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You may have noticed that relations between the Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA have soured somewhat in the last few weeks, largely due to threats made by the head of Rosmoscos to crash the International Space Station (ISS) into Earth, the Russian space agency holding the launch of OneWeb to ransom, and — first and foremost — the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. NASA as an organization has been calm and controlled during the tensions, stressing cooperation on the ISS as well as other projects. However, retired American astronaut Scott Kelly, free from having to be diplomatic, has...

A Russian space capsule with three astronauts aboard has docked with the International Space Station after a fast-track trip to the orbiting laboratory. The Soyuz capsule docked at 22:48 GMT Saturday, just six hours and 20 minutes after blasting off from Russia’s launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The launch took place on the 50th anniversary of the day U.S. astronauts landed on the moon. The capsule is carrying Andrew Morgan of the United States on his first spaceflight, Russian Alexander Skvortsov on his third mission to the space station and Italian Luca Parmitano.

Dec. 3, NASA astronaut Anne McClain is expected to take her first spaceflight aboard Soyuz, as every U.S. astronaut has done since 2011. But starting as early as next year, U.S. astronauts will climb on board commercial crew vehicles manufactured and launched from the United States. It's been a long journey for NASA, which has been pushing a crew program to completion... ever since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011.... Since then, NASA has had no way of flying astronauts into space from the United States. Instead, all space station astronauts have had to fly from remote Baikonur,...

(CNN)What was once the gleaming pride and joy of the Soviet space program now lies covered in dirt and bird droppings in a disused hangar in Kazakhstan. With their broken windows, missing tiles and ransacked interiors, these shuttles are a haunting -- and fascinating -- piece of space history, rarely seen by the outside world. Indeed, when 36-year-old Russian photographer Ralph Mirebs discovered the derelict shuttles and rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome, he was touched by the sad end for these "wonderful winged machines."

A year after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 vanished, aviation expert Jeff Wise spells out his theory of what happened. Is he crazy? You decideThe unsettling oddness was there from the first moment, on March 8 last year, when Malaysia Airlines announced that a plane from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, Flight 370, had disappeared over the South China Sea in the middle of the night. There had been no bad weather, no distress call, no wreckage, no eyewitness accounts of a fireball in the sky - just a plane that said goodbye to one air traffic controller and, two minutes...

One of the most powerful satellites ever built has headed into orbit on a Russian Proton rocket. The Viasat-1 spacecraft will deliver broadband services to customers in the US and Canada. With a total data throughput of some 140 Gbps, the satellite has more capacity than all other communication satellites over North America combined. Viasat-1 left Earth from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The lift-off for its carrier Proton rocket occurred at 00:48 local time (18:48 GMT). The flight was due to last more than nine hours, and two hours in all was reported to be well. Viasat-1 will be...

A Russian Proton-M rocket was launched into space Thursday with three new satellites for Moscow's GLONASS navigation system, aimed at competing with US and European systems, a report said.

BARNAUL, Russia (Reuters) - A shepherd is suing Russia's space agency for compensation after he said a 10-foot-long chunk of metal from a space rocket fell into his yard, just missing his outdoor toilet. Boris Urmatov, who is asking for 1 million roubles ($42,000) from the Roskosmos agency, lives in a small village that lies underneath the flight path of rockets taking off from the Baikonur launchpad Russia leases in nearby Kazakhstan. "Something woke him up in the night, like something exploded. Since he's visually handicapped he didn't notice the fallen rocket parts," Urmatov's sister Marina told Reuters from the...

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A crew that includes Malaysia's first astronaut and an American who will become the first woman to command the international space station prepared Monday for blastoff later this week. The Soyuz-FG rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Central Asian steppe on Wednesday night to take Malaysia's Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Peggy Whitson of Beaconsfield, Iowa, and Russian Yuri Malenchenko into orbit. During his 12-day space trip, Shukor is to study of the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cells and microbes, as well as experiments with proteins for a potential HIV vaccine. The rocket —...

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BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A Russian-built rocket carrying the world's first female space tourist lifted off Monday on a flight to the international space station. Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, was accompanied by a U.S.-Russian crew on the Soyuz TMA-9 capsule. Ansari paid a reported $20 million to become the fourth private astronaut to take a trip on a Russian spacecraft and visit the station. "I'm just so happy to be here," she said ebulliently as she entered the rocket Monday, watched by about a dozen relatives including her husband and mother. The Soyuz TMA-9 capsule took off less than...

The second student-built satellite in the NCube project has likely met an even worse fate than the first. A Russian launch rocket carrying the Norwegian project and a dozen others from around the world most likely crashed into a desert in Kazakhstan on Wednesday evening. "Rudolf" was launched from rocket base Baikonour in Kazakhstan at 9:43 p.m. Norwegian time on Wednesday evening. Oslo engineer Eystein Sæther, technical coordinator of the NCube project, believes that the second attempt to get the special satellite into orbit is now buried in the sand. "Something went wrong during the launch. For 110 seconds all...

<p>The Soviet Union did indeed build its own version of the American Space Shuttle that was known as Buran ("snowstorm" in Russian). The US had made the decision to develop its reusable spacecraft in 1972. Since the US Defense Department had plans to use the Shuttle for military missions, Moscow felt the need to respond with a comparable craft in order to maintain strategic parity with the West. The Reusable Space System (MKS) was subsequently approved in June 1974 with NPO Energia given responsibility for the project the following October. Though only the first spaceworthy vehicle built was actually named Buran, the entire project came to be known by this designation.</p>

There has been a successful blast off for the latest mission with a difference to the International Space station. The world's third space tourist is among the crew of three that has lifted off from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan. US businessman and scientist Greg Olsen has reportedly paid about 16.6 million euros for the place on board the Soyuz spacecraft. The crew is due to hook up with the international space station by Monday. Russian commander Valery Takarev and US astronaut William McArthur will replace two other astronauts who have been in orbit since April. They will...

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A spacecraft that will carry a new crew to the international space station was hoisted into launch position Saturday in preparation for the third manned mission to the orbital outpost since NASA (news - web sites)'s shuttle disaster sidelined the U.S. space fleet. The 132-foot rocket topped by a Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft was carefully rolled out of a hangar at the Baikonur cosmodrome and slowly drawn by rail to the launch site for manned space missions. Police and two fire engines escorted the rocket on its two-hour journey. A sniffer dog ran ahead of the train checking...

Camels and Rust at Gateway to Space Bernard Besserglik, Agence France Presse BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, 29 December 2003 — If the colonization of space ever becomes a reality, the last of Earth many of the settlers will see is a wind-blown strip of barren steppe dotted by crumbling and abandoned apartment blocks. Baikonur, the last chance to fuel up before reaching for the stars, is a vestige of the Soviet empire, now rented by Russia from its Central Asian neighbor Kazakhstan. It also provides a fitting prelude to the austerities of interplanetary travel. Freezing in winter and baking in summer,...

MOSCOW - An unmanned European spacecraft — poised for launch Monday on a Russian rocket — will orbit Mars for nearly two years and search for signs of life on the planet. AP Photo The Mars Express spacecraft is to be launched by the Soyuz FG booster rocket from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:45 p.m. Monday (1:45 p.m. EDT), according to the Russian Space Forces, which runs the launchpad. The European Space Agency vehicle, which cost $350 million, will initially be put into the Earth's orbit. About 90 minutes later, it will be given a final push...