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Post by TsarSamuil on Sept 3, 2019 13:09:13 GMT -5
‘Tsar engines’: Russia begins production of the world’s most-powerful rocket boosters.
RT.com
1 Sep, 2019 10:25
Russia has launched serial production of the world’s most-powerful multi-combustion chambered rocket engine, the RD-171MV. It’s intended to provide thrust to the planned super heavy-lift rocket Soyuz-5, set to be launched in 2022.
The producer of the engine, NPO Energomash (part of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency) has found a supplier of the rolled mould steel and composites necessary for production, according to data on the federal procurement website. The company will spend around 19.5 billion rubles (approximately US$ 292 million) to purchase the materials.
In February, Roscosmos’ Director-General Dmitry Rogozin revealed that Energomash had created the first engine of the new model. Earlier the official had said the RD-171MV “is the most powerful engine in the world,” and that’s why it’s sometimes called “the Tsar-engine.”
The 10-ton RD-171MV, an improved variant of the RD-171M, was presented during the MAKS-2019 biennial airshow, currently taking place at the Zhukovskiy International Airport near Moscow.
The engine is designed to operate at the first stage of the future Soyuz-5 rocket, also known as Irtysh. In August, CEO of Russia’s Energomash Igor Arbuzov said that the company will test fire the RD-171MV until the end of the year, before instaling it on the rocket. The test of the Soyuz-5 rocket is scheduled for 2021, before it makes its maiden flight in 2022.
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Post by TsarSamuil on May 29, 2020 12:17:13 GMT -5
Russia plans to build a REPLACEMENT for the International Space Station, won’t allow Moon privatization – Space Agency Chief.
RT.com
25 May, 2020 13:29
Russia is planning to create its own orbital space station and winged, crewed spacecraft, according to Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos.
Speaking to Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda, Rogozin explained how the International Space Station (ISS) is due to operate for another seven-to-ten years, and, as a world leader in the space industry, Russia should be at the forefront of whatever comes next.
“As a country that has always been a leader in the creation of orbital stations, Russia should immediately begin work on creating a new one.”
According to the director, it’s not yet clear whether the station will be visited or inhabited, national or international, but “the technical training should begin now.” Rogozin also announced that Roscosmos is “considering the possibility of creating a winged manned spacecraft for flights to orbital stations,” which would help build the brand-new space station.
The Roscosmos chief noted how a new Russian shuttle would be the spiritual successor to the ‘Buran,’ a soviet spacecraft which completed only one mission, in 1988. The Buran program was originally started by the USSR in response to the US’ Space Shuttle program, and was similar in appearance to NASA’s Space Shuttle orbiter.
Rogozin’s latest update is in addition to his statement in late 2019, that Roscosmos intends to create a universal module for landing on the moon. In the same Monday interview with Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda, Rogozin also explained that Moscow “will not allow the privatization of the Moon by anyone,” and will not participate in the lunar race “similar to electoral campaigning."
Rogozin’s comments were in response to a recent executive order signed by US President Donald Trump, which stated that Americans should have the right to engage in “commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space.”
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 29, 2020 5:45:17 GMT -5
Russia says International Space Station is falling apart & may have to be abandoned early, plans to go it alone on replacement.
RT.com
27 Nov, 2020 10:24
Russia may invoke the spirit of ‘Mir’ by launching its own orbital station after 2024, as a replacement for the ISS. The current setup had been expected to operate until 2030, but there are signs that it may not be possible.
The proposed new Russian replacement is set to consist of between three and seven modules, with a crew of up to four people.
Moscow’s plans were revealed by Vladimir Solovyov, the first deputy designer general for RSC Energia, the company which operates the Russian segment of the ISS. In his opinion, several elements on the international station are already failing, and it will just get worse from 2025.
“Until 2025, Russia has obligations to participate in the ISS program,” Solovyov explained to the Russian Academy of Sciences. “There are already a number of elements that have been seriously damaged and are out of service. Many of them are not replaceable. After 2025, we predict an avalanche-like failure of numerous elements onboard the ISS.”
The ISS regularly has problems. Last month, the Russian Zvezda module suffered a crack. At the time, former cosmonaut Ivan Vagner explained that it may have been caused by wear and tear.
“Twenty years is actually an absolute record for all space stations,” he explained.
As things stand, Russia has obligations to participate in the ISS program until 2025, and afterwards, the costs may be too prohibitive.
Writing on Twitter, the head of space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that it was too early to decommission the international project but that some modules might have to be replaced.
“I think it’s too early to write off the station,” Rogozin wrote. “I see the great potential of the ISS for the development of space tourism and the participation of private space companies.”
