Just a day before Memorial Day, SpaceX performed its customary static fire test on a Falcon 9 slated to send the CRS-11 Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. The test took place at noon EDT (16:00 GMT), May 28, 2017, at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A. The several-second ignition, as well as the following planned abort, was soon confirmed by SpaceX via its Twitter account.
Read MoreLifting off under clear, blue skies in Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz-U rocket completed its final launch by sending the Russian Progress MS-05 cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station.
Liftoff took place at 12:58 a.m. EST (05:58 GMT) Feb. 22, 2017, from launch site 1/5, also known as Gagarin’s Start, the same launch pad that sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space.
Read MoreKennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A roared to life for the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle era, albeit for only a few seconds, as SpaceX conducted a static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket.
Via a stream from Spaceflight Now, a plum of exhaust was seen on the north side of the pad indicating a successful test fire. SpaceX confirmed the test occurred minutes later via a tweet.
Read MoreBetween 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.
Read MoreOn a clear and cold Kazakh morning, three space flyers launched atop a Soyuz rocket in their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft on a two-day flight bound for the International Space Station. The trio will spend about six months in space.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson launched to space at 2:20 a.m. local Kazakh time Nov. 18 (3:20 p.m. EST / 20:20 GMT Nov. 17) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreOrbital ATK launched their OA-5 Cygnus cargo ship, named the S.S. Alan Poindexter, on the return-to-flight of the company's Antares rocket. The vehicle lifted off at 7:45 p.m. EDT (11:45 GMT) Oct. 18 out of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Launch Pad 0A in Virginia.
This was the seventh planned launch of a Cygnus spacecraft and, once it arrives at the International Space Station, will be the sixth to dock with the outpost. Two years ago, the Orb-3 Cygnus was lost when the Antares rocket carrying it into orbit failed seconds after liftoff.
Read MoreAfter 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.
Read MoreAfter 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.
Read MoreThe next crewed flight to the International Space Station, Soyuz MS-02, has been postponed “for technical reasons after tests at the Baikonur Space Center,” according to the Roscosmos State Corporation.
The flight was scheduled for a Sept. 23 launch and subsequent two-day rendezvous with the orbital outpost.
Read MoreOrbital Velocity is designed to be "living time capsule" about the International Space Station.
This project is an attempt to bridge an information gap between space agencies and companies, as well as a public that supports space endeavors with their tax dollars. Despite the importance of the space station, the general public doesn't always know what is happening aboard this amazing complex on a regular basis. Research being conducted isn't always readily available and what information is out there can sometimes be difficult to understand. Some people aren't even aware there is an active space program, let alone a space station.
Orbital Velocity hopes to change that by building a database of information through blogs, a website, small videos and longer documentary-like series'.
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