Expedition 35, composed of Canadian Chris Hadfield, American Tom Marshburn, and Russian Roman Romanenko, has safely touched ground in Kazakhstan as of 2:31 GMT, on May 14 after 146 days in orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS). “For me this was just a personification of what the International Space Station is, and what the people mean to it,” said [...]
Post Tagged with: “Roscosmos”
Bion-M1 Reflection: Why Do We Still Need to Send Animals to Space?
On April 19, a Russian Soyuz rocket, launched from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carried into orbit an atypical satellite – space capsule Bion-M1. This 2,450 kg space zoo is currently accommodating 45 mice, 8 gerbils, 15 geckos, and samples of plants and microorganisms. It orbits at an altitude of more than 575 kilometers and will stay in space for [...]
News Shorts: Mars: The Game, ExoMars Deal Signed, and Brightman ISS Trip
Hi-RISE: The Video Game A Martian video game is in development, featuring textured background taken from Hi-RISE instrument’s images, which is installed on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The game is called Lacuna Passage, and it is hoped that the real life images used in the game will help to create a more realistic Mars exploration experience for gamers. The game [...]
Russian Meteor Update: Russia Talks Asteroid Defense
New facts and figures have emerged with regards to the meteor that detonated above the Ural region in Russia on February 15th. The current casualty toll stands at over 1200, although thankfully, most are small injuries related to flying glass shards which resulted from windows destroyed by the sonic boom. This toll now ranks as the highest amount of injuries [...]
Update on Rockot Launch: Possible Breeze-KM Failure
The Breeze-KM Upper Stage that lifted off onboard a Rockot launch vehicle along with 3 military communications satellites on January 15, may have encountered a problem affecting the final de-orbiting. Although there is no official information as to whether or not the stage was supposed to perform a final burn to achieve a reentry orbit following the payloads’ deployment, similar perigee [...]
Roscosmos Approves Report On Breeze-M Anomaly
The management of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has reviewed and approved the report provided by the commission investigating the Proton launch anomaly which occurred during the Yamal-402 mission on December 9, 2012. The Russian working group assembled by Roscosmos included independent experts from TsNIIMash, the Central Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building, and the Keldysh Research Center, the [...]
Bigelow Contract Could Bring Inflatable Module to ISS by 2016
Bigelow Aerospace and NASA have signed a $17.8 million contract that could bring an inflatable module to be attached on the International Space Station. NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto told Space News that the deal was signed in late December 2012, but he did not reveal the terms of the agreement, saying only that it centers on the Bigelow Expanded Aerospace [...]
Energia Rejects Booster Company Integration
Head of Russian rocket manufacturer Energia Vitaly Lopota has rejected proposals to create a holding company that would have integrated the leading booster manufacturers Khrunichev and TsSKB Progress. “This proposal would completely eliminate the competitive environment in the country,” stated Lopota. The move had been proposed by high ranking officials in the Russian government in order to introduce unified quality control [...]
Russian Energia Won $11 Million Contract for Unmanned Space Lab
RSC Energia (РКК «Энергия»), the largest Russian space corporation has won a 350 million ruble (about $11 million) contract to design the orbital laboratory Oka-T-MKS. The tender was announced by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) in October and it only received one bid from Energia Corporation. RSC Energia manufactures manned and unmanned spacecraft and it is the principal contractor [...]
Cause of Breeze-M Failure Discovered
Roscosmos has determined the cause of an underperforming Breeze-M upper stage on December 8 to be a broken turbopump bearing. The incident occurred when a Proton-M with Breeze-M upper stage launched from Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 8 carrying Gazprom telecommunication satellite Yamal-402, built by Thales Alenia Space. The Breeze-M released the satellite four minutes early due to four [...]
