Japan's Kounotori 6 leaves ISS, readies tether experiment

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Japan's Kounotori 6 leaves ISS, readies tether experiment

After six weeks attached to the International Space Station, Japan’s Kounotori 6 spacecraft was unberthed and commanded to leave the vicinity of the outpost. It will now spend a week conducting a few stand-alone experiments for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

A few hours after ground teams commanded the 17.5-meter long robotic Canadarm2 to move the spacecraft, also called the H-II Transfer Vehicle 6, from the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module to about 10 meters below the Destiny laboratory to release it.

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Cargo ships, expandables and spacewalks: ISS in 2016

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Cargo ships, expandables and spacewalks: ISS in 2016

Between cargo ships servicing the outpost and spacewalks to maintain it, 2016 was arguably one of the busiest years for the International Space Station since the end of the space shuttle era.

Probably the most visible event for the space station in 2016 was the yearlong crew – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko – returning to Earth. They had launched to the outpost on March 27, 2015.

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Japanese Kounotori 6 arrives at ISS

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Japanese Kounotori 6 arrives at ISS

Japan’s sixth “white stork” arrived at the International Space Station to deliver supplies, experiments, and Christmas gifts for the crew. The Kounotori 6 cargo ship, also called HTV-6, was captured by the outpost’s robotic Canadarm2 at 5:37 a.m. EST (10:37 GMT) Dec. 13, 2016.

Almost three-and-a-half hours later, at 8:57 a.m. EST (13:57 GMT), the cargo ship was berthed to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module at the forward end of the station.

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ISS crew count returns to 6 with Soyuz docking

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ISS crew count returns to 6 with Soyuz docking

After spending two days catching up to the International Space Station, the crew of Soyuz MS-03 docked their spacecraft with the orbiting complex at 4:58 p.m. EST (21:58 GMT) Nov. 19.

The trio – NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet – docked with the Rassvet module of the ISS. They joined the ongoing Expedition 50 crew, which includes NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough (current commander of the laboratory) and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko.

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ISS schedules reshuffled

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ISS schedules reshuffled

The second half of 2016 has been rough for International Space Station mission planning. All of the visiting vehicles that service the outpost have had some delay or another.

First, in early August the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced their Kounotori 6 spacecraft would be postponed from its Sept. 30, 2016 launch date due to a "slight leak" found in the pluming of the cargo ship.

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Soyuz MS-01 lands, Expedition 50 begins

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Soyuz MS-01 lands, Expedition 50 begins

Three space-flyers boarded their Soyuz spacecraft, undocked, deorbited and landed back on Earth early Monday morning local Kazakh time.

Soyuz MS-01 landed on the Step of Kazakhstan at 9:58 a.m. Oct. 30 (03:58 GMT / 11:58 p.m. EDT Oct. 29). Returning to Earth after 115 days in space were Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins.

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International Space Station crew complement back to six

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International Space Station crew complement back to six

With the Oct. 21 docking of Soyuz MS-02 to the International Space Station's Poisk module, the crew size for the football field-sized orbiting outpost returned to six, albeit for only about two weeks.

Launched Oct. 19 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, three members of Expedition 49 took a 34-orbit route to catch up with the ISS and test new equipment on the upgraded Soyuz-MS variant.

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Progress freighter undocks from International Space Station

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Progress freighter undocks from International Space Station

After six months docked to the aft port of the Zvezda module of the International Space Station, the unpiloted Russian Progress MS-02 cargo ship left the outpost. A couple hours later, it was commanded to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

Undocking occurred at 5:37 a.m. EDT (09:37 GMT) Oct. 14. Loaded springs initially pushed Progress away from ISS. The two passively separated for about 3 minutes. Once the craft was about 20 meters away from the orbiting outpost, a departure burn was initiated to increase the distance from ISS ahead of the deorbit burn.

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Soyuz MS-02 launch date announced; Russian crew size to reduce in 2017

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Soyuz MS-02 launch date announced; Russian crew size to reduce in 2017

After discovering a short circuit during pre-launch tests, Soyuz MS-02 was delayed from its Sept. 23 liftoff date. It has since been scheduled for no earlier than Nov. 1, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

As such, other Russian flights to and from the International Space Station will have to be moved around to accommodate this slip.

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SpaceX: launching, landing and berthing into history

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SpaceX: launching, landing and berthing into history

Over the last few days, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket, delivered a Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station and, as a bonus, successfully landed the first stage of the booster on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean. It's safe to say that this was one of the best weeks in the NewSpace company's history.

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