Later, in a press release, Roscosmos clarified that Solovyov’s comments were of “an informational nature” and did not contain any “proposals for termination of participation in the ISS.”
The Russian-built proposed replacement for the ISS is currently in development and is planned for deployment after 2024. The Russian Orbital Station will be able to run autonomously, and will be operated by a crew of two to four people. In May, Rogozin explained that an ISS replacement was in the works, but it was not yet clear whether it would be visited or inhabited, national or international.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Dec 14, 2020 12:55:06 GMT -5
WATCH: Russia's Angara A5 'eco-space rocket' successfully fires payload into orbit for first time in 6 years.
RT.com
14 Dec, 2020 13:08
The Russian Space Forces have conducted a successful second test launch of the Angara A5 heavy-lift space launch vehicle, six years after the first test flight in 2014.
Launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Mirny, about 800km north of Moscow, the rocket was fired into the sky at 8.50am Moscow time.
The rocket flew for a little over 12 minutes before a mock spacecraft payload separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle and entered into orbit. Initially, the rocket launch was planned for late November, but was postponed to December due to technical reasons.
In celebration, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's Space Agency Roscosmos, posted on Twitter: "It flies, damn it!"
Touted as an eco-rocket due to its usage of kerosene and oxygen as fuel, the Angara rocket family is the first Russian space booster designed from scratch since the fall of the Soviet Union. Development originally began in the 1990s, and the Angara A5 variant was first tested almost twenty years later, in 2014.
The company responsible for the rocket, the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, is well known for its unprofitability, having reported a debt of 84 billion rubles ($6 billion) in March 2019. Later that year, in June, the financial report of the center revealed the production cost of a rocket as seven billion rubles ($95 million).
Roscosmos' innovations have been praised worldwide, including by South African space entrepreneur Elon Musk who promoted the idea of a reusable Angara rocket.
In 2018, Rogozin revealed that Russia plans to use the Angara rocket for regular missions to the Moon.
@elonmusk - Russia has excellent rocket engineering & best engine currently flying. Reusable version of their new Angara rocket would be great.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Mar 12, 2021 0:20:19 GMT -5
A giant leap for mankind? A joint China-Russia plan to build a station on the Moon is set to spark a new space war with America. RT.com 10 Mar, 2021 18:59 Expected to have been constructed by the 2030s, the base marks a revolutionary advance in man’s relationship with the cosmos, establishing a permanent physical presence in space. But there are military implications, too. China and Russia’s national space agencies have signed an agreement to create a lunar station, establishing what could be the first-ever structure on the Moon, and sparking a new space race with America. The new station is intended to propel scientific research and ‘utilisation’ of the Moon, and comes ahead of the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Vostok spaceflight, in April 1961, which made Yuri Gagarin the first ever human in space. It also represents a logical escalation of China’s own lunar program. It brought back samples of soil from the Moon earlier this year, was the first country to have reached the far side of the Moon the year before, and has ambitious plans to land on Mars. Although China’s advances have been rapid, it is nonetheless a relative newcomer to the space game. By teaming up with Russia, Beijing has allied with a seasoned veteran in the field in order to achieve its goals. The Moon base, expected sometime in the 2030s, will be a stellar fusion of ample Chinese resources and Russian expertise, and is arguably the most ambitious and revolutionary space project ever. The strategic and political ramifications are huge. It demonstrates deepening technological and strategic cooperation between the two nations, providing a broader and more robust alternative to America in the aerospace industries – an advance Washington has sought to thwart. The stakes of space science have always been huge, both in terms of results and prestige. Outer space arguably continues to represent the ‘frontier’ of human knowledge and civilisation. Despite all the achievements of the past 60 years, from Sputnik 1 in 1957 to Apollo 11 in 1969, and beyond, mankind has barely even scratched the surface of what is out there. The difficulties of succeeding with space exploration are also astronomical. Yet each little advance changes our perceptions and our futures. It is no surprise that astrophysics constantly becomes the centrepiece of ideological struggles and great power competition. Russia, of course, has done it all before. The original ‘space race’ between the Soviet Union and the United States led to a plethora of breakthroughs. Since the end of the Cold War, while Moscow remained the world’s number two in space technology, it had, until recently, largely given up trying to compete with NASA. But now, history is in some ways repeating itself. China has a series of ideological and political points to prove against America, in space and elsewhere. Scientific achievements are an illustration of the country’s rapid progress and development in an increasingly competitive climate. It’s also strategic, as the United States under Trump created the ‘space force’ and has moved towards the militarisation of space. It’s a new frontier, and Beijing intends to