On June 19, 2014 at 19:11 UTC a Soviet-era "Dnepr” ballistic missile blasted off from southern Russia. The "Dnepr” rocket launched from an underground silo at a space base near Yasny, Russia, a small community in the Orenburg region in the southern part of the country. The launch was performed by Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation in according to the agreement with Kosmotras, a Moscow-based company with joint Russian-Ukrainian ownership that oversees the commercial exploitation of the Dnepr rocket.

The rocket orbited 37 satellites. The payload package is the most number of individual satellites ever launched on a single rocket, representing nations from 17 countries on four continents. The main payload was Deimos-2 (Spai ... Read more »

On June 19, 2014 Russian Cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev performed a 7 hours and 24 minutes spacewalk. The hatches were opened at 14:10 UTC.  The cosmonauts conducted extravehicular activity for installing a telemetry antenna, repositioning an experiment and jettisoning a mounting fixture after moving another experiment to a recently installed payload boom.

This was the 180th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the third so far this year and the first for Skvortsov and Artemyev. Total station EVA time by 116 astronauts and cosmonaut representing nine nations now stands at 1130 hours and 51 minutes.

On June 14, 2014 at 17:17 UTC the “Soyuz 2-1b” rocket-carrier was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk region, North Russia. The rocket equipped with the “Fregat” booster orbited the “Glonass-M” navigation satellite.
 

On June 09, 2014 at 13:30 UTC the “Progress M-21M” unmanned supply spacecraft was undocked from the Russian “Zvezda” (Star) module of the International Space Station. At 16:34 UTC the “Progress M-21M” spacecraft were deorbiting. Non-burnt fragments of the spacecraft sank in the South part of the Pacific at 17:23 UTC.
 

On May 29, 2014 at 01:44 UTC the "Soyuz TMA-13M” spacecraft docked with the Russian "Rassvet” (MIM) module of the International Space Station in automatic regime.

The Soyuz TMA-13M delivered three new members of Expedition 40 to the ISS, Russian cosmonaut Maksim Suraev, American astronaut Gregory Wiseman and German astronaut Alexander Gerst. The hatches between the "Soyuz TMA-13M” and the space station were opened at 03:52 UTC on May 29, 2014. The new comers joined current ISS expedition members – Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev as well as American astronaut Steven Swanson to form Expedition 40 c ... Read more »

On May 28, 2014 at 19:57 UTC the Russian “Soyuz TMA-13M” spacecraft was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The space vehicle was orbited by the Russian “Soyuz-FG” rocket-carrier. The spacecraft is piloted by 3 cosmonauts: Commander, Russian cosmonaut Maksim Suraev (center); flight-engineer, American astronaut Gregory Wiseman (right); flight-engineer German astronaut Alexander Gerst (left).

Photo by Russian Cosmonaut training center.

The space vehicle is to dock with the International Space Station on May 29. Suraev, Wiseman and Gerst will join current ISS expedition members Skvortsov, Artemjev and Swanson.

 < ... Read more »

On May 26, 2014 at 21:10 UTC Sea Launch AG successfully launched the Eutelsat-3B European telecommunication satellite from the ocean-based Odyssey Launch Platform in the Pacific Ocean. The satellite was orbited by the Zenit-3SL rocket-carrier.
 

On May 24, 2014 at 03:05 UTC the H-2A (202) F-24 rocket-carrier was launched from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The rocket orbited the Daichi-2 satellite also dubbed ALOS-2 (Advanced Land Observation Satellite-2). The satellite will map the globe every two weeks, helping authorities respond to natural disasters, track agricultural yields and monitor shipping lanes.

The rocket also orbited 4 other satellites. The UNIFORM-1 (University International Formation Mission) satellite; SOCRATES (Space Optical Communications Research Advanced Technology Satellite); SpriteSat (Raijin, Rising); SPROUT (Space Research On Unique Technology).

On May 23, 2014 at 05:27 UTC the “Rockot” rocket-carrier was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk region, North Russia. The rocket orbited a trio of military communications satellites of the “Rodnik-C” type. The satellites received the names Kosmos-2496, Kosmos-2497 and Kosmos-2498.
 

On May 22, 2014 at 13:05 UTC the “Atlas-5” rocket-carrier was launched from Cape Canaveral launch site of US Air Force. The launch was performed by United Launch Alliance supported by the 45th Space Wing of US Air Force. The rocket orbited the NROL-33 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The nature of the payload is not officially reported, but experts believe that is a telecommunication satellite of the Quasar type.