaceflight
This is a timeline of known spaceflights, both crewed and uncrewed, sorted chronologically by launch date. Due to its large size, the timeline has been split into smaller articles, one for each year since 1951. There is a separate list for all flights that occurred before 1951. The list for the year and for its subsequent years may contain planned launches, but the statistics will only include past launches. For the purpose of these lists, a spaceflight is defined as any flight that crosses the Kármán line, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI-recognized edge of space, which is Above mean sea level, above mean sea level (AMSL). The timeline contains all the flights which have either crossed the edge of space, were intended to do so but failed, or are planned in the near future. Notable test flights of spaceflight systems may be listed even if they were not planned to reach space. Some lists are further divided into orbital launches (sending a payload into ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dnepr (rocket)
The Dnepr rocket (; ) was a space launch vehicle named after the Dnieper River. It was a converted ICBM used for launching artificial satellites into orbit, operated by launch service provider ISC Kosmotras. The first launch, on April 21, 1999, successfully placed UoSAT-12, a 350 kg demonstration mini-satellite, into a 650 km circular Low Earth orbit. History The Dnepr was based on the R-36MUTTH Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)called the ''SS-18 Satan'' by NATOdesigned in the 1970s by the Yuzhnoe Design Bureau in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR. among the outstanding authors of the project there are people like Boris Gubanov, Sergey Sopov. The Dnepr control system was developed and produced by the JSC "Khartron", Kharkiv. The Dnepr was a three-stage rocket using storable hypergolic liquid propellants. The launch vehicles used for satellite launches have been withdrawn from ballistic missile service with the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces and store ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Falcon 9 Full Thrust
Falcon 9 Full Thrust (also known as Falcon 9 v1.2) is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle when reused and Heavy-lift launch vehicle when expended designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the third major version of the Falcon 9 family, designed starting in 2014, with its first launch operations in December 2015. It was later refined into the Falcon 9 Block 4, Block 4 and Falcon 9 Block 5, Block 5. As of , all variants of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust (including Block 4 and 5) had performed launches with only one failure: Starlink, Starlink Group 9-3. Falcon 9 flight 20, On December 22, 2015, the ''Full Thrust'' version of the Falcon 9 family was the first launch vehicle on an orbital spaceflight, orbital trajectory to successfully VTVL, vertically land a first stage (rocketry), first stage. The landing followed a SpaceX reusable launch system development program, technology d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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SPARK (rocket)
SPARK, or Spaceborne Payload Assist Rocket - Kauai, also known as Super Strypi, is an American expendable launch system developed by the University of Hawaii, Sandia and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Designed to place miniaturized satellites into low Earth and Sun-synchronous orbits, it is a derivative of the Strypi rocket which was developed in the 1960s in support of nuclear weapons testing. SPARK is being developed under the Low Earth Orbiting Nanosatellite Integrated Defense Autonomous System (LEONIDAS) program, funded by the Operationally Responsive Space Office of the United States Department of Defense. Configuration SPARK is designed as a three-stage all-solid carrier rocket, with a spin-stabilized first stage known as LEO-46 and an active attitude control system on the second and third stages. It is launched using a new rail-guided system. It is expected to have a payload capacity of to a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of approximately . Launches will be conducted fro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Long March 11
The Long March 11 (), or Chang Zheng 11 as in pinyin, abbreviated LM-11 for export or CZ-11 within China (and designated 11H when launched from sea), is a Chinese four stage solid-propellant carrier rocket of the Long March family, which is developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It was designed with the ability to launch on short notice and it can launch from road vehicles (CZ-11) and ships (CZ-11H). The vehicle can be cold launched from a launch tube mounted on a road mobile vehicle. The maiden flight of the Long March 11 occurred on 25 September 2015. The first sea launch occurred on 5 June 2019, from a converted barge stationed in the Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four .... Seventeen launches have been made , five of them ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Long March 6
The Long March 6 () or Chang Zheng 6 as in pinyin, abbreviated LM 6 for export or CZ 6 within China, is a Chinese liquid-fuel rocket, liquid-fuelled launch vehicle of the Long March (rocket family), Long March family, which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The rocket was developed in the 2000s, and made its maiden flight in 2015. As one of the new generation rocket family, the Long March 6 was designed to be a light capacity, "high-speed response" rocket, complementing the heavy lift Long March 5 and the mid-heavy lift Long March 7 rocket families. It is capable of placing at least of payload into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The first stage of the Long March 6 was derived from the booster rockets being developed for the Long March 5 rocket. It is powered by a YF-100 engine, which generates of thrust from burning kerosene and LOX as rocket fuel and oxidiser. This was the first ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |