ESA Rosetta mission: Philae Lander successfully lands on comet 67/P

European ESA Rosetta probes's robot lander, Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from its mothership.

The lander touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at about 1605 GMT.

There were cheers and hugs at the control room in Darmstadt, Germany, after the signal was confirmed.

It was designed to shine a light on some of the mysteries of these icy relics from the formation of the Solar System.

The landing caps a 6.4 billion-kilometre journey that was begun a decade ago.

"This is a big step for human civilisation," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, the director-general of the European Space Agency (Esa).

Shortly after the touchdown was confirmed, Stephan Ulamec, the mission's lander chief, said: "Philae is talking to us... we are on the comet."

The robot deployed harpoons to fasten itself to the 2.5-mile-wide ball of ice and dust.

Scientists will use Philae to take pictures of the comet's landscape and to analyse its chemical composition.

They are hoping the its surface materials will hold fresh insights into the origins of our Solar System more than 4.5 billion years ago.

ISRO: India's Mars Orbiter successfully inserted into orbit around MARS

TV Screens show Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists and other officials after the success of Mars Orbiter Mission at their Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network complex in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. 

India triumphed in its first interplanetary mission, placing a satellite into orbit around Mars on Wednesday morning and catapulting the country into an elite club of deep-space explorers. 

Credit: AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi

India triumphed in its first interplanetary mission, placing a satellite into orbit around Mars on Wednesday morning and catapulting the country into an elite club of deep-space explorers.

Scientists broke into wild cheers as the orbiter's engines completed 24 minutes of burn time to maneuver the spacecraft into its designated place around the red planet.

"We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, standing alongside scientists with the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) at the command center in the southern tech hub of Bangalore.

"We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few," Modi said, congratulating the scientists and "all my fellow Indians on this historic occasion."

Scientists described the final stages of the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed MOM, as flawless.

The success marks a milestone for the space program in demonstrating that it can conduct complex missions and act as a global launch pad for commercial, navigational and research satellites.

It's also a major feat for the developing country of 1.2 billion people, most of whom are poor.

At the same time, India has a robust scientific and technical educational system that has produced millions of software programmers, engineers and doctors, propelling many into the middle class.

Getting a spaceship successfully into orbit around Mars is no easy task. More than half the world's previous attempts, 23 out of 41 missions, have failed, including the Beagle-2 from the UK and Nozomi by Japan in 1999.

Indian Space Research Organization scientists and other officials cheer as they celebrate the success of Mars Orbiter Mission at their Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network complex in Bangalore, India, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. 

Credit: AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi

The United States had its first success with a 1964 flyby by a spacecraft called Mariner 4, returning 21 images of the surface of the planet.

The former Soviet Union MARS-3 reached the planet in 1971, and the European Space Agency Mars Express in 2003, still operating successfully around Mars.

The U.S. space agency NASA congratulated India in a Twitter message welcoming MOM to studying the red planet.

On Sunday, NASA achieved its own success in placing its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (Maven), in position.

The U.S. has two more satellites circling the planet at the moment, as well as two rovers rolling across the rocky Martian surface.

The ESA's Mars Express, launched over a decade ago, is still operating as well.

India was particularly proud that MOM was developed with homegrown technology and for a bargain price of about $75 million, a cost that Modi quipped was lower than many Hollywood film budgets.

By comparison, NASA's much larger Maven mission cost nearly 10 times as much at $671 million.

The real test of these missions will come when the scientific data is gathered and returned for examination.

In this Sept. 11, 2013, file photo, Indian engineers work on the Mars orbiter spacecraft at the satellite center of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Bangalore, India.

Credit: AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, File

Indian scientists "designed the trajectory aspects and the interplanetary aspects," said Vipparthi Adimurthy of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, who headed the team that crafted the first feasibility studies on whether India could reach Mars.

Dr Adimurthy

"Today not only has a dream come true, but we have created history for India, for ISRO, and for the world," he said.

The 1,350-kilogram (nearly 3,000-pound) orbiter will now circle the planet for at least six months, with five solar-powered instruments gathering scientific data that may shed light on Martian weather systems as well as what happened to the water that is believed to have existed once on Mars in large quantities.

The 15 kgs payloads on the Mars Orbiter Mission include:

Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), an absorption cell photometer that measures relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen from Lyman-alpha emission in the Martian upper atmosphere.

Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), designed to measure methane in the Martian atmosphere with PPB accuracy and map its sources.

Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), a quadruple mass spectrometer capable of analysing the neutral composition in the range of 1 to 300 amu with unit mass resolution.

Mars Colour Camera (MCC), a tri-colour camera that gives images and information about the surface features and composition of Martian surface.

Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) to measure the thermal emissions and, because it is not using visible light, this instrument can be operated both during th day and night.

Temperature and emissivity are two basic physical parameters estimated from thermal emission measurement.

Russia reports successful launch of new Angara rocket

Russia successfully test-launched its new Angara rocket on Wednesday after a planned maiden flight overseen by President Vladimir Putin had to be aborted last month.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin that the next-generation Angara rocket was launched from Plesetsk at 1200 GMT, Russian news agencies reported, citing a defence ministry spokesman.

Twenty-one minutes after the launch, the rocket reached its planned target in the Far Eastern region of Kamchatka 5,700 kilometres (3,540 miles) away from the launch pad, the spokesman said.

"Yes to Angara!" deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin exclaimed on Twitter.

The Angara was initially scheduled to blast off from Plesetsk late last month when officials reported a sudden automatic launch abort in an embarrassing glitch broadcast live on national television.

Designed to succeed Soviet-era launchers, Angara is the first rocket to have been completely built after the collapse of the Soviet Union and it is designed to reduce Russia's reliance on other former USSR countries.

Officials say it is more environmentally friendly than its predecessors because it is fuelled by oxygen and kerosene rather than hugely toxic heptyl.

Sea Launch: Russia Zenit 3SL successfully puts Eutelsat 3B satellite in orbit

Russia has sent a European communications satellite into orbit from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean, after the last launch in 2013 ended with the satellite plunging into the sea.

The Zenit-3SL rocket blasted off at 2209 GMT on Monday from the Odyssey launch pad and reached its orbit around an hour later, said the Sea Launch international consortium, 95 percent of which is controlled by Russia.

"Sea Launch went according to plan. The control of the (satellite) has been handed over," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees Russia's space programme, wrote on Twitter.

Sea Launch has been using the deep-sea platform named Odyssey to perform commercial operations since 1999.

Boeing of the United States and Norway's Aker ASA indirectly control five percent of the Swiss-based company, created in 1995, which has faced severe financial problems.

The last launch on February 1, 2013 failed, with the Zenit rocket, made from parts produced both in Ukraine and Russia, falling into the sea without managing to put a US Intelsat satellite into orbit.

The last planned launch of a Eutelsat 3B built by Airbus Defence and Space had been postponed from April 16 due to fresh technical problems.

Russia's space-rocket company Energia has said it plans to use the sea platform for four launches in 2014 and five in 2015.

Russia in recent years has experienced a series of embarrassing failures in the space sphere, leading to the loss of numerous satellites and other equipment.

Earlier this month, a Proton rocket carrying a European satellite fell to Earth less than 10 minutes afer it was launched at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

In October last year, the Russian authorities dismissed the head of the space agency, Vladimir Popovkin, who was replaced by Oleg Ostapenko as part of a huge project to reform this highly strategic sector.

The former head of space-rocket company Energia, Vitaly Lopota, faces a criminal investigation into alleged abuse of office over loans to companies taking part in Sea Launch.

Energia owns a controlling share in Sea Launch through an affiliated company.

Sentinel-1A satellite has unfolded its antenna after successful launch

The new large antenna (12.3m x 0.9m) of the environmental satellite Sentinel-1A´s radar instrument, developed by Airbus Defence and Space (EADS), has successfully unfolded and locked in place in the early hours of this morning (04 April 2014).

Sentinel-1A, built for the European Space Agency (ESA) by Thales Alenia Space Italy as prime contractor, is the first in a series of Earth observation satellites specially developed and built for the European ‘Copernicus’ environment and security programme.

At 23:02 CEST last night, the satellite was successfully launched on board a Soyuz launcher from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.

“This successful start of the Sentinel-1A mission, and thus the Copernicus programme, marks a new era in Earth observation."

