Soyuz MS-17 begins expedition 63 by carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, they will rendezvous to the station where they will remain for their 6 month stay.
Low Earth OrbitThis will be the 13th New Shepard mission and the 7th consecutive flight for this particular vehicle (a record), demonstrating its operational reusability. New Shepard will fly 12 commercial payloads to space and back on this mission, including the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under a Tipping Point partnership. This is the first payload to fly mounted on the exterior of a New Shepard booster rather than inside the capsule, opening the door to a wide range of future high-altitude sensing, sampling, and exposure payloads.
Suborbital NS-3 - Flight Proven ( ) Corn Ranch Landing Pad, West TexasGaofen is a series of civilian Earth observation satellites developed and launched for the China High-definition Earth Observation System (CHEOS), a state-sponsored programme aimed to develop a near-real time, all-weather, global surveillance network consisting of satellite, near-space (stratosphere) airships, and aerial observation platforms.
Geostationary Transfer OrbitThis is the 15th planned flight of the Orbital ATK's uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 14th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. This Cygnus spacecraft carries the name of NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who was the first female astronaut of Indian descent.
Low Earth OrbitGonets-M are an upgraded version of Gonets satellites, derived from military communications system Strela-3. Gonets-M constellation is tasked with monitoring ecological and industrial objects, providing communication and data transmission services, covering also the remote areas like the Far North region. This launch also carries 22 small satellites as a rideshare payloads. These are cubesats for commercial companies such as Spire and Kepler Communications, as well as cubesats for various international universities.
Low Earth OrbitHuanjing (abbreviated as HJ) is a constellation of environmental monitoring satellites. The HJ-2A and HJ-2B are 16-meter optical satellites which will provide 16-meter multispectral, 48-meter hyperspectral and infrared image data.
Sun-Synchronous Orbit