keep up. This strategic aspect is what Moscow most buys into. The two sides have a growing number of common interests under ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ mantra. Moscow and Beijing see an alliance as an opportunity to compete with the West, especially in sensitive fields such as technology, which Western countries are eager to lock them out of. America’s bid to try to contain China’s space agency pre-dates the Trump administration. The Obama White House banned China from collaborating on the International Space Station, which pushed Beijing to start developing its own. By establishing new collaborative enterprises in space together, a new Moon base is Russia and China’s best chance to compete with the US and hold their own. Of course, the cumulative impact of all this is a new space race, pitting the US on one side and Russia/China on the other. How will Washington react to the declaration by their perceived adversaries that they plan to build a physical base on the Moon? It’s unlikely they will not feel the need to respond. NASA itself is already preparing to create an ‘orbital gateway’ around the Moon in conjunction with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. So it looks likely to become the subject of intense strategic competition between the three great powers – a race as to who can effectively ‘dominate’ it in strategic terms. It’s obvious that Moscow and Beijing are aiming as much to counter American initiatives as doing it for the scientific advantages and the sense of national pride. Irrespective of the political consequences, the world can be assured that, like the previous space race in the 1960s, the ultimate end product will be new and revolutionary advances in man’s relationship with the cosmos. The first race was about the ‘mere’ prospect of reaching space itself in short-lived missions; this much loftier goal is about mankind establishing a long-lasting physical presence in space and, more worryingly, the militarisation of earth’s periphery. |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Apr 10, 2021 11:24:01 GMT -5
Poekhali! Russian spaceship named after Yuri Gagarin blasts off almost sixty years after Soviet cosmonaut’s record-smashing flight. RT.com 9 Apr, 2021 10:53 A Russian-made Soyuz rocket has lifted off from a cosmodrome in the Kazakh desert. It will now carry its crew – two Russians and one American – to the International Space Station, orbiting more than 400km above the Earth. The spacecraft is expected to dock on its base on Friday, within hours of the launch, where the astronaut and cosmonauts will stay for 191 days in order to carry out dozens of scientific experiments and conduct at least two spacewalks. The manned capsule carrying the team is named after Yuri Gagarin, who made history on April 12, 1961, when he became the first person to orbit the Earth. The 60th anniversary of that event will be celebrated on Monday. The Soviet pilot’s iconic flight inspired a generation to imagine the possibilities of space travel, and cemented the USSR’s status as a technological superpower. Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, from which Friday’s mission began, was the same location used to launch Gagarin’s Vostok 1 spacecraft, and symbols commemorating the date are plastered across the spaceship. In March, the chief of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the US’ reliance on Moscow’s rockets to ferry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station was proof that new American spaceflight is still “unstable.” Since 2011, Washington had relied on Roscosmos for manned missions, having scrapped its own shuttle program. However, in May last year, Elon Musk’s SpaceX became the first private company to operate on the high-altitude route, landing two Americans on the orbital base. Nevertheless, despite the feat, the US is still reliant on Russia for regular missions. Moscow and Washington announced last week that they had signed an agreement to renew the decades-old partnership, and affirmed their commitment to work together in the name of “the exploration and the use of outer space for peaceful purposes.” First signed in 1992 between then-president George W. Bush and Russia’s first post-Soviet leader, Boris Yeltsin, the pact underwrites co-operation between the two nations for the coming decade. A fortnight ago, another Soyuz rocket blasted off, carrying 36 satellites into low-Earth orbit, as part of a joint effort with UK firm OneWeb to create an artificial “constellation” that will help expand internet coverage across the globe. ---------------- 60 years since Gagarin's space flight | Question More! RT Streamed live 19 hours ago April 12, 2021 marks 60 years since #Soviet cosmonaut slash international treasure Yuri Gagarin became the first person ever to leave Planet Earth. Ever wondered what it’s like in zero gravity? Or how to use the loo in space?! Or why every town in #Russia has a square and a street named after Yuri Gagarin? (That one’s easy…) Well now’s your chance to find out! RT’s guest cosmonauts will be answering all your questions all about their intergalactic (OK, not quite… but you get the gist) travels. So hurry up and get in touch in the comments below or email space@rttv.ru with your questions. The most interesting questions will be read out on air, and a select few will even receive prizes. ---------------- ‘Beyond’: UK author presents ‘exciting’ new book on Yuri Gagarin at Russian embassy in London, 60yrs since 1st manned space flight. RT.com 9 Apr, 2021 20:27 The first spaceflight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is a feat of humanity in itself and the Western public needs to know more about it, writer Stephen Walker said as he presented his new book at the Russian embassy in London. The non-fiction thriller ' Beyond,' which