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Frederick W. Sturckow

American - (VG)

Active

Date of Birth: Aug. 11, 1961
Age: 63


Frederick Wilford "Rick" Sturckow is an Engineer, retired United States Marine Corps officer, former NASA astronaut, and commercial spacecraft pilot. Sturckow is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions. He flew on STS-88 and STS-105 as a pilot and STS-117 and STS-128 as a commander. All four missions docked with the International Space Station, making Sturckow one of two people to visit the station four times. Sturckow later was assigned to the Johnson Space Center as a CAPCOM. He left NASA in 2013 to become a pilot for Virgin Galactic.

Space Shuttle Endeavour / OV-105 | STS-88

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Dec. 4, 1998, 8:35 a.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

STS-88 was the first Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour, and took the first American module, the Unity node, to the station.

Low Earth Orbit
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Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-105

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Aug. 10, 2001, 9:10 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

STS-105 was a mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 10 August 2001. This mission was Discovery's final mission until STS-114, because Discovery was grounded for a refit, and then all Shuttles were grounded in the wake of the Columbia disaster. The refit included an update of the flight deck to the glass cockpit layout, which was already installed on Atlantis and Columbia.

Low Earth Orbit
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Space Shuttle Atlantis / OV-104 | STS-117

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
June 8, 2007, 11:38 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

STS-117 (ISS assembly flight 13A) was a Space Shuttle mission flown by Space Shuttle Atlantis, launched from pad 39A of the Kennedy Space Center on 8 June 2007. Atlantis lifted off from the launch pad at 19:38 EDT. Damage from a hail storm on 26 February 2007 had previously caused the launch to be postponed from an originally-planned launch date of 15 March 2007. The launch of STS-117 marked the 250th orbital human spaceflight. Atlantis delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) the second starboard truss segment (the S3/S4 Truss) and its associated energy systems, including a set of solar arrays. During the course of the mission the crew installed the new truss segment, retracted one set of solar arrays, and unfolded the new set on the starboard side of the station. STS-117 also brought Expedition 15 crewmember Clayton Anderson to the station, and returned with ISS crewmember Sunita Williams.

Low Earth Orbit
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Space Shuttle Discovery / OV-103 | STS-128

National Aeronautics and Space Administration | United States of America
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
Aug. 29, 2009, 3:59 a.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

STS-128 (ISS assembly flight 17A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) that launched on 28 August 2009. Space Shuttle Discovery carried the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo as its primary payload. Leonardo contained a collection of experiments for studying the physics and chemistry of microgravity. Three spacewalks were carried out during the mission, which removed and replaced a materials processing experiment outside ESA's Columbus module, and returned an empty ammonia tank assembly.

Low Earth Orbit
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF30

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Oct. 7, 2014, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity GF03

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Feb. 24, 2017, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Unity.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity CF01

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
June 1, 2017, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Cold flow test flight of VSS Unity.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity GF06

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Aug. 4, 2017, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Unity.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity VP-03

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Dec. 13, 2018, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Powered test flight of VSS Unity. Reached outer space for the first time according to the US definition of the space border.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity GF08

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
May 1, 2020, 3:14 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Unity.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity VF-02

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Dec. 12, 2020, 3:24 p.m.
Status: Partial Failure
Mission:

First attempted spaceflight from New Mexico, aborted due to computer malfunction, engine ignited and automatically turned off.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity VF-03

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
May 22, 2021, 3:27 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Powered test flight of VSS Unity carrying technology experiments for NASA's Flight Opportunities Program.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity 24

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
April 26, 2023, 1:47 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Unpowered glide test

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Unity 25

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
May 25, 2023, 4:23 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Virgin Galactic return to space mission ahead of the first commercial flight.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | Galactic 02

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Aug. 10, 2023, 3:17 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Second commercial Virgin Galactic mission.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | Galactic 04

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Oct. 6, 2023, 4:10 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Fourth commercial Virgin Galactic mission.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | Galactic 06

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Jan. 26, 2024, 5:42 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Sixth commercial Virgin Galactic mission.

Suborbital
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Founder: Richard Branson

Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two.


Electron
Success
2 days, 6 hours ago
Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Launch of a yet to identified satellite to SSO for an undisclosed customer. The customer is suspected to be Low Earth Orbit communication satellite c…


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 15 hours ago
Dragon CRS-2 SpX-31
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

31st commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commer…


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
2 days, 18 hours ago
Ionosfera-M 1 & 2
Cosmodrome Site 1S - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation

Ionosfera is a constellation of four ionospheric and magnetospheric research satellites developed by for Roscosmos for the project Ionozond. The s…


H3-22
Success
3 days, 10 hours ago
DSN 3 (Kirameki 3)
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

DSN 3, also known as Kirameki 3, is a geostationary communications satellite to be used for military communications by the Japanese military.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week ago
Kosmos 2579 (Bars-M No. 6)
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Payload identity uncertain. Bars-M is the second incarnation of the Bars project, which was started in the mid 1990ies to develop a success…