"With the satellite’s powerful radar instrument- the heart of the mission- and its ‘all-weather’ and ‘round-the-clock’ capabilities, Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) is making a decisive contribution to even more effective operational Earth observation that will benefit humans and nature more than ever,” says François Auque, Head of Space Systems.

“The instrument will also deliver unprecedented data to scientists."

After a flight time of only around 25 minutes, the satellite was accurately placed into its designated orbit. Initial communications with the ground showed that the system is working as planned.

Airbus Defence and Space (EADS) engineers supported European Space Agency (ESA) technicians who worked through the night at the satellite control centre in Darmstadt to unfold and lock the solar panels and the five-part, 12.3-metre-long radar antenna in several stages and with that, the Sentinel-1A satellite has passed its critical initial phase with flying colours.

All subsystems will be systematically checked over the coming days, and the radar instrument is due to be switched on in space for the first time in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The radar instrument will be thoroughly calibrated during a commissioning phase lasting approximately three months, after which routine operation can begin.

The planned mission duration is seven years but the spacecraft has resources for a total of 12 years.

ESO MUSE: Powerful 3D spectrograph successfully installed on VLT

This view shows how the new MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope gives a innovative three-dimensional depiction of a distant galaxy. 

For each part of the galaxy the light has been split up into its component colours -- revealing not only the motions of different parts of the galaxy but also clues to its chemical composition and other properties. 

Credit: ESO /MUSE consortium /R. Bacon/L. Calçada

Following testing and preliminary acceptance in Europe in September 2013, MUSE was shipped to ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile.

It was reassembled at the base camp before being carefully transported to its new home at the VLT, where it is now installed on Unit Telescope 4.

MUSE is the latest of the second generation instruments for the VLT (the first two were X-shooter and KMOS and the next, SPHERE, will follow shortly).

The leader of the team and principal investigator for the instrument, Roland Bacon (Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, France), expressed his feelings: "It has taken a lot of work by many people over many years, but we have done it!

It seems strange that this seven-tonne collection of optics, mechanics and electronics is now a fantastic time machine for probing the early Universe."

"We are very proud of the achievement—MUSE will remain a unique instrument for years to come."

MUSE instrument on its VLT Nasmyth platform

MUSE's science goals include delving into the early epochs of the Universe to probe the mechanisms of galaxy formation and studying both the motions of material in nearby galaxies and their chemical properties.

It will have many other applications, ranging all the way from studies of the planets and satellites in the Solar System, through the properties of star-forming regions in the Milky Way and out to the distant Universe.

As a unique and powerful tool for discovery MUSE uses 24 spectrographs to separate light into its component colours to create both images and spectra of selected regions of the sky.

It creates 3D views of the Universe with a spectrum for each pixel as the third dimension.

During the subsequent analysis the astronomer can move through the data and study different views of the object at different wavelengths, just like tuning a television to different channels at different frequencies.

MUSE instrument on its VLT Nasmyth platform

MUSE couples the discovery potential of an imaging device with the measuring capabilities of a spectrograph, while taking advantage of the much better image sharpness provided by adaptive optics.

The instrument is mounted on Unit Telescope 4 of the VLT, which is currently being converted into a fully adaptive telescope.

Since the start of 2014, Bacon and the rest of the MUSE integration and commissioning team at Paranal have recorded the MUSE story in a series of blog posts which can be followed here.

The team will present the first results from MUSE at the forthcoming 3D2014 workshop at ESO in Garching bei München, Germany.

"A muse is there to inspire. Indeed, MUSE has inspired us for many years and will continue to do so," says Bacon in a blog post on the first light.

"No doubt many astronomers from all over the world will also be charmed by our MUSE." Bacon reported.

Soyuz-2.1v rocket successfully puts Aist satellite into orbit

The Soyuz-2.1v light class rocket includes a new engine design.

Russia's Soyuz-2.1v light-weight launch vehicle, which blasted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region of northwestern Russia on Saturday, has successfully delivered the latest Aist satellite into orbit.

The satellite separated from the rocket's Volga upper stage and reached its designated orbit at 6:09 pm Moscow time (0209 pm GMT), the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Control over the satellite has already been transferred to the customer.

The Soyuz-2.1v launch vehicle has successfully lifted its Volga upper stage and a group of satellites to an interim orbit, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.

The new rocket represents a major development in the Soyuz program, which began in 1966.