details the events around the pioneering manned space flight of 1961, was unveiled a few days before the 60th anniversary of the iconic Vostok-1 mission. "On April 12, 1961, this young man – Yury Gagarin – sits in a padded sphere essentially on top of the biggest rocket in the world and eleven minutes later, he's looking down on that world as no human eye ever did," Walker said. What had been achieved by this 27-year-old and the whole Soviet team behind the launch "transcends nations, peoples and actually holds all of us – human beings – in its excitement and in its spectacle," he added. Walker said that it was "terribly important" for him to tell Gagarin's story to the English-speaking audience, which arguably knows much more about the US Apollo program to conquer the Moon. NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon on July 20, 1969 was a "spectacular and incredible" event, but what the USSR managed to pull off five years before that was "a greater first," the author insists. Gagarin was "the first person to step into the cosmos; the first person to start a journey we are all on now – you can't surpass that moment as a moment in all of our history," he said. The book took years to write and required several trips to Russia, during which Walker interviewed many witnesses of the historic events of 1961. Those included the likes of late cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov, who was Gagarin's close friend and the first man to go on a spacewalk, and many lesser-known figurers, who worked behind the scenes to make sending the first human to space possible. 'Beyond' is no standard biography, as the book only focuses on the last several months preceding Gagarin's celebrated flight. The author also put a lot effort into showing the human side of the first man in space, trying to look into the fears and doubts that Yuri hid behind his branded smile ahead of the mission that had an estimated success rate of less than 50/50. Russia's ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, has praised Walker for his "balanced" approach, as the author manages not to favor any side while depicting the space race between the Soviet Union and the US. 'Beyond' is an "exciting read," which feels like a novel, despite being fully based on facts, the ambassador said, adding that the book would be eye-opening not only to English-speakers, but also to the Russian public.  “Beyond” author Stephen Walker and Russia’s ambassador to UK, Andrey Kelin © RT |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Apr 12, 2021 11:01:59 GMT -5
From wood cabin to orbiting Earth: How Yuri Gagarin’s improbable journey into space defined a decade, but nearly ended in disaster. RT.com 12 Apr 2021 | 07:19 GMT  When Yuri Gagarin was born in 1934, the idea that he would step aboard a rocket and launch into space was less a boyhood dream than an impossible fantasy. But, two decades later, he was looking down on Earth having done just that. On 12 April 1961, his Vostok-1 spacecraft blasted off from its launch pad in the desert of Soviet Kazakhstan, propelling the 27-year-old more than 100 miles into the sky, and landing him in the history books as the first man to orbit the planet. The voyage turned the cosmonaut into an international superstar, and struck a decisive blow in the bitter technological race being fought between Cold War rivals the United States and the USSR. However, while Gagarin’s flight became an inspiration to millions across the world, and an immense source of pride for Moscow, the odds were stacked against the young pilot ever making it into space in the first place. His chances of making it back safely were even slimmer. A big step for any manBorn at the height of Joseph Stalin’s repressive land reforms, Gagarin’s parents were workers on a collective farm near the western Russian city of Smolensk. While Soviet propaganda would later portray them as simple peasants, a sign of the feats ordinary people could go on to achieve, the reality was less clear cut. Anna, Gagarin’s mother, had been born to a prosperous oil-drilling manager in St. Petersburg, growing up with the privilege of a good education and a love of literature. The 1917 Revolution stripped her family of its wealth and, along with her skilled-carpenter husband, Alexei, she labored in tough conditions in the farmyard without seeing much of the rewards. Just two years after Gagarin was born, Stalin would launch a series of brutal campaigns targeting anyone labeled a dissident, counter-revolutionary or saboteur, known collectively as the Great Terror. Close to a million people were executed, and many more deported to the brutal Gulag prison colonies. The country in which Gagarin grew up, the largest in the world, was going through an acutely unstable, violent period. And it would only get worse. By the time he was seven years old, the Second World War had broken out and the village in which his family lived, 100 miles to the west of Moscow, sat squarely in the Nazi warpath. On the first day German troops rolled into the village, they torched the schoolhouse, ending Gagarin’s formal education before it had really begun. It didn’t take long for the horrors of war to leave their mark on the young boy. Yuri’s brother, Valentin, later recalled how the pair sneaked into the woods in the aftermath of a battle between German troops and Soviet forces to watch the interrogation of a captured Russian colonel. “The German officers went to where he was lying, in a bush, and he was pretending to be blind,” Valentin said. “Some high-ranking officers tried to ask him questions, and he replied that he couldn’t hear them very well and asked them to lean down closer. So they came closer and bent right over him, and then he blew up a grenade he’d hidden behind his back. No one survived.” After this, Yuri is said