By Ben Evans In the early hours of 30 June 1971, the Soviet Union prepared to welcome its three latest cosmonaut heroes back to Earth after a record-breaking mission. Not only had the Soyuz 11 team—Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev—spent more than 23 days in orbit, but they had also successfully occupied the world’s first true space station. [...]
Post Tagged with: “Soviet Union”
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 [...]
Cosmos 1484 Reenters Atmosphere over Eastern United States
Cosmos 1484, an Earth resources satellite launched by the Soviet Union, reentered the atmosphere over the Eastern United States on January 28, 2013 at 9:30 pm EST. Multiple reports of fireballs along the projected track of the satellite confirm that this was the remains of the satellite. There were no reports that any debris from the satellite reached the ground [...]
Baikonour Cosmodrome Lease Tensions Increase
Kazakh officials have responded to the Kremlin’s demands for clarification to a statement made last month by Taglat Musarbayev, the head of Kazakh space agency Kazcosmos. In the original statement, Musarbayev announced that Kazakhstan would be aiming to reduce the number of Proton-M launches from Baikonour Cosmodrome, located in the Kazakh Steppes region. Musarbayev wants greater sovereignty over the launch [...]
Is China Preparing an Anti-Satellite Test?
U.S. experts think China is preparing to perform another anti-satellite (ASAT) test in January. “The first media report on these rumours appeared in October,” wrote Gregory Kulacki of the Union of Concerned Scientists on a blog post dated January 4th. “China’s Ministry of Defence challenged the information in that report, but in November contacts in China told us an announcement about an [...]
The Mighty N-1: 30 Engines to Reach the Moon
While the Soviet Union may not have reached the Moon back at the height of the Cold War, they were certainly working on it. Here, meet the N-1, the brainchild of engineer Sergey Korolyov. The rocket and its four failed launches remained a state secret for decades. Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration Staff WritersMore [...]
One Small Step For a Man, One Giant Leap Into History
The passing of Neil Armstrong is arguably the end of an era. Forty-three years ago, when Armstrong stepped on the Moon he ushered in the end of the great space race between the United States and the Soviet Union and opened the door unwittingly to his own fame and place in history. It was that fame and celebrity that prompted [...]
Flying Near the Edge of Space for 57 Years
The enigmatic US Air Force space plane X-37B, widely considered to be a surveillance vessel, is making news once again with the announcement of its landing, now scheduled for July 2012, 17 months after its launch. But while technologies in surveillance are continuing to develop, a quiet movement is building in the US to turn back to the tried and true: the [...]
China Launches Automatic Docking Mission
According to press agency Xinhua, China has successfully launched an unmanned Shenzhou spacecraft on Tuesday November 1. The spacecraft will attempt a rendezvous and docking with Tiangong - “Heavenly Palace” – the first Chinese experimental space station module launched on September 29. The spacecraft lifted off from the Gobi desert at 5:58 am (2158 GMT), then separated from its carrier rocket [...]
Safety of Nuclear Powered Missions
The use of Plutonium as a power source is still considered the best choice for certain type of deep space missions. The extraordinary scientific results of missions like Voyager, Pioneer and Apollo would have not been possible without nuclear power. Yet, the US Senate Appropriations Committee decided not to fund the administration’s request for $15 million for the Department of Energy to restart production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) in the 2012 energy and [...]
