On June 17, 2010 at 22:21 UTC (June 18 at 02:21 Moscow time) the Russian "Soyuz TMA-19” spacecraft with three crewmembers on board docked with the International Space Station (ISS), to the aft end docking port of the "Zvezda” service module.
The crew consisted of Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchihin and American astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker.
When the hatches between the spacecraft and the ISS were opened, the three new crewmembers were welcomed by Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko as well as by U.S. astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson who had been aboard the station since April 2010.
On June 15, 2010 at 14:42 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 rocket orbited a French spacecraft to observe the sun and a Swedish experiment to demonstrate orbital formation flying with two satellites.
The launch was the 15th flight of the Dnepr rocket, a converted Ukrainian SS-18 rocket built for the Soviet Union's military missile forces. Fourteen Dnepr missions have been successful.
The "Picard” satellite is commencing a two-year mission to watch the sun with three instruments. Scientists hope the satellite will provide insights into th
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On June 15, 2010 at 01:39 UTC China launched the "Long March 2D” (Chang Zheng-2D) rocket-carrier from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center of Gansu Province.
The rocket orbited the "Shijian XII" satellite. The satellite was designed for carrying out scientific and technological experiments including space environment probe, measurement and communications.
"Shijian XII" was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a research institution affiliated to state-run China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. "Shijian" means practice.
China produced its first Long March rocket in 1970. It was the 125th flight of Long March rockets.
On June 10, 2010 South Korean KSLV-1 (The First Korean Space Launch Vehicle), a space rocket known as Naro-Two, was launched at 08:01 UTC (05:01 p.m. local time) from the Naro National Space Center.
The liftoff was nominal. However, 136 seconds into the flight all telemetry data downlink was terminated. It can be concluded at this point that an off-nominal event had occurred.
A joint failure review board will be set up by Korean and Russian specialists to investigate the causes. KSLV-1 is a joint product developed and built by Russian and South Korean specialists. The first stage of KSLV-I was developed and fabricated by Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow, while the second stage and payload were designed and built in South Korea.
On June 04, 2010 at 18:45 UTC the Falcon-9 rocket-carrier was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA.
Artist's concept of a Dragon spacecraft. Picture by SpaceX.
The rocket orbited the model of the Dragon space vehicle. The Dragon vehicle will deliver astronauts and cargo if the test runs are successful. The launch was performed by the SpaceX company.
On June 03, 2010 at 22:00 UTC the Arabsat-5 telecommunication satellite was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The satellite was orbited by the Russian Proton-M launch vehicle powered by the Breeze-M upper stage.
The launch was carried out under a contract between the International Launch Services (ILS) and ARABSAT satellite operator. ILS, owned by the Russain Khrunichev Space Center, the Russian "Energy” Space Corporation and the U.S. Space Transport Inc., provides spacecraft launch services for Proton-M heavy rocket-carriers.
On June 2, 2010 at 15:33 UTC China successfully launched its fourth orbiter into space, as a part of its indigenous satellite navigation and positioning network known as Beidou, or Compass system.
The satellite was launched by the Long March 3III (Chang Zheng-3C) rocket-carrier.
It will join another three satellites in orbit to form a network that will eventually consist of 35 satellites.
According to the plan, the system will provide navigation, time and short message services in the Asia and Pacific region around 2012. It will be capable of providing global navigation services by 2020.
China started to build up its own satellite navigation system to break its dependence on the U.S.
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On June 2, 2010 at 01:59 UTC the Russian "Rockot” rocket-carrier was launched from Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome to orbit the Japan SERVIS-2 satellite.
photo by Roskosmos
SERVIS-2 is an acronym for the second spacecraft in the "Space Environment Reliability Verification Integrated System" program conducted by USEF under a contract from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
The purpose of SERVIS-2 is the verification of commercial off - the - shelf (COTS) parts and technologies in
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