to have gained a sense of what was at stake, and began stealing food from the cellars to feed refugees fleeing nearby firefights. Village children scattered broken glass on the roads to puncture the tires of German supply trucks, and Yuri reportedly stuffed dirt into charging tank batteries, mixing bottles of chemicals used to replenish them randomly. Accounts from the time claimed a Nazi officer who suspected the young Gagarin boys of being saboteurs was forced to search for them on foot because Yuri had already pushed potatoes into the exhaust pipe of his army car. Turfed out of their home, which had been requisitioned by the occupying forces, the family were given permission to dig a small, temporary mud shelter in the back garden of the house. Just a few meters wide, the conditions in which they lived would have been unimaginable. They sheltered here until the Nazis were driven out by the liberating Red Army, but not before two of Yuri’s siblings were deported to slave labor camps, returning only after the war. Poyekhali!When Gagarin strapped into his spherical spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome, a continent away from his childhood home in western Russia, it was the culmination of years of training and a fascination with flight that led him from that muddy trench and into the skies. For the Soviet Union as well, the journey was an unlikely one. Shattered by the brunt of the Nazi war machine, the country had been rebuilt from the rubble and scorched earth of war. Famines, purges and fear of arbitrary arrest were far from a distant memory. And yet, in the space of a decade-and-a-half, the USSR had come to rival the US in a race into space, a battle of technological supremacy and ingenuity, with Gagarin set to claim one of its first major victories. Despite his tough childhood, or maybe because of it, he had rapidly shone in the years following WWII. From building model airplanes with his school friends, to enlisting as an air cadet with a weekend flying club, as a young man he showed a clear passion for life above the ground. After signing up as a pilot in the Soviet Air Forces, his career was, however, nearly cut short after he struggled on more than one occasion to safely land an MiG-15 jet engine warplane. Recognizing that the young airman was suffering an unusual handicap, the unit’s commander reportedly gave Gagarin another shot – handing him a cushion to sit on. At just 1.57 meters (5 foot, 2 inches) tall, he had been struggling to see over the cockpit on descent. Years later, when the budding Soviet space program began its search for a new generation of future cosmonauts, Gagarin’s height suddenly became an advantage. With its limited space, the Vostok capsule demanded a sole crew member of shorter stature – no more than 1.70 meters (5ft 7in). As an experienced flier, popular with his peers and deemed to keep a cool head under pressure, he shot through the recruitment process. The mission required no less than nerves of steel. Half of Soviet space flights up to that point had failed, with technical problems and malfunctions leading earlier, unmanned Vostok missions to crash down to Earth, or to remain stuck, floating in space. On the day of the flight, the chief designer of the spacecraft, Sergey Korolev, was reportedly so nervous that he was unable to sleep the night before and had to be given a pill to calm him down. By contrast, the pilot about to become the world’s first spaceman was, by all accounts, relaxed. Having declined a sleeping tablet the night before, Gagarin chatted with launch staff as he waited to board the rocket, and his pulse was recorded at a steely calm 64 beats per minute. Months of grueling training, from brutal exercise regimes to weathering oxygen deprivation chambers, had all led to this. His call to action from the cockpit before blast off – poekhali – meaning something akin to ‘Let’s go’ in Russian, would become a rallying cry across the Eastern Bloc. It appears though that the cosmonaut may have come close to losing his nerve just before the countdown was due to begin. Gagarin insisted that the hermetic seal on the capsule was improperly joined, which could have led to fatal decompression of the chamber. Reports differ on whether this was an accurate diagnosis, or the result of a faulty sensor but, moments before he was due to blast off, engineers were working furiously to re-bolt 32 separate screws that would be the only thing standing between Gagarin and certain death. This wasn’t the only problem. The day before the flight, archive documents show, the rocket scientists realized that the combined weight of the pilot, his space suit and his seat, would be above the maximum that could be carried by the thrusters. Rushing to meet the tight deadlines and pressure from senior officials, they stripped away part of the interior, accidentally disconnecting two gauges responsible for pressure and temperature, and causing a short circuit. It isn’t clear whether Gagarin knew the full extent of the glitches preceding the launch. However, in a letter to his loved ones written two days before the start of the mission, he said: “I believe completely in the technical equipment, but even on level ground, a person sometimes falls over and breaks his neck.” While the blast-off went smoothly, and Gagarin swept through the skies, more than 100 miles from the ground, his return to Earth was almost foiled. Engines designed to slow his trajectory and pull him out of orbit failed to disconnect properly as he began to re-enter the atmosphere. With added weight and untested aerodynamics, this could have led to the capsule spiraling out of control and breaking up. Mercifully though, the turbulence caused by re-entry shook the spacecraft and dislodged the rear equipment section. Gagarin landed, alive and an icon of the era.
