If you think NASA sometimes has trouble explaining just what it wants to do with the Space Launch System before it is actually used for the “Journey to Mars,” consider this somewhat bizarre explanation of Russia’s planned Fenix launch vehicle. Billed as a backup to the Angara system for the same reason the USAF insists […]
It is far from the best of times for the Russian space program, as budget realities conflict with that nation’s lunar ambitions. Following optimistic projections last year that it was working towards a 2025 launch date for a lunar circumnavigation mission to be carried out by the planned Angara A5B heavy lift vehicle, a draft […]
Is Russia following a path the American space program could have taken? A story in the Russian news agency TASS outlines a lunar exploration program which seems to draw on many of the lessons recently learned, but not applied by NASA for its own “Journey to Mars.” The program, which has yet to be funded, […]
Russia successfully launches the Angara booster on its first orbital flight. From the Russian news agency TASS: MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. A new Russian heavy rocket was successfully test-launched from the Plesetsk space center on Tuesday as planned at 08:57am Moscow time. The head unit has separated from the third stage of the Angara rocket, […]
Vostochny Under Construction. Image Credit The Moscow Times One question which defines the NewSpace movement, is which individuals, companies, or governments are investing in technologies or systems which have the capacity to significantly reduce the cost of access to space. In the case of the latter, governments, all too often it is just as easy […]
Russia’s long awaited Angara booster lifted off today on a suborbital test flight which carried with it the hopes of a revival in the Russian launch industry after years decades of reliance on Soviet era boosters. The Angara 1.2PP or ML (Maiden Launch) Integrated Launch Vehicle (ILV) lifted off from the far northern Plesetsk cosmodrome […]
Shortly before a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy booster lifted off from Vandenberg AFB yesterday, spacepolicyonline relayed a report from the Russian newspaper Izvestia suggesting that Vladimir Putin’s government is considering terminating the agreement which allows the United States to import the RD-180 main engine which powers the ULA Atlas V booster. Although critics […]
Source : RIA Novosti After a seemingly endless development program stretching back into the 1990’s, the first booster in a long anticipated family of new Russian launch vehicles has completed testing and is being prepared to ship to the northern spaceport of Plesetsk. It will still be some time before launch however, as the Angara “light” is […]
Source: RIA Novosti The Russian space agency Roscosmos released a document Saturday prioritizing space goals through 2020. The plan, which was apparently approved in December, calls for a $69 billion investment and continues the focus on consolidating the sprawling space infrastructure into a much smaller number of holding companies with the ultiamte goal of attracting commercial investment. New starts in human spaceflight […]
South Korea is counting down to the third launch attempt of its NARO rocket, a two stage vehicle comprised of a Russian built liquid fueled first stage and a domestically produced solid second stage. The rocket, which was originally designated KSLV-1, is named for the Korean Space Center on Outer Naro Island, 300 miles south of Seoul, […]
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