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Added on the 30/06/2021 10:22:30 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
Russia launches an unmanned Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station after a glitch led officials to postpone the planned liftoff two days earlier. The Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress ship took off from the snow-covered Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:15 am Moscow time (0815 GMT) and reached its designated orbit several minutes later, the Russian space agency said. IMAGES
Two Russian cosmonauts, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, and American astronaut Loral O'Hara rocket toward the International Space Station as tensions between Moscow and Washington rise over Ukraine. The crew is expected to dock at the ISS three hours later. The launch comes after Russia's first lunar mission in nearly 50 years failed last month. IMAGES
China sends a fresh crew to its Tiangong space station in the latest mission for a growing space programme that plans to send people to the Moon by 2030. The Shenzhou-17 blasted off from the Jiuquan launch site in arid northwest China at 11:14 am (0314 GMT) Thursday, carrying a three-astronaut team with the youngest average age since the space station's construction. IMAGES
The Shenzhou-16 crew takes off atop a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China. IMAGES
The United States voices regret over Russia's announcement that it will exit the International Space Station after 2024. "It's an unfortunate development given the critical scientific work performed at the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years, and especially in light of our renewed agreement on space-flight cooperation," State Department spokesperson Ned Price tells reporters. SOUNDBITE