Too much pressure?Back on Planet Earth, Gagarin’s dizzying trajectory had only begun. He toured the world as a celebrity, a figure of fascination and a rare envoy from the largely closed-off Soviet Union. His popularity and charm were even said to be behind a perceived threat for then-US president John F. Kennedy, who banned him from the country. There was little doubt that the airman was evidence of a great victory – for technology, for humanity and, indeed, for communist propaganda. However, the same tough demands and uncompromising pursuit of success that had allowed the USSR to claim the first major title in the space race had unwittingly put Gagarin’s life in danger. A culture of compliance and officials who took a dim view of failure only added to the potential for miscalculation. Before the decade was out, they would claim their first victim despite his warnings. In 1965, Gagarin himself handed a letter to Kremlin aides addressed to Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev. In it, he claimed that poor funding and a gridlocked management structure were compromising the technical abilities of the nation’s space program. However, progress appeared to have stalled and, while the USSR had since put five more cosmonauts into space, including the first woman, Washington’s efforts were paying off. The Americans had flown 10 Gemini missions in just a few years, while the Soviets had spent two years without a single manned launch. The political pressure to pull back in front was unrelenting. As a result, the complex Soyuz 1 mission was brought forward. A challenging, multi-part flight plan was devised, which would see the spacecraft rendezvous with another before returning to Earth. Gagarin himself had been a contender to sit in the cockpit, but was eventually made back-up to his friend and long-time colleague Vladimir Komarov. Take-off, on April 23, 1967, took place amid strong objections from Gagarin. Flight technicians had identified 203 separate structural problems with the rocket that would carry the solo cosmonaut, and he agreed that it simply wasn’t ready for the mission. Komarov himself had reportedly told those close to him that he believed he would die on the mission, but didn’t want to back out and leave his friend’s life on the line. Gagarin repeatedly insisted the mission be postponed, but his protestations were ignored. The initial phases were a success. But, once in orbit, Komarov radioed in to report that a solar panel had failed to unfold, limiting the vessel’s power. First a sensor array failed, and then the automatic stabilization system, while manual overrides appeared faulty. The mission’s flight plan was aborted, and Gagarin began to read instructions to his friend over the radio as the team on the ground worked to bring the cosmonaut back home. However, due to a defect, on re-entry the main parachute did not unfold, although accounts conflict on the reasons behind the failure. In their sensational account of the era, ‘Starman’, Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony claim that US listening posts in Turkey picked up signals from Komarov’s spaceship as he hurtled back towards Earth, crying in rage and cursing the engineers and officials behind the mission for putting him in a rocket that was never ready to fly. His charred remains were exhibited in an open casket, the first fatality of mankind’s fascination with the world beyond our planet. Before the end of the decade, as if to underline the dangers of setting foot off solid ground, Gagarin himself was killed in a fatal crash during a routine training mission aboard a fighter jet. Making historyGagarin’s own fate could easily have been the same on his record-smashing flight. These were early days for space travel, and both the Soviet Union and the US were aggressively competing to break barriers first and take the credit. Like the early explorers who traversed the globe, astronauts and cosmonauts faced uncertain conditions and never-before-seen problems. Some 60 years after Gagarin’s record-breaking flight, 14 American and one Israeli astronaut have given their lives to push mankind’s furthest horizons, along with four Soviet cosmonauts. While Komarov’s death was a testament to the dangers, his friend Gagarin had been luckier. When he touched down on Earth, he did so as a living monument to human achievement. A boy who grew up in the shadow of war, returning as a man who had conquered the skies. A stretch of faulty wiring or a loosened bolt could have changed history. ---------------- |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Apr 14, 2021 12:06:00 GMT -5
US diplomats are ‘a**holes’, Russian space chief says as State Department silent on anniversary of Gagarin’s historic space flight. RT.com 13 Apr, 2021 13:17 Moscow has accused US diplomats of failing to acknowledge Soviet spaceflight achievements during commemorations held in honor of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to orbit the Earth 60 years ago this week. The US State Department’s Russian-language Facebook page posted a short message on Monday commemorating what it called the “anniversary of peoples’ stay in space,” and paid tribute to “international cooperation facilitated by space exploration.” Alongside the statement was a graphic featuring an American astronaut performing a spacewalk. The head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, lashed out angrily at the post. Writing on Twitter later that day, he called