By the way:The 31st pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome has been ordered to be restored by Cosmonautics Day (2026).To avoid a tearful celebration.UPDATE: Spare parts for repairs are already being delivered to Pad 31.
Monday, Dec. 84:45 p.m. | Coverage of farewell remarks and hatch closing of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft at the International Space Station. Hatch closure scheduled for 5:10 p.m. Stream on NASA+, YouTube, Amazon Prime8:15 p.m. | Undocking coverage of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft from the International Space Station. Undocking scheduled for 8:41 p.m. Stream on NASA+, YouTube, Amazon Prime10:30 p.m. | Coverage of re-entry and landing of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft. Re-entry scheduled for 11:10 p.m. Landing scheduled for 12:04 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Stream on NASA+, YouTube, Amazon Prime
NOAA Signs Agreement for NEON Stratus Project StudySeptember 26, 2025On September 18, 2025, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) signed an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement with Raytheon for the Critical Design Review (CDR) study of a weather imagery prototype mission that will mature weather imagery capabilities under the Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) Stratus project. The total agreement value of $5,950,982 funds Raytheon to conduct a mission design and feasibility study for Stratus, adapting a U.S. Space Force design to NOAA requirements that will culminate in a CDR. “I am excited for this new opportunity to use NOAA's Other Transaction Authority to advance weather imagery with our commercial partner, Raytheon,” said Irene Parker, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Deputy Assistant Administrator for Systems and Acting Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services. “The Stratus project will help modernize NOAA's observing systems by leveraging commercial best practices and cutting-edge technologies while allowing us to explore new acquisition strategies.”The Stratus mission is for a single satellite, consisting of a spacecraft and a weather imager instrument, to collect and transmit data to the NESDIS Common Cloud Framework that generates, distributes, and archives environmental sensing data records for the weather and environmental data user community. Stratus will provide weather imagery, which is essential to monitoring clouds, fog, smoke, sea ice, and other phenomena that support weather forecasting, transportation, and commerce. The Stratus Project has four primary objectives: Inform the formulation for NOAA’s next-generation weather imagery observations; Explore new acquisition strategies, including the use of NOAA’s Other Transaction Authority and bundling of mission components (e.g., spacecraft, launch services, and command control) which have traditionally been procured through separate contract actions; Demonstrate optical inter-satellite communication for data receipt prior to operational use in support of numerical weather prediction models; and Evaluate the benefits of faster data refresh rates for global weather imagery, especially over Arctic regions.The Stratus Project will help inform NOAA’s next-generation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites through the NEON Program. Stratus will address procurement and management of all aspects of the NEON mission, to include the flight segment, spacecraft, instruments, launch segment, ground segment, and on-orbit operations. Stratus will provide first-hand experience in acquiring commercially available instruments, spacecraft, launch services, and ground services capable of meeting performance requirements. NOAA has a history of successfully operating environmental satellites in low-Earth orbit for more than 50 years. Through NEON, NOAA is developing a new satellite architecture and buy-build-partner approach to launch small- to medium-sized satellites with Earth-observing instruments more frequently. A resilient constellation of LEO satellites, which can be deployed quickly, will enhance weather forecasting and disaster management. NEON will supplement and eventually replace NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), which will operate its series of polar orbiting satellites through the late 2030s. NEON will lay the groundwork for the next generation of LEO satellites long before the final JPSS launch takes place to continue, improve, and extend NOAA’s global observations for weather forecasting and disaster management.
William Harwood @cbs_spacenewsSoyuz MS-27/73S: Undocking confirmed, at 8:41pm EST (0141 UTC)
William Harwood @cbs_spacenewsSoyuz MS-27/73S: Soyuz de-orbit burn complete; the 4-minute 42-second braking burn over the south Atlantic Ocean slowed the spacecraft by about 286 mph, dropping the orbit into the lower atmosphere for a planned landing in Kazakhstan at 12:04am EST (0504 UTC)
William Harwood @cbs_spacenewsSoyuz MS-27/73S: Touchdown! Approximate time: 12:03:30am EST (0503 UTC); Russian camera crews were unable to capture the landing due to low clouds; but NASA confirms the descent module is on the ground
ZPL - 01:32:34 UTCUndocking from UMC - 04:41:37 UTCDeorbit maneuver T on SKD - 07:09:47 UTC, impulse - 128 m/sLanding vehicle - 08:03:33 UTC, point 47°21'59" N, 69°43'32" E
In response to your coordination request IARU confirms the frequency coordination for your satellite PROVES - Alcyone.
Planned launch date: 1 April 2026, followed by release from ISS.
