Source : RIA Novosti, Russianspaceweb.com A spacecraft based on an ancient design comes crashing through the atmosphere, overshooting it pre-programmed landing zone, and emergency crews rush to the scene only to find half the crew has perished in space. And it’s not science fiction. This is pretty much what took place in Russia over the weekend as […]
Source : RIA Novosti Extending a record which is no danger of being broken any time soon, the Russian Soyuz made the 1803rd successful launch of incredible career today, carrying a GLONASS navigation satellite into orbit from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the far north. GLONASS is the Russian counterpart to American GPS, and like GPS it is a dual use system for both […]
Anatoly Zak has an interesting story about Russia’s planned successor to the Soyuz crew capsule on his site Russianspaceweb.com, and as usual it provides a wealth of information. What is particularly intriguing about new spacecraft, labelled PTK NK, is the fact it is currently being designed to make propulsive landings much like the SpaceX Dragon, which it somewhat resembles. One key […]
If some have accused the goals of the U.S. space program of attempting to repeat what it accomplished in the 1960’s, they may be equally unenthused over Russia’s latest launch. In what is generally accepted as the 1,802 nd successful flight of the Soyuz booster, Russia today lofted the Bion-1M biological research satellite. Containing 45 mice, 8 gerbils and 8 geckos, as well […]
A Russian Proton Booster, operating for International Launch Services out of Reston, Va. is set for the launch of the Anik G1 Canadian Comsat today at 2:36 PM EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch will be the second of 2013 for Proton, which is attempting to shake off a recent history of three failures […]
The history of human exploration, particularly in the age of sail, can be defined by one curious tendency. Often the strongest motivation for launching a new expedition, was to find out just what happened to the last expedition. And the one before that. Somehow, the appeal just never fades. Likewise, even the casual science fiction fan can attest […]
At 3:43 PM CST today, (2:43AM Friday local) a Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur space launch facility in Kazakhstan on what will be a record-breaking flight. For the first time ever, the crew aboard the craft will be making a fast ascent which will put the Soyuz in position to dock with […]
Source: RIA Novosti, Russianspaceweb A Russian built Proton rocket successfully lifted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Operated by International Launch Services, the booster blasted off shortly before midnight at 23:06 Moscow time, (7:06 pm GMT) and placed the Space Systems/Loral SatMex-8 telecommunications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit with 5 burns of the Briz-M upperstage. The flight was the first […]
Monday saw the 1,800th launch of the Russian Soyuz booster, a rocket updated, but also still very recognizable, as an immediate successor to the radio guided R-7 ballistic missile which was first planned in 1953. The record-setting launch, conducted from the space launch facility at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, was carried out on the Soyuz-U variety of the venerable rocket, which boosted a Russian Progress freighter to the International Space Station. The […]
Source: RiaNovosti Today’s planned commercial launch of a Soyuz 2-1a rocket out of Baikonur has been delayed for 24 hours to 11:02 am (U.S. EST) February 6th, due to high upper level winds. The launch which is being conducted by the Starsem/Arianespace marketing alliance, will boost the final 6 satellites for the Globalstar-2 constellation into a 52 degree orbit. […]
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