On April 19, 2018, Vladimir Afanasjevich LYAKHOV, pilot-cosmonaut of USSR, passed away at the age of 76. He was a veteran of 3 space flights aboard three different space stations.

On April 19, 2018 at 11:16 UTC the Russian "Proton-M” rocket-carrier was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The rocket equipped with the "Briz-M” booster orbited the Russian military communication satellite. The Russian Defense Ministry officially named the satellite as “Kosmos-2526”, the next number in the Russian government’s naming scheme for military spacecraft.

On April 18, 2018 at 22:51 UTC the “Falcon-9” rocket-carrier was launched from Cape Canaveral launch site of US Air Force. The rocket orbited the US Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to find planets around other stars that are close enough for detailed follow-ups by future telescopes.