On July 03, 2014 at 12:43 UTC the “Rockot” rocket-carrier was launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk region, North Russia. The launch was performed by Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. The rocket equipped with the “Briz-KM” booster orbited 3 “Gonets” (Messenger) communications satellites. The satellites provide communications in remote regions, disaster zones, and assist users in monitoring industrial and research assets.
 

On July 02, 2014 at 09:56 UTC the Delta-2 rocket-carrier was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA. The launch was performed by United Launch Alliance supported by the 30th Space Wing of US Air Force. The rocket orbited the OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2) satellite to watch the Earth breathe from space. The space vehicle will study natural and man-made carbon dioxide emission and absorption to help scientists assess how the greenhouse gas is contributing to global warming.
 

On June 30, 2014 at 04:22 UTC the PSLV C-23 rocket-carrier was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota Island, India's primary launch site on the country's east coast about 50 miles north of Chennai. The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket orbited the French "Spot 7” commercial Earth imaging satellite. In addition to the "Spot 7” satellite, the following micro satellites were orbited: CanX-4 and CanX-5 (Canada); AISat (Germany) and Velox-1 (Nanyang Technical University in Singapore).
 

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.

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