The Breeze-KM Upper Stage that lifted off with a Rockot launch vehicle from Plesetsk on January 15, has apparently encountered a previously unreported problem affecting the deployment of the three military communications satellite carried onboard. The three Strela 3M Rodnik satellites are derived from the Strela satellite family created in the Soviet Union during the 1960s. Rodnik satellites have a useful [...]
Post Tagged with: “Russia”
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: Putin Supports Baikonour, Antares Ready To Go and Skylab: The Sequel
Putin Pledges Support for Baikonour Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Baikonour Cosmodrome on 12th April, to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space. During his trip, he issued a statement confirming Russia’s commitment in supporting the world’s oldest cosmodrome after the lease expires in 2020. It is hoped that this latest statement will ease tensions between [...]
Russian Crowdsourcing Project Finds Missing Soviet Mars Probe
The first probe to successfully land on Mars may have been found by Russian space enthusiasts, using images from the NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), revealed NASA in a press statement dated 11th April. The Soviet probe, known as Mars 3, successfully reached the surface of the Red Planet on December 2nd, 1971, but functioned for less than 2 [...]
Russia’s Space Exploration Plan: Go Everywhere
The Russian Academy of Sciences’ proposal for space exploration over the next decade can be succinctly summed up as: let’s go everywhere. Moon, Mars, Venus, Sun, Jupiter, and asteroids, they all make the list. Check out this graphic from RIA Novosti illustrating the grand plan: Staff WritersMore Posts
Russia to Launch 5 Lunar Probes Between 2015 and 2022
According to the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, Russia’s space research program in the coming decades will be driven by landing planetary missions. “We’ve found our direction, our niche,” said the director of the Institute of Space Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zelyony. Russia’s plan consists of sending a succession of five unmanned probes to the [...]
Kazakhstan, Russia Compromise on Baikonour Launches
On April 1, Russian and Kazakh officials announced that they had reached a compromise. On March 27, the two nations agreed that Russia would launch at least 14 commercial spaceflights from Baikonour Cosmodrome in 2013. The agreement followed months of wrangling between the two nations over the status of Baikonour. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has paid [...]
After ISS – the Next Mir?
In June 2011 cooperating countries agreed to finance the International Space Station (ISS) Program until 2020 with the possibility to operate it until 2028. ISS represents the beginning of a new space era and an excellent example of international peaceful cooperation for the advancement of scientific knowledge. The future of this piece of space history remains unclear. The ISS program, [...]
US Space Budgets: Three Weeks into Sequestration
After months spent attempting to unravel the US budget knot, Congressional hopes to reach a balanced budget balance were, once more, disappointed last month with the legislature’s failure to pass a budget and prevent sequestration. Funding of federal agencies will stop as of March 27, according to the spending bill approved on October 1, 2012. Governmental agencies like NASA will [...]
Bolden Addresses Hearing On Asteroid Threats
A U.S House of Representatives hearing was held March 19th, 2013 covering the recently popular subject of asteroids and meteorite strikes. The hearing, titled “Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors”, was held before the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The text below is an excerpt from a prepared statement from NASA Administrator, [...]
