Soyuz-2 launches new Russian GPS-type satellite
Russia early today launched another satellite for its Glonass GPS-type constellation, using its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk launch site.
After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Russia’s Glonass constellation withered, with the country for years unable to replace the satellites as they aged and died. Only after free enterprise was encouraged in the 1990s and 2000s and the economy began to boom did the Russian government finally have enough tax dollars to begin launching replacements.
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine will certainly put a crimp in this recovery. As has Putin’s policy of using the government to nationalize many industries, such as its aerospace sector.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
46 SpaceX
43 China
13 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 66 to 43 in the national rankings, and the entire globe combined 66 to 64.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Russia early today launched another satellite for its Glonass GPS-type constellation, using its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk launch site.
After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, Russia’s Glonass constellation withered, with the country for years unable to replace the satellites as they aged and died. Only after free enterprise was encouraged in the 1990s and 2000s and the economy began to boom did the Russian government finally have enough tax dollars to begin launching replacements.
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine will certainly put a crimp in this recovery. As has Putin’s policy of using the government to nationalize many industries, such as its aerospace sector.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
46 SpaceX
43 China
13 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA
American private enterprise still leads China 66 to 43 in the national rankings, and the entire globe combined 66 to 64.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
WooHoo. 130 on the year.
The Ruskies need to bolster that constellation because of the war.
Esp if they run the risk of expanding it.
I suspect this is just normal system maintenance, as is done for GPS, Beidou and Galileo.
I’d be surprised if the latest Russian equipment that needs it doesn’t use concurrent quad constellation receivers on an opportunistic basis. This is now the civilian norm. Higher end receivers use two frequencies also so that ionospheric correction can be done. I have some cheapish ones that get a location CEP of 2 meters at 20 Hz autonomously.
“The Russian invasion of the Ukraine will certainly put a crimp in this recovery” The British Ministry of Defense says that Ukraine’s greatly increased armor force is 50 percent captured Russian armored vehicles. And Russian production of replacement armored vehicles is almost zero as they can not get things such as chips for the fire control system.
“Facebook owner Meta placed on Russian terrorist list
Russian financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring on Tuesday placed U.S.-based social media giant Meta Platforms on its list of extremists and terrorists. It was not immediately clear what the impact would be – the actions comes more than six months after Moscow’s Tverskoy Court declared Meta networks Instagram and Facebook as extremist and banned them across Russian territory.
The March ruling stemmed in part from a Russian criminal probe that cited “illegal calls for the murder of Russian nationals” by Meta employees. Meta has said it relaxed rules against violent speech for people inside Ukraine directed at Russian military in that country. Meta does not allow calls for violence against Russian people.”
There’s no point in having private industries who have only the government as their single customer. There can be no market for things like heavy weapons systems no matter how the industry is organized. Since the government places all the orders and provides all the financing, the whole industry might as well be government run. There’s a reason why Russian and Chinese weapons cost only a small fraction of similar Western weapons.
There’s no sign of weakening of the Russian economy. The sanctions which are abolishing the USD as world standard currency, bursting the huge debt bubble, and de-industrializing Europe have no effect on Russia. The foreign manufactured parts they need, such as spare parts for Aeroflot’s Boeing engines, they simply buy from Chinese companies that manufacture them. 30 years of globalism has had that effect, the US no longer has anything of value to put sanctions on. And the West is completely isolated by a world that ignores their demands on sanctioning Russia. In the UN Security Council about a week ago the US demanded a statement that condemns Russias official annexation on Lugansk-Donetsk-Zaporozhja-Kherson. China, India and Brazil refused to vote for it. Mexico did, but with the statement that they always vote against annexations out of principle:
“- Because Mexico has lost vast territories being annexed by a neighbor!”
(I don’t think that referred to Guatemala and Belize.)
@Col Beausabre That is worse than propaganda, it is pure lie. For 200 days in a row high NATO officers, who obviously know not a single thing about military affairs which must be extremely demoralizing for all NATO soldiers, have repeated:
“- Russia has run out of ammo. Russia is losing the war.”
While in fact they produce ammo at the same rate as they use it, and now launch hundreds of medium range missiles as day. And Russia has been winning the war since day one, that must be obvious to every thinking being. It is NATO that has depleted its minuscule ammo storages. Since 30 years NATO has been designed to wage colonial wars against isolated groups of light infantry freedom fighters (still they have been utterly defeated in each and everyone of those invasion and occupation wars!) That’s why NATOs only newer weapons are jeeps and that fragile light weight M-777 howitzer made to be carried by helicopter in the mountains of Afghanistan, not to fire hundreds of shells a day during a year long artillery duel. The German Panzerhaubitz 2000 donated to the Ukrainian NATO puppet nazi regime have been sent back for refurbishment because they are already worn down. NATO is completely unprepared for a war against an equal foe that has an airforce, a formidable air defense and scores of missiles and heavy Army weapons systems.
Here’s a brief account of the dramatically self-destructive consequences of the West’s incompetent reactions to Russia’s intervention in the 8½ years old civil war in Ukraine. An article in The Guardian/Observer, surprisingly enough:
https://youtu.be/1HYbQ8XFKpE?t=1311
There’s a big difference between the very professional and experienced ministers of the Russian and Chinese governments, and the amateur politician ministries of the West. German foreign minister Bearbock, for example, has as her only working experience a local newspaper and a local radio station in northern Germany. Then she because assistant to a member of EU parliament, and now suddenly foreign minister. Russian foreign minister graduated from Soviet’s special university of the Foreign Department 50 years ago and worked as diplomat since then. First on Sri Lanka then with trade deals, human rights, the United Nations. And since 17 years he is foreign minister. He has set up friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation with almost all non-Western countries in the world, who now refuse to implement any sanctions on Russia. Under him Russia has taken the initiative in abolishing the way over-extended US hegemony and establishing the new multi-polar world order based on consistent international law equal for every country. This is in the interest of every single regional power in the whole world (such as India, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa and on and on) who do not want to remain vulnerable to US’ threats. Lavrov will go to history on the level of von Metternich and Talleyrand when they set up the new post-Napoleonic world order 200 years ago. While Germany’s Bearbock knows nothing and accomplishes nothing, living as she does in her fanatically ideological dream world made up of propaganda lies far far away from the reality about which she has no knowledge at all. The same can be said about Liz Truss, the complete idiot who now tragically is the PM of the UK. It is very easily predicted that the West will continue to make disastrous mistakes that quickly will ruin them utterly and permanently.