the officials “a**holes,” adding that “superpowers don’t behave like this.” On Tuesday, the Russian Embassy in Washington added its voice to the row, claiming that the State Department had “again demonstrated memory loss regarding the history of space exploration” and accusing the diplomats of distorting Gagarin’s memory. “Our forgetful colleagues can find the bust of the space pioneer at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. Sculptures of Yuri Gagarin also were erected in Cleveland, Colorado Springs, New York City, Houston and Chicago,” the envoys said. “Thousands of Americans, including astronauts and NASA personnel, visit these sites every year to honor the memory of the Soviet cosmonaut.” Just last week, the Embassy noted, a NASA astronaut had been ferried up to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft named after Gagarin. “Let’s hope that these facts will help American diplomats in the future not to be shy to say out loud the name of the first cosmonaut on Earth,” Moscow’s representatives concluded. A series of commemorations were held throughout the former USSR and across the world to mark the Soviet-Russian cosmonaut’s maiden voyage into the stars. On April 12, 1961, his Vostok-1 spacecraft blasted off from a launch pad in the desert of Kazakhstan, before orbiting the Earth once. He landed in a Russian potato field, much to the surprise of local farmers, just 108 minutes later. The mission marked the first major milestone in the space race between Moscow and Washington as Cold War rivals. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, the two nations have largely cooperated on international projects aimed at the peaceful development of space travel. NASA paid tribute to Gagarin on Monday, saying that “as we reflect on his accomplishment today, we look ahead to the future of human space flight as we prepare to send humans back to the Moon.” |
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Post by TsarSamuil on May 29, 2021 4:23:15 GMT -5
What is his aim?
Elon Musk heaps praise on Soviet space program at Moscow educational conference & reveals his admiration for Russian pioneers.
RT.com
21 May, 2021 12:04
South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk has revealed his admiration for the USSR’s space program and its achievements, telling Russian students he had named some of his company’s conference rooms after Soviet engineers.
Speaking to the New Knowledge event via video link on Friday, the creator of SpaceX noted his reverence for Sergey Korolev and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, two influential 20th-century pioneers.
“[Tsiolkovsky] was amazing. He was truly one of the greatest,” the entrepreneur said. “At SpaceX, we name our conference rooms after the great engineers and scientists of space, and one of our biggest conference rooms is named after Tsiolkovsky. And [another after] Korolev.”
Musk also had kind words to say about the Soviet space program as a whole, noting that he admired the achievements of the USSR in the field of rocket science.
The SpaceX creator has long had an interest in Russia, and has previously shown reverence for its accomplishments in the cosmos. Last year, a tweet to the head of Moscow’s space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, went viral after Musk replied in Russian. “We hope for mutually beneficial and prosperous long-term cooperation,” the tech billionaire wrote.
The Twitter post came after Musk’s successful SpaceX launch, when his company sent the Crew Dragon capsule on its maiden voyage to the International Space Station (ISS). It marked the first time since 2011 that NASA had sent its astronauts into space on a US-made spacecraft.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov would become the first Russian to fly to the ISS in a SpaceX craft.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Jul 29, 2021 10:37:04 GMT -5
Russia launches ‘Nauka’ multifunctional scientific lab module to International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome (VIDEO)
RT.com
21 Jul, 2021 16:25
Russia has launched a rocket carrying a multifunctional laboratory module, due to arrive at the International Space Station next week. Named ‘Nauka,’ it'll be attached to the satellite and become Russia’s main scientific segment.
The launch, which took place at Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday afternoon, fired a Proton-M rocket into the sky, carrying the laboratory. Less than ten minutes after takeoff, Proton-M detached from the module, putting it into orbit. It is due to be docked to the Russian section of the ISS on July 29.
Nauka, which will be used for experiments, can also generate oxygen for six people and regenerate water from urine. It will also have a second toilet for Russian cosmonauts and be able accommodate a third crew member.
Attached to the module is a European Robotic Arm (ERA) that can help with installing and replacing station components without the need to perform a spacewalk.
“The Nauka module will be located at the nadir port of the Zvezda Service Module and is intended for the implementation of the Russian program of scientific and applied research and experiments,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
Made out of stainless steel, aluminum alloy, and kevlar, Nauka will replace the Pirs module, which was initially launched in 2001. Pirs will detach on Friday and be taken by Progress spacecraft to sink in the Pacific Ocean.
