On December 11, 2015 at 13:45 UTC the Russian " Zenit-2SB” rocket-carrier was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The rocket equipped with the "Fregat-SB” booster (upper stage) orbited the Russian “Elektro-L” meteorological satellite. The satellite is beginning a 10-year mission to collect near-realtime images of weather systems from Europe to the Asia-Pacific.

On December 11, 2015 at 13:18 UTC the Russian “Soyuz TMA-17M” landing capsule landed safely in a distance of 121 kilometers north-east from the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft delivered to Earth the 3 members of ISS’s Expedition 45 – Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui (油井 亀美也) and American astronaut Kjell Lindgren. They spent in space 142 days. Three other ISS crew members – Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko as well as American astronaut Scott Kelly remained in orbit aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 46 crew. The undocking of Soyuz TMA-17M marked the end of Expedition 45 and the start of Expedition 46. ... Read more »

On December 11, 2015 at 13:18 UTC the Russian “Soyuz TMA-17M” landing capsule landed safely in a distance of 121 kilometers north-east from the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft delivered to Earth the 3 members of ISS’s Expedition 45 – Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui (油井 亀美也) and American astronaut Kjell Lindgren. They spent in space 142 days. Three other ISS crew members – Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko as well as American astronaut Scott Kelly remained in orbit aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 46 crew. The undocking of Soyuz TMA-17M marked the end of Expedition 45 and the start of Expedition 46.

On December 11, 2015 at 09:49 UTC  the Russian “Soyuz TMA-17M” spacecraft undocked from the Russian "Rassvet” (MIM-1) module of the International Space Station to deliver to Earth the 3 members of Expedition 45 – Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui (油井 亀美也) and American astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

On December 09, 2015 at 16:46 UTC (on December 10 at 00:46 Beijing time), the Chang Zheng-3B (Long March-3B) rocket-carrier was launched from Xichang Cosmodrome, Sichuan province, southwestern China. The rocket orbited the “Zhongxing-1C” (Chinasat-1C) telecommunication satellite.

On December 09, 2015 the American "Cygnus” (CRS OA-4, “Deke Slayton II”) 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 11:19 UTC. The cargo spacecraft was docked to the station’s "Unity” module at 14:26 UTC. The spacecraft delivered 3200 kilograms of supplies to the Space Station. It was the 4^th docking of a "Cygnus” spacecraft with the ISS.

On December 06, 2015 at 21:44 UTC the "Cygnus” privately owned U.S. unmanned supply spacecraft 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 spacecraft was orbited by the “Atlas V” rocket-carrier. The "Cygnus” (CRS OA-4, “Deke Slayton II”) unmanned supply spacecraft, built by U.S. space firm Orbital Sciences Corp., was orbited by the “Atlas V” rocket-carrier on its cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. CRS means Commercial Resupply Services. Bound for the International Space Station, the launch was the first Cygnus flight since last October’s failure, and the first mission for NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program since the loss of a SpaceX Dragon resupply mission in June. The "Cygnus” (CR ... Read more »

On December 05, 2015 at 14:09 UTC the “Soyuz-2.1b” 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 “Volga” booster (upper stage) orbited 2 Russian military satellites. But Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported Sunday that telemetry data indicated one of the two spacecraft did not deploy from the Soyuz rocket’s upper stage, citing a source in the space industry. The other satellite is not having any problems, the source told RIA Novosti.

On December 03, 2015 at 04:04 UTC the “Vega” rocket-carrier was launched from Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana. A Vega rocket blasted off with Europe's LISA Pathfinder tech demo mission, a probe heading to a station a million kilometers from Earth to test systems for a future gravitational wave observatory. Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.