NASA management appears ready to approve combining SpaceX’s next two test flights of the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket into one test flight. This despite Russian opposition.
The Soyuz launchsite in French Guiana has been declared ready for its first flight.
A mock Soyuz countdown is under way at Kourou, French Guiana.
Putin sacks the head of the Russian space agency.
The competition plays hardball: The Russians say “Nyet” to letting SpaceX’s Dragon capsule dock with ISS on its next flight.
A Soviet-era Vostok space capsule, flown prior to Gagarin as a test, has sold for $2.9M at a New York auction.
Stagnation haunts Russian space program.
Russian spaceship “Gagarin” arrives at ISS.
Russia is accelerating its space program.
“It is the first time that the government has allocated decent financing to us,” Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said in a phone interview on April 2. The agency’s $3.5 billion budget for 2011 has almost tripled since 2007, reaching the highest since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. “We can now advance on all themes a bit,” Perminov said.
Unlike 50 years ago, when beating the U.S. into space marked a geopolitical victory in the Cold War, Russia is focusing on the commercial, technological and scientific aspects of space travel. President Dmitry Medvedev has named aerospace one of five industries the government plans to nurture to help diversify the economy of the world’s largest energy supplier away from resource extraction.
Three astronauts were launched to ISS today in a Soyuz capsule the Russians have named Gagarin, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of his flight on April 12.
Russia’s launch capability continues to expand: Not only will they be able to launch rockets from French Guiana this year, it looks like Russia’s western spaceport will be ready for its first launch by 2015.
The Daily Beast reports today that the last flight of the shuttle Endeavour has been delayed due to a schedule conflict with a Russian Progress freighter.
Note that this has not yet been confirmed by NASA.
Update from spaceref: NASA has rescheduled Endeavour’s launch for April 29.
Comparing the view of Earth, interpreted differently by Russian and American satellites.
Not bigots: Russia and Israel have agreed on a framework for cooperating in outer space.
The Russians have set the new date, April 5, for next manned Soyuz launch to ISS.
The first death in space.
An evening pause: Forty-six years ago today Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space. This Soviet-era film shows practically the entire event, using footage from two cameras. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Russian and it is not subtitled. I’d love it if someone out there could provide a translation.
Several things to note as you watch:
» Read more
Treasures from the Soviet Union’s space history.
Those private companies better get cracking! The Russians have raised their ticket price again, from $56 to $63 million per astronaut ride on a Soyuz.
Problems going up and going down: Not only are there issues with the Soyuz capsule that is scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, a problem in the communications system of the next Soyuz capsule has caused the Russians to delay its launch by at least one week.
The return of a crew from ISS on Wednesday via a new upgraded Soyuz capsule might have problems.
Sergei Korolev: the rocket genius behind Yuri Gagarin.
A Russian military satellite nearly collided with a Korean weather satellite earlier this week.
This is both good and bad: Russia appears to lack enough available rockets to fulfill its 2011 launch plans.
Meanwhile, up on ISS two Russians have successfully completed a five hour spacewalk, getting all their work done early.
Astronauts on the Russian Mars500 simulated Mars mission simulated a Mars landing on Saturday. Key quote:
Three astronauts on the Mars500 simulated mission will make a simulated walk on the Mars “surface” Monday. After working 30 days on the simulated planet, the crew will then embark on a simulated 240-day return trip to Earth. Officials said the 520-day Mars500 mission is designed to test how humans cope with the physical and mental stresses of a long space flight.
Wait ’til next year! The Russian effort to drill into Lake Vostok buried under the Antarctica icecap has fallen short by only a hundred feet, stopped by the end of summer.