The new module has famously suffered from delays, having initially been due to take off in 2007.
Earlier this year, the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin revealed that Moscow would withdraw from the ISS project in 2025 and create its own space station if the US continued to impose sanctions against the Russian space sector. President Vladimir Putin has already signed off on a project for a Russian-only orbital station, due to consist of three to seven modules.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Aug 31, 2021 13:45:45 GMT -5
Russian space company Progress completes preliminary design of first domestically made partially reusable methane-powered rocket. RT.com 31 Aug, 2021 14:29 Russia's Progress Rocket and Space Centre has completed a preliminary design of the country's first-ever methane-powered rocket, planned to eventually be the country's favored launch vehicle, replacing the legendary Soyuz-2. Speaking to TASS news agency, the company's press service revealed that draft plans for the Amur-LNG space rocket had been sent to other space industry corporations for expert examination. So far, it has received positive feedback, Progress claims. The company also noted that the plan could possibly be improved and refined based on feedback and additional proposals. Last year, Russia's Roscosmos space agency signed a contract with Progress to develop a methane-powered rocket. It will have a reusable first stage and is named after the Amur region where Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome is located. According to Roscosmos, the Amur will have "an unprecedented level of reliability" and can be reused up to 100 times. Each launch will cost $22 million, and the overall price of creating a rocket from sketch to first launch will be almost $1 billion, the company says. "We significantly simplify the design and reduce the number of assembly units – compared to the Soyuz, they will be about half as many," Alexander Bloshenko, the Roscosmos chief of advanced programs and science, said last year. "This is important from the point of view of reliability. We would like our missile to be trouble-free, like a Kalashnikov assault rifle."  |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Sept 21, 2021 3:09:06 GMT -5
Film crew due to make first-ever feature-length movie filmed in space start training at Russian cosmodrome ahead of take-off. RT.com 20 Sep, 2021 14:45 A Russian film crew that will fly on the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft to the International Space Station next month has begun training in the country’s Far East. A director and actor plan to shoot the first feature film made in space. According to Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, director Klim Shippenko and actress Yulia Peresild have started work with spaceship commander Anton Shkaplerov, a trained cosmonaut at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the largest operational space launch facility in the world. Initially built in the USSR as the base of the Soviet space program, it is now leased by Russia from the Kazakh government. Shippenko and Peresild will film ‘Vyzov’, which means ‘Challenge’ in Russian. They will then return on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft in October with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, who has been on the manned satellite since April. “Under the supervision of specialists from Roscosmos…they tried on Sokol KV-2 flight suits, tested them for tightness, and took their seats in the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft,” a statement from the company said. “After that, they got acquainted with the locations of cargoes in the living compartment and the descent vehicle, and worked with the equipment to be operated on board the International Space Station.” They will later learn about manual docking of the Soyuz MS spacecraft as part of a wide-ranging preparation course.  From right, actress Yulia Peresild, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of the ISS Expedition 66 prime crew and film director Klim Shipenko are seen during the welcoming ceremony at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. © Sputnik / Yuzhny Space Center/ Roscosmos |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Sept 22, 2021 13:07:12 GMT -5
‘Squeezing us out of the market’: Russia’s space agency chief rules out any cooperation with Musk & ‘direct competitor’ SpaceX.
RT.com
22 Sep, 2021 11:00
The general director of Russian space agency Roscosmos has accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of attempting to squeeze it out of the market by operating at a significant loss, calling cooperation between the two “hardly possible.”
Speaking at the Youth Orbit conference on Tuesday, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin explained that the state organization would not work with Musk.
“It is hardly possible for our organizations to have any cooperation with SpaceX, because they are our direct competitors,” Rogozin said.
According to the space agency head, SpaceX is likely making losses that are subsidized by funds from the Pentagon and other American government agencies, making them hard to compete with because there is no “fair fight.”
Until last year, the American space program relied on Roscosmos rockets to send its astronauts to space.
Musk and Rogozin have a long relationship, and regularly communicate in the public eye, often on Twitter. Last month, the Russian space chief invited the SpaceX founder to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a space launch facility located in Kazakhstan but leased by Russia. Musk is yet to publicly accept the offer.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 6, 2021 15:14:27 GMT -5
First-ever movie shot in space...and it's Russian.
RT
Oct 5, 2021
The International Space Station transforms into a movie set for a fictional space drama ‘The Challenge’ as Russian crew members take their first steps on board.
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