Peggy Whitson's ISS stay gets 3-month extension

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Peggy Whitson's ISS stay gets 3-month extension

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson’s stay aboard the International Space Station has been extended by three months through Expedition 52, adding to her already record-breaking mission.

Instead of returning to Earth in June 2017 with the Soyuz MS-03 capsule she launched in along side Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, 57-year-old Whitson will remain aboard the ISS and fly home in September 2017 with the crew of Soyuz MS-04, which will have a vacant seat.

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EVA-41 spacewalkers outfit relocated docking module

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EVA-41 spacewalkers outfit relocated docking module

An astronaut duo stepped outside the International Space Station in the second spacewalk in less than a week. Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson ventured outside on a 7-hour long spacewalk to outfit a recently relocated docking module to ready it for commercial crew spacecraft sometime in 2018.

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EVA-40 spacewalkers prepare ISS docking module for relocation

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EVA-40 spacewalkers prepare ISS docking module for relocation

Two International Space Station astronauts ventured outside the outpost on the first of three planned spacewalks to prepare for the arrival of a second docking adapter for the Commercial Crew Program. The 6.5-hour long spacewalk began at 7:24 a.m. EDT (11:24 GMT) March 24, 2017.

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Progress MS-05 cargo freighter pulls into port at ISS

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Progress MS-05 cargo freighter pulls into port at ISS

On Feb. 24, 2017, the uncrewed Russian Progress MS-05 resupply spacecraft docked with the International Space Station. The automated link-up with the Pirs docking compartment took place at 3:30 a.m. EST (08:30 GMT) while flying over the south Pacific Ocean.

The Progress docking probe then retracted to pull the cargo ship in closer to allow for the hooks between the two spacecraft to latch. That hard mate took place at 3:36 a.m. EST (08:36 GMT).

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10th Dragon captured at ISS

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10th Dragon captured at ISS

Twenty-four hours after an aborted rendezvous attempt, SpaceX’s CRS-10 Dragon capsule was captured by the International Space Station’s robotic arm. This second approach to the outpost went by the book.

Capture took place at 5:44 a.m. EST (10:44 GMT) Feb. 23, 2017, while the orbiting laboratory was flying 402 kilometers over the west coast of Australia.

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Dragon rendezvous aborted, next attempt in 24 hours

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Dragon rendezvous aborted, next attempt in 24 hours

SpaceX’s CRS-10 Dragon capsule will try again tomorrow as its planed Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, rendezvous and berthing attempt with the International Space Station was called off. An onboard computer triggered the abort when it saw an incorrect value in the data about the location of the outpost.

The abort occurred at 3:25 a.m. EST (08:25 GMT) while the spacecraft was 1,200 meters below the ISS.

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Soyuz-U completes swan song with launch of Progress MS-05

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Soyuz-U completes swan song with launch of Progress MS-05

Lifting 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.

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Japan's Kounotori 6 re-enters Earth's atmosphere

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Japan's Kounotori 6 re-enters Earth's atmosphere

Japan’s sixth Kounotori spacecraft, also called the H-II Transfer Vehicle or HTV, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere Feb. 5, 2017, after spending nearly two months in space to resupply the International Space Station and test new technologies.

Re-entry, confirmed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, occurred at 10:06 a.m. EST (15:06 GMT) over the Pacific Ocean. It came just over a week after the spacecraft departed the ISS after spending six weeks attached to the outpost.

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