With a key Russian launch pad out of service, NASA is accelerating the launch of two Cargo Dragon spaceships in order to ensure that astronauts on board the International Space Station have all the supplies they need next year.According to the space agency’s internal schedule, the next Dragon supply mission, CRS-34, is moving forward one month from June 2026 to May. And the next Dragon supply mission after this, CRS-35, has been advanced three months from November to August.
...Station Commander Mike Fincke of NASA spent the end of the week on cargo and maintenance. Fincke first loaded cargo for disposal inside JAXA’s HTV-X1 cargo craft that will depart the station’s Earth-facing port on the Harmony module in late January...
A complete replacement kit for the service cabin on Launch Pad 31 has arrived at Baikonur.▶️ Launch readiness – late winter 2026
https://t.me/zheleznyakov_spaceera/7714Google translate:QuoteA complete replacement kit for the service cabin on Launch Pad 31 has arrived at Baikonur.▶️ Launch readiness – late winter 2026
The next Progress launch is March 11, 2026.
Quote from: Salo on 12/16/2025 05:01 amhttps://t.me/zheleznyakov_spaceera/7714Google translate:QuoteA complete replacement kit for the service cabin on Launch Pad 31 has arrived at Baikonur.▶️ Launch readiness – late winter 2026Is this for the whole repair or for putting the "kit" together? Seems rather optimistic that they were giving a repair date "by Cosmonautics Day [April 12th]" as a probably aggressive push towards a memorable target date, and now that gets brought forward by more than a month.
Re: DOUG + Russian EVAsQuote from: russianhalo117 on 12/07/2025 10:01 pmmight be able to check DOUG and other ISS resources and see about any planning updates et al.Unfortunately, DOUG packages for Russian EVAs are no longer publicly released by NASA post 2022. I asked around about the change and the NASA Engineering VR Technical Discipline Lead graciously got back to me via email and explained (and I quote) that the "policy changed a few years ago when we go some pushback from our EVA stakeholders".I'll leave the interpretation of "stakeholders" up to the reader. Only Russian EVAs flight file posting were affected, US flight files are still posted, and 2022 was a significant year for geopolitical events. I even tried to FOIA the DOUG files, and the final response was that the files did not exist (despite EVA movies based on DOUG being shown in press briefings well after 2022).Re: DOUG + US EVAsSome backing items for Yellowstone10's commentary from a fresh tranche of DOUG releases today (12/26/2025)Quote from: Yellowstone10 on 12/07/2025 09:37 pmThey've actually got about one and a half iROSA mod kits to install, since they only got partway through the 2A mod kit installation on EVA-93. Might require 2 separate EVAs?Newly posted flight package us-eva-irosa-prep-2a-pt-2-v5 (steps attached) is just completing 2A. 3B is not included in that package.Salo actually has 3B up next, but I have not seen any DOUG packages for this. Quote from: Yellowstone10 on 12/07/2025 09:37 pmNot sure if the one that flew on NG-23 is to have an on-orbit spare, or if a second reflector needs replacing.It appears that they are going to replace the fwd IDA's reflector as well (along with 3 jumper relocations [us-eva-triple-jump-v9]). Based on the posting order and get-aheads, us-eva-triple-jump-v9 may be next on the docket.
might be able to check DOUG and other ISS resources and see about any planning updates et al.
They've actually got about one and a half iROSA mod kits to install, since they only got partway through the 2A mod kit installation on EVA-93. Might require 2 separate EVAs?
Not sure if the one that flew on NG-23 is to have an on-orbit spare, or if a second reflector needs replacing.
Quote from: Yellowstone10 on 12/17/2025 05:06 amNASA ISS blog post for December 16:https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/12/16/stem-cells-robotics-and-spacesuits-top-station-crew-day/QuoteNASA Flight Engineers Zena Cardman and Chris Williams partnered together during the first half of their shift on Tuesday and resized a pair of spacesuits inside the Quest airlock. The duo adjusted the suits’ arms, legs, and waist ahead of a pair of maintenance spacewalks planned for early 2026.
NASA ISS blog post for December 16:https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/12/16/stem-cells-robotics-and-spacesuits-top-station-crew-day/QuoteNASA Flight Engineers Zena Cardman and Chris Williams partnered together during the first half of their shift on Tuesday and resized a pair of spacesuits inside the Quest airlock. The duo adjusted the suits’ arms, legs, and waist ahead of a pair of maintenance spacewalks planned for early 2026.
NASA Flight Engineers Zena Cardman and Chris Williams partnered together during the first half of their shift on Tuesday and resized a pair of spacesuits inside the Quest airlock. The duo adjusted the suits’ arms, legs, and waist ahead of a pair of maintenance spacewalks planned for early 2026.
