On October 25, 2013 at 18:08 UTC the "Proton-M” rocket-carrier was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The rocket equipped with the "Briz-M” booster orbited the US "Sirius FM-6” telecommunication satellite.
On October 25, 2013 at 03:50 UTC the "Long March – 4B” ("Changzheng-4B”) rocket-carrier was launched from the Jiuquan satellite launching center in northwest China's Inner Mongolia province. The rocket orbited the "Shijian-16” experimental satellite. According to the Xinhua news agency, the "Shijian-16” will be "used mainly for conducting space environment exploration and technological experiments. Shijian means "practice" in Chinese.
On October 23, 2013 at the "Cygnus” unmanned supply spacecraft was deorbited. Two braking burns at 13:06 and 17:41 UTC guided the "Cygnus” to re-entry over the sparsely-populated South Pacific.
On October 22, 2013 the US "Cygnus” unmanned supply spacecraft was undocked from the International Space Station. The spacecraft, which had been attached to the space station since Sept. 29, was released by astronauts aboard the station using the orbiting complex's huge robotic arm at 11:31 UTC.
On October 08, 2013 Chairman of the FIP Section for Astrophilately Igor Rodin had a pleasure to meet Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov in his home in Moscow. Cosmonaut Vinogradov, who had returned from the International Space Station after his 166-day space mission on September 11, told Igor Rodin about postal activity during his flight and presented to Igor Rodin several Space Mail flown items.
On September 28, 2013 in the frames of the "Rossica-2013” international philatelic exhibition the Seminar on Astrophilately was conducted at the exhibition venue. The seminar was held by Igor Rodin, Chairman of the FIP Section for Astrophilately, General Commissioner of "Rossica-2013”. The subject of the Seminar was the History of Soviet/Russian Space mail.
Among about 30 participants of the Seminar were Mrs.Carol Cheung (Hong Kong), FIP Astrophilately bureau member; Mr.Syed Hussain (Pakistan), a delegate for Astrophilately Section; Mr. Serge Kahn (France), Secretary General of European Academy of Philately; Wolfgang Maassen (Germany), AIJP President. At "Rossica-2013” non-competitive exhibition there were 3 exhibits of Astrophilately Class and 4 exhi
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On September 29, 2013 at 21:38 UTC the Russian "Proton-M” rocket-carrier was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The rocket equipped with the "Briz-M” booster orbited the "Astra-2E” communication satellite. The satellite built by the European "Astrium” company will provide services for European, Middle Eastern and Northern African countries in the next 15 years. This was the sixth launch of the Proton-M this year and the first one after a failed launch on July 2 when the rocket with three communications satellites on board crashed seconds after blast-off.
On September 29, 2013 at 16:00 UTC the "Falcon 9” rocket-carrier was launched from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 241 km northwest of Los Angeles, USA. The rocket orbited the Canadian ”CASSIOPE” weather satellite. Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed by US SpaceX private spacecraft company for the reliable and cost-efficient transport of satellites and SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.
On September 29, 2013 the American "Cygnus” private unmanned supply spacecraft was docked to the International Space Station (ISS). The Cygnus spacecraft was grappled by a robotic arm operated by astronauts inside the space station at about 11:00 UTC. The cargo spacecraft was docked to the station’s "Harmony” module. The official time of capture of the "Cygnus” with the Harmony module's common berthing mechanism was 12:44 UTC. Cygnus will remain attached to the ISS for 30 days before departing with disposal cargo on board. A privately-owned cargo ship is operated by U.S. space company Orbital Sciences Corp. Orbital is the second U.S. company to send a commercial cargo craft to the space station. SpaceX was the first company to send its own cargo ship with two successful commercial resupply missions and two demonstration missions under its belt.
