Roscosmos

Welcome to Terminal Count, the official weekly rundown of spaceflight news by Space Explored. This week, the story is once again about SpaceX and its Starship rocket. The company is gearing up for not just its sixth flight, but also for three other Falcon 9 launches this week.

New photos and planning documents show potential Starship-sized expansions at SpaceX‘s Roberts Road facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The company is also planning four Falcon 9 launches this week. Meanwhile, its closest thing to a near-term competitor, Blue Origin, is gearing up to debut its New Glenn rocket.

We have a total for four launches this week currently on the schedule, we’ll see if that changes. Two of those are from SpaceX and shocking, even myself, neither are for the company’s Starlink constellation. The headliner this week will be Russia‘s Progress MS-28 resupply mission to the ISS on Wednesday.

After some delay due to technical issue, ULA is back to attempting to get its final Delta IV Heavy off the ground and firmly into retirement. Russia is also launching a decade old rocket that is still in development for some reason.

The Original Big Orange Rocket, ULA‘s Delta IV Heavy, is set to have its final mission as soon as this week if weather holds. Along side ULA’s second launch of the year, SpaceX has four missions scheduled with Chinese and Russian rockets launching to give us a launch every day except Sunday.

On Thursday of this week we have a total of four planned launches from around the world from the biggest players in the space launch market. They include Rocket Lab’s first LC-2 mission in 2024, a crew rotation to the ISS by Russia, and a cargo resupply mission to the ISS by SpaceX.

This week SpaceX is here with three launches, the biggest of the three being on Wednesday. Oh wait, all of SpaceX’s launches this week will be on Wednesday, fun day.

Last Friday morning a fresh crew of two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut lifted off from Kazakhstan and arrived at the International Space Station. While relieving three crew members on the station, it also marks the start of another year long stint in space for Russia.

With ULA sneaking in its first Atlas V launch between issues in this series, the only exciting launch I have to discuss this week is Russia’s crew rotation to the ISS. While it might seem like the only topic, it is indeed a significant event. MS-24, a crewed Soyuz mission, will replace the crew of MS-22, who have been in space for approximately a year.

This week has proven to be one of the most eventful in recent memory, featuring a flurry of activities including two launches to the International Space Station, four SpaceX launches, and four distinct rockets. From the Crew-7 rotation mission by SpaceX, a specialized SmallSat mission by Rocket Lab, to a rare Japanese launch, this week is poised to be action-packed.

We have been watching two lunar missions as they progress towards the lunar surface. The first mission involves India’s Chandrayaan 3 lunar lander and rover, while the second pertains to Russia’s Luna 25 lander. Presently, one mission is experiencing a smoother journey compared to the other.

While we await the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission, NASA has announced the crew members who will be part of the next rotation to the ISS, known as SpaceX Crew-8.

Next month, SpaceX is set to launch its seventh rotation of crew members to the International Space Station for NASA. The upcoming Crew-7 mission is notable for being the most diverse crew to fly on a Dragon spacecraft, with all four members hailing from different nations and agencies – a first for SpaceX.

The International Space Station, a feat of world cooperation, is set to live for a few more years with all its partners agreeing to extend their partnership with NASA. While the world looks to the commercial sector for a successor, the public sector will continue to fund its station until at least 2028.

Over the weekend, an uncrewed Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the ISS to take the spot of MS-22, which sprang a leak last December. MS-23 will be the return spacecraft for two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut in the fall.

Just after becoming the chief of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov said on Tuesday that the country has decided to withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024.

The controversial head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, is officially out, with no official word about what lies ahead for him. This command change came around when NASA and Roscosmos finally announced a deal to trade seats on Russia’s Soyuz and SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

In statements made on Twitter and Telegram, Roscosmos Director-General Dmitry Rogozin responds to NASA, CSA, and ESA not promising they will lift sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. The statement makes an ultimatum, lift the sanctions, or Russia will pull its cooperation in the near future.

Early this morning up in orbit, three crew members departed the Russian side of the International Space Station. In that spacecraft was NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, the new record holder for the longest time spent in space by a US astronaut.

Last week, Russia launched the newest three crew members to the ISS on top of its Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. While it probably wasn’t planned to be this way, the flight suit colors of yellow and blue were perfectly timed.

The joint ESA and Russian Martian mission was expected to launch this year, but due to sanctions brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ESA has decided to suspend its cooperation.