It is the first flight of Boeing X-37B, a United States Air Force Orbital Test Vehicle, which is an unmanned 5000 kg, 8.8 m-long reusable mini-spaceplane capable of autonomous re-entry and landing. The OTV-1 mission was designed to test new technologies, however the specific identity of the spaceship's payload was not revealed. OTV was the first vehicle since NASA's shuttle orbiter capable of returning experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis. The mission concluded after 224 days in orbit, marking the first American autonomous orbital runway landing.
Low Earth OrbitSTS-131 was an ISS assembly flight with the primary payload being a loaded Multi-Purpose Logistics Module - Leonardo. The mission began on April 5th 2010 at 1021:22 UTC launching Commander Alan Poindexter, Pilot James Dutton, Mission Specialist 1 Richard Mastracchio, Mission Specialist 2 Dorothy M. Metcalf-Lindenburger, Mission Specialist 3 Stephanie Wilson, Mission Specialist 4 Naoko Yamazaki & Mission Specialist 5 Clayton Anderson to orbit. They docked with the ISS 2 days after launch. The mission was the final Space Shuttle launch with a seven person crew and was the longest flight for Discovery. STS-131 also marked the first time 4 women have been in space at once. During the mission 3 spacewalks were conducted to replace an ammonia tank and to retrieve a seed experiment from outside the Japanese laboratory. The mission concluded after 15 days & 2 hours on April 20th 2010 at 1308:35 UTC after 2 waved off landing opportunities on the 19th at the Kennedy Space Center.
Low Earth OrbitSoyuz TMA-18 begins Expedition 23 by carrying 3 astronauts and cosmonauts to the International Space Station. Russian Commander, cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov alongside Flight Engineers,Mikhail Korniyenko (RSA) & Tracy Caldwell Dyson (NASA) will launch aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and then rendezvous with the station. It landed on 25 September 2010, 05:23 UTC
Low Earth Orbit