Uploaded January 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Video Credit: Arianespace
Launch Updates: spaceflight101.com/soyuz-vs16
A Russian Soyuz rocket lit up the night over the edge of the Amazon on Friday, embarking on its first-ever Geostationary Transfer Orbit mission out of French Guiana, requiring the maximum possible performance of the Soyuz ST-B rocket and Fregat-MT upper stage.
Carrying the European-built Hispasat 36W-1 communications satellite, Soyuz departed the Guiana Space Center at 01:03:34 UTC on Saturday – taking a path straight to the East usually flown by the heavy-lift Ariane 5 on its Geostationary mission assignments. Thundering away from the coast, Soyuz fired its lower stages over the course of nine and a half minutes before the Fregat upper stage took over and conducted an exceptionally long engine burn of almost 18 minutes for a direct injection into a highly elliptical orbit.
Video Credit: Arianespace
Launch Updates: spaceflight101.com/soyuz-vs16
A Russian Soyuz rocket lit up the night over the edge of the Amazon on Friday, embarking on its first-ever Geostationary Transfer Orbit mission out of French Guiana, requiring the maximum possible performance of the Soyuz ST-B rocket and Fregat-MT upper stage.
Carrying the European-built Hispasat 36W-1 communications satellite, Soyuz departed the Guiana Space Center at 01:03:34 UTC on Saturday – taking a path straight to the East usually flown by the heavy-lift Ariane 5 on its Geostationary mission assignments. Thundering away from the coast, Soyuz fired its lower stages over the course of nine and a half minutes before the Fregat upper stage took over and conducted an exceptionally long engine burn of almost 18 minutes for a direct injection into a highly elliptical orbit.
![[Timelapse] Dragon SpX-10 Robotics Part 2 (SAGE-III Installation)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cSBlGYQN300/mqdefault.jpg "[Timelapse] Dragon SpX-10 Robotics Part 2 (SAGE-III Installation)
Timelapse video of robotic activities underway outside the International Space Station from March 2 through 8 covering the installation of the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE-III) and the removal of the Robotic Refueling Mission payloads. This clip plays at 50x real speed, you can use YouTubes speed adjustment function to slow it down or increase to up to 100x real speed.
SAGE-III is taking a permanent position on Express Logistics Carrier 4 out on the starboard truss of the Space Station from where it will monitor ozone and aerosols in Earths atmosphere to continue a long-term data record going back into the 1980s when SAGE instruments provided pivotal data enabling an accurate calculation of ozone loss in the atmosphere that prompted major policy changes to protect Earth’s ozone layer.
Major Steps seen in this video:
1) Removal of the SAGE Instrument Payload from the Dragon SpX-10 Trunk Section, March 2 - 23:13 UTC
2) Removal of the SAGE Nadir Viewing Platform from the Dragon Trunk, March 3 - 15:47 UTC
3) Installation of the OPALS Payload in the Dragon Trunk for Disposal, March 3 - 22:22 UTC
4) Removal of the Robotic Refueling Mission pallet from ELC-4, March 5 - 22:08 UTC
5) Installation of the SAGE Nadir Viewing Platform on ELC-4 FRAM-3, March 6 - 0:39 UTC
6) Installation of the SAGE Instrument Payload to the Nadir Viewing Platform, March 7 - 23:36 UTC
(All times approximate!)
Dragon SpX-10 delivered three external payload components - SAGE-III NVP and IP (seen in this video) and the Space Test Program - Houston 5 payload (its installation is covered here: https://youtu.be/stQvMaz-5gY) Open robotics tasks include the installation of the Robotic Refueling Mission and a MISSE Flight Support Equipment component in the Dragon Trunk for disposal.
More about SAGE-III: http://bit.ly/2luKv65
More about the Robotic Refueling Mission: http://bit.ly/2m7HXb2
More about OPALS: http://bit.ly/2m52QTB")