The rocket features a completely reworked first stage, powered by a NK-33 (14D15) rocket engine which has twice the thrust in comparison with its predecessors.

The new carrier and its Volga upper stage are designed to inject various spacecrafts into circular orbits of up to 1,500 kilometers and sun-synchronous orbits of up to 850 kilometers. The light class booster is able to carry up to 2,800 kilograms of payload.

The Soyuz-2.1v was developed in response to an increasing demand to launch small satellites and end the use of Tsiklon and Kosmos boosters - as well as in response to insufficient numbers of Rokot boosters.

The Aist satellite which the new rocket launched into orbit was created by students and young scientists at Samara State Aerospace University and Progress Central Assembly and Design Engineering Bureau.

The spacecraft is aimed at testing the technologies that are used during the construction of microsatellites, which weigh between 10 and 100 kilograms.

ESA’s Gaia mission: Successful Launch - Video

ESA’s Gaia mission to survey a billion stars has lifted off, a number of automated sequences were completed and the launch declared a success.

Some 118 seconds after liftoff, the rocket’s four boosters are jettisoned, followed by the fairing at 220 seconds.

The fairing protects Gaia during the turbulent first few minutes of its journey up through Earth’s atmosphere.

Soyuz VS06 transfer to launch zone

Separation of the rocket’s second and third stages was followed by two burns of the Fregat upper stage, before it too separated from Gaia 42 minutes after launch.

This activated Gaia’s automatic sequence, including switching on its transmitters, setting its attitude with respect to the Sun, and deploying the 10.5 m-wide sunshield, starting 88 minutes after launch.

The whole sequence ended 101 minutes after launch, after which mission controllers confirmed completion of the most critical part of the ‘launch and early orbit’ phase of the mission.

Hoisting of upper composite

At this point, Gaia will be on its way to Lagrange Point, ‘L2’, a gravitationally stable point in space some 1.5 million kilometres ‘behind’ Earth as seen from the Sun.

After three course corrections, the spacecraft will arrive in its orbit around L2 about three weeks later.

From there, Gaia will conduct the biggest cosmic census yet, charting the positions, motions and characteristics of a billion stars to create the most precise 3D map of our Milky Way.

NASA Orion multipurpose crew vehicle: Triple Fairings Jettison Test completed successfully

The three panels or fairings encapsulating a stand-in for Orion’s service module successfully detach and fall into the Fairing Catch System during a test Nov. 6, 2013 at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

The three panels or fairing that moments before encapsulated a stand-in for Orion’s service module lay safely in the Fairing Catch System after a test demonstrating their detachment system on Nov. 6, 2013, at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Image Credit: Lockheed Martin

The three massive panels protecting a test version of NASA's Orion multipurpose crew vehicle successfully fell away from the spacecraft Wednesday in a test of a system that will protect Orion during its first trip to space next year.

The panels, called fairings, encase Orion's service module and shield it from the heat, wind and acoustics it will experience during the spacecraft's climb into space.

The service module, located directly below the crew capsule, will contain the in-space propulsion capability for orbital transfer, attitude control and high-altitude ascent aborts when Orion begins carrying humans in 2021.

It also will generate and store power and provide thermal control, water and air for the astronauts. The service module will remain connected to the crew module until just before the capsule returns to Earth.

Artist's rendering of NASA Orion during Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1)

During Orion's Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), the spacecraft's flight test next year, a test service module will be attached to the capsule.

"Hardware separation events like this are absolutely critical to the mission and some of the more complicated things we do," said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We want to know we've got the design exactly right and that it can be counted on in space before we ever launch."

Unlike conventional rocket fairings, these panels are designed to support half of the weight of Orion's crew module and launch abort system during launch and ascent, which improves performance, saves weight and maximizes the size and capability of the spacecraft.

Each panel is 14 feet high and 13 feet wide. The fairings' work is done soon after launch. They must be jettisoned when Orion has reached an altitude of about 560,000 feet.

To make that possible, six breakable joints and six explosive separation bolts are used to connect the fairing panels to the rocket and each other.

In a carefully timed sequence, the joints are fired apart, followed shortly by the bolts. Once all of the pyrotechnics have detonated, six spring assemblies will push the three panels away, leaving the service and crew module exposed to space as they travel onward.

