2016 In Spaceflight
Several new rockets and spaceports began operations in 2016. Overview Russia inaugurated the far-Eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome on 28 April 2016 with a traditional Soyuz-2.1a flight, before expanding it for the Angara (rocket family), Angara rocket family in the following years. The Chinese Long March 7 flew its maiden flight from the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island on 25 June, and the maiden flight of the Long March 5 took place on 3 November. Two years after its Cygnus CRS Orb-3, 2014 accident, the Antares rocket returned to flight on 17 October with its upgraded Antares 230, 230 version featuring the Russian RD-181 engine. After Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests, many failed attempts, SpaceX began landing its Falcon 9 first stages on autonomous spaceport drone ships, edging closer to their long-stated goal of SpaceX reusable launch system development program, developing reusable launch vehicles. The company indicated that the recovered engines and ...
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