** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

The Roll-Out Solar Array Experiment (ROSA) deploys on the station:


The Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) was deployed from the end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm Sunday, June 18 outside the International Space Station. ROSA is an experiment to test a new type of solar array that rolls open in space like a party favor and is more compact than current rigid panel designs. The ROSA investigation tests deployment and retraction,characterizes changes when the Earth blocks the sun, vibration and other physical challenges to determine the array’s strength and durability. ROSA has the potential to replace solar arrays on future satellites, making them more compact and lighter weight. Satellite radio and television, weather forecasting, GPS and other services used on Earth would all benefit from high-performance solar arrays. The payload will remain deployed for seven days before retracting and will be stowed back inside the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo vehicle. Note: footage of deploy is sped up 300%
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RS-25 Rocket Engine Fires Up Again:


Engineers conduct the third in a series of RS-25 flight controller tests on July 25, 2017, for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The more than 8 1/2 minute test on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi signaled another step toward launch of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS). The SLS rocket, powered by four RS-25 engines, along with the Orion spacecraft will take astronauts on a new era of exploration beyond Earth’s orbit into deep space.
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Assembly of the Soyuz-FG rocket at Baikonur cosmodrome:


The main unit with the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft was docked to the third stage of the launch vehicle.

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) will launch at 16:41 BST (11:41 EDT) on July 28.

Live coverage will be on NASA TV,
 
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