NASA Orion Spacecraft: Successful fairing separation in second test

The three panel or fairings encapsulating a stand-in for Orion’s service module successfully detach during a test Nov. 6, 2013 at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Sunnyvale, Calif. 

Credit: Lockheed Martin

The three massive panels protecting a test version of NASA's Orion multipurpose crew vehicle successfully fell away from the spacecraft Wednesday in a test of a system that will protect Orion during its first trip to space next year.

The panels, called fairings, encase Orion's service module and shield it from the heat, wind and acoustics it will experience during the spacecraft's climb into space.

The service module, located directly below the crew capsule, will contain the in-space propulsion capability for orbital transfer, attitude control and high-altitude ascent aborts when Orion begins carrying humans in 2021.

It also will generate and store power and provide thermal control, water and air for the astronauts. The service module will remain connected to the crew module until just before the capsule returns to Earth.

Artist's rendering of NASA Orion during Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) 

During Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), the spacecraft's flight test next year, a test service module will be attached to the capsule.

"Hardware separation events like this are absolutely critical to the mission and some of the more complicated things we do," said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We want to know we've got the design exactly right and that it can be counted on in space before we ever launch."

Unlike conventional rocket fairings, these panels are designed to support half of the weight of Orion's crew module and launch abort system during launch and ascent, which improves performance, saves weight and maximizes the size and capability of the spacecraft.

Each panel is 14 feet high and 13 feet wide. The fairings' work is done soon after launch.

They must be jettisoned when Orion has reached an altitude of about 560,000 feet. To make that possible, six breakable joints and six explosive separation bolts are used to connect the fairing panels to the rocket and each other.

In a carefully timed sequence, the joints are fired apart, followed shortly by the bolts. Once all of the pyrotechnics have detonated, six spring assemblies will push the three panels away, leaving the service and crew module exposed to space as they travel onward.

DLR Successful premiere: STEREX video shows ATV-4 in orbit

A special passenger was on board during the launch of ESA’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), ‘Albert Einstein’, on 5 June 2013 at 23:52 CEST – the STEREX experiment, funded by the DLR Space Administration and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The heart of this system consists of four cameras incorporated into the Ariane 5. Two of these cameras recorded the separation of ATV-4 for the first time in 3D.

The video data received last night at the DLR ground station in Weilheim was recorded, and presented, firstly, in a two-dimensional video format, from the launch to the separation of the European cargo vehicle.

The 3D video will be shown in the next few days on the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) website.

“These images give us a new perspective on the dynamic processes taking place during the separation of the ATV from the Ariane, which will help us to better understand and analyse these processes,” comments Thomas Ruwwe, pleased and relieved at the same time.

The video documents the launch of the Ariane 5 ES rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, the separation of the boosters and the main stage, ignition of the upper stage, and then the flight of the detached ATV-4 into Earth orbit.

It is the first footage of an Ariane launch taken on board the rocket itself since 2006.

ESA Ariane-5 with ATV-4 Albert Einstein on board, successful launch

The ATV-4 "Albert Einstein" Automated Transfer Vehicle launches atop an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on June 5, 2013.

ATV-4 is the penultimate ATV of the present range, to be built and launched by ESA.

CREDIT: NASA TV

The European Space Agency launched its penultimate mission to the International Space Station on Wednesday (June 5), expending great energy to lift a record amount of mass aboard a spacecraft named for the scientist famous for equating the two quantities with the expression "E=mc^2."

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 (ATV-4), an unmanned cargo freighter, lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 GMT).

The second to last of ESA's five planned station resupply spacecraft launched since 2008, ATV-4 was named "Albert Einstein" after the iconic physicist known for the theory of relativity

ATV-4 is the first spaceship to bear Einstein's name, at the suggestion of the Swiss delegation to the European Space Agency. Einstein was born in Germany but studied and spent his early career in Switzerland.

Lifting off from Kourou, the jungle spaceport along South America's northeast coast, ATV-4 soared spaceward with Europe's largest-ever load of dry cargo for the station.

Packed with science experiments, crew supplies, a 3D printed tool box and even copies of Einstein's manuscript explaining the foundation for the general theory of relativity, the craft is destined to dock with the orbiting laboratory on June 15.

