Progress MS-06 freighter undocks from ISS

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Progress MS-06 freighter undocks from ISS

Closing out visiting vehicle comings-and-goings for 2017, the unpiloted Russian Progress MS-06 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station in preparation for an eventual deorbit into Earth’s atmosphere.

Progress MS-06 pulled into port on June 16, 2017, at the aft end of the Zvezda service module on the Russian Orbital Segment of the space station. Over the last six months, the freighter’s 2,700 kilograms of equipment, food, water, and fuel was emptied and replaced with trash and unneeded equipment that will burn up in the atmosphere with the rest of the one-time use spacecraft.

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3-person Soyuz MS-07 docks with ISS

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3-person Soyuz MS-07 docks with ISS

The population of the International Space Station returned to six people when Soyuz MS-07 with three fresh crew members autonomously docked with the outpost’s Rassvet module. Contact between the two vehicles occurred at 3:39 a.m. EST (08:39 GMT) Dec. 19, 2017.

Just over two hours later, at 5:55 a.m. EST (10:55 GMT), the hatches between the two spacecraft were opened and the Soyuz’s three-man crew entered to join Expedition 54.

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CRS-13 Dragon berthed with ISS

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CRS-13 Dragon berthed with ISS

Just hours after Soyuz MS-07 and its three-person crew launched on a two-day trek toward the International Space Station, SpaceX’s CRS-13 Dragon, having launched days earlier atop a Falcon 9 rocket, rendezvoused with and was attached to the orbiting laboratory.

Carrying more than 2,200 kilograms of cargo, the capsule was installed to the Harmony module of the ISS at 8:26 a.m. EST (13:26 GMT) Dec. 17, 2017.

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Soyuz MS-07 crew begins 2-day trek toward ISS

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Soyuz MS-07 crew begins 2-day trek toward ISS

ust three days after one trio left the International Space Station, another launched toward it. A Soyuz-FG rocket lofted the Soyuz MS-07 mission spacecraft into orbit where it and its crew will spend some two days catching up with the outpost.

Liftoff took place at 1:21 p.m. local Kazakh time (2:21 a.m. EST / 07:21 GMT) Dec. 17, 2017, from Pad 1/5 at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

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Soyuz MS-05 trio lands in Kazakhstan after 138-day ISS stay

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Soyuz MS-05 trio lands in Kazakhstan after 138-day ISS stay

Returning from the black of space to the cold of Kazakhstan, three International Space Station crew members have returned to Earth after 138 days and 17 hours in space. Soyuz MS-05 landed at 2:37 p.m. Kazakh time (3:37 a.m. EST / 08:37 GMT) Dec. 14, 2017.

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy landed on the Steppe of Kazakh in their Soyuz MS-05 capsule, not far from where they launched to space some five months earlier on July 28, 2017.

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