On January 21, 2010 Russian cosmonaut Maksim Suraev performed a complex task of moving a spacecraft from one docking port to another on the International Space Station.
Maxim Surayev has manually piloted the Soyuz TMA-16 from its usual docking port on the ISS to the new Poisk module. He was assisted by U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams who was also on board the Soyuz spacecraft during the 25-minute operation.
The task has been carried out to free up a docking port on the Russian Zvezda module and to test for the first time the performance of a docking port on the new scientific Poisk module that arrived on the ISS in November last year.
The docking port on the Poisk will be frequently used in the future to receive Russiaan Soyuz and Progress spacecraf
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On January 16, 2010 at 16:12 UTC China has successfully launched its third navigation satellite as part of a project to develop its own global satellite navigation system.
photo by Xinhua
The Chang Zheng-3C (Long-March) rocket with the Beidou DW3 (Compass) satellite onboard was launched from the Xichang space center in the country's southwest.
On January 11, 2010 the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center marked its 50th Anniversary.
50 years ago on January 11, 1960 the commander-in-chief of Soviet Air Force, Air Chief Marshal K.Vershinin issued Number 321141 directive about founding the Cosmonaut Training Center in the structure of Soviet Air Force (military unit 26266).
On September 18,
2009 the Japanese HTV unmanned supply spacecraft was successfully berthed at
the International Space Station (ISS) at 10:49 a.m. Japan Standard Time, JST (on
September 17 at 22:49 UTC).
On December 29, 2009 Proton-Breeze M launcher, carrying the DirecTV 12 satellite for DIRECTV Inc., lifted off from Pad 39 of the Baykonur Cosmodrome at 03:22 Moscow time.
In 9 hours 15 minutes, Breeze-M upper stage successfully injected DirecTV-12 satellite, weighing almost 6 tons, into geostationary transfer orbit.
This was the 10th out of 10 successful Proton launches in 2009, and the 351st Proton's mission. International Launch Services Inc. (ILS) provided DirecTV-12 launch services by the Proton-M rocket, for the benefit of DIRECTV Inc.
From December 4th to 6th, 2009 the Club de Monte-Carlo and the OETP (the Monegasque Office for Stamp Issues) organized the MonacoPhil 2009 International Philatelic exhibition. The visitors could see 100 worldwide rarities from 100 world famous collections belonging to His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco and to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 10 national postal museums, members of the Club de Monte-Carlo. The Exposition also included a collective exhibition devoted to Belgian philately as well as A selection of internationally renowned collections presented by philatelic federations and academies from a variety of countries.
On December 23, 2009 at 01:48 Moscow time (on December 22, 2009 at 22:48 UTC) the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft docked with the ISS.
The Soyuz TMA-17 crew, comprising Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut Timothy Creamer and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, joint the current ISS crew of Russian Maxim Surayev and U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, who have been on the ISS since early October.