NASA ISS Astronauts' Emergency EVA appears Successful in fixing Coolant Leak

In this Saturday, May 11, 2013 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn, not pictured, perform a space walk to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Station after an ammonia coolant leak was discovered. 

Credit: NASA

NASA says an impromptu spacewalk seems to have fixed a big ammonia leak at the International Space Station.

The "gusher" erupted last Thursday. Two days later, spacewalking astronauts replaced a suspect ammonia pump. NASA is now calling the old, removed pump "Mr. Leaky."

On Thursday, a Mission Control official said the spacewalking repairs definitely took care of the big leak.

Engineers don't know whether the pump replacement also took care of a smaller leak that has plagued the system for years.

It will take at least a couple months of monitoring to know the full status. Ammonia is used as a coolant in the space station's radiator system.

The leak forced one of the station's seven power channels to go offline. NASA hopes to resume normal operations early next week.

Russian Progress 51 cargo spacecraft successfully docked to the ISS - Antenna Fault

A Russian Progress 51 robotic spacecraft successfully docked to the International Space Station today (April 26, 2013).

CREDIT: NASA TV

An unmanned cargo-carrying spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station Friday morning (April 26), despite a glitch in the capsule's navigation system.

After its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, the Russian Progress 51 spacecraft failed to deploy one of the two antennas used for the Kurs automated docking system.

Russian ground controllers were able to reposition the antenna, allowing the automated docking to go ahead as planned.

Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko kept an eye on Progress as it moved into position.

"We have contact," one of the cosmonauts said after docking, "We have capture."

Although the cosmonauts were prepared to take over docking procedures, the automated system worked and the spacecraft fully docked to the station at 8:34 a.m. EDT (1234 GMT) while flying 251 miles (404 kilometers) over the border between China and Kazakhstan.

The approach to the space station was slower than usual because controllers on the ground and astronauts on the International Space Station were carefully monitoring Progress's position, NASA officials said.

At first the Progress was "soft-docked" and not secured in place with hooks in latches, giving the station crew and flight controllers a chance to make sure its stuck antenna posed no risk to the station's exterior.

When they saw it was safe, the Progress was slowly drawn into the port and secured.



Progress delivered 1,764 pounds (800 kg) of propellant, 57 pounds (26 kg) of air, 48 pounds (21 kg) of oxygen, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and 3,348 pounds (1519 kg) of experiment hardware, spare parts and other supplies to the residents of the space station, NASA officials said.

NASA Space Weather: RBSP Successful Launch Today

The countdown was holding at the T-4 minute mark for 25 minutes but the launch went ahead as planned.

The Atlas V first stage and Centaur upper stage had been fueled for the planned launch at 4:05 a.m. EDT of NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP). 

The Atlas V burns refined kerosene fuel, known as RP-1, mixed with liquid oxygen.

There are no technical problems and weather has improved to 90 percent “go.”

STSS Demonstration Satellite Successful In First Handover Of Track Data

A Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) Demonstration satellite built by Northrop Grumman and Raytheon autonomously transferred target track data from its acquisition sensor to its tracking sensor July 23, the first time such a capability has been executed in space for the program.

The data hand-off demonstration occurred when the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) satellite acquired a ground laser operated and pointed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory from the Starfire Optical Range at Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, N.M. Northrop Grumman has worked with the Starfire Optical Range previously to calibrate the STSS satellite acquisition sensors.

"This is a major success for the STSS program. We proved that the STSS satellites can autonomously transition from target acquisition and track mode using the acquisition sensor to target precision track mode using the multiple band track sensor," said Gabe Watson, vice president of missile defense and missile warning programs for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector.

"All of these operations occurred as intended, with no operator intervention. This is the same type and sequence of functions that will be performed on-board during subsequent MDA missile tests."

Watson explained that once the acquisition sensor acquired the ground laser, it formed a confirmed track, which was passed to the track sensor.

The track sensor slewed and pointed to the coordinates reported by the acquisition sensor, detected the ground laser and formed an on-board track of the ground laser. All of these data was transmitted to the STSS ground systems located at Schriever AFB in Colorado Springs.

The Missile Defense Agency is pursuing the STSS Demonstration program as a space-based sensor component of the Ballistic Missile Defense System. The STSS satellites will provide missile defense sensor risk reduction concepts to support development and fielding of a future missile defense operational satellite constellation.