PICTURE OF THE DAY

FIRST COSMONAUT'S GEAR

On April 12, Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day, commemorating Yuri Gagarin's first orbital mission onboard Vostok spacecraft in 1961. Copyright © 2002 Anatoly Zak

NEXT IN SPACE

May 21, 09:43 GMT: Zenit-3SL with a DM-SL upper stage to launch Galaxy 18 comsat for the Intelsat consortium from the Sea Launch platform. (Delayed by bad weather in the launch area from May 13)

See more in 2008...

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TOP STORY

Europe, Russia announce next-generation spacecraft

Published: 2008 May 14

Europe and Russia said they have agreed on the combined development of the next-generation spacecraft for lunar exploration.

If approved by European and Russian governments, the cooperative program can lead to human expeditions to the Moon in the next decade.

In its official statement Tuesday, Roskosmos said that the two sides chose a conical shape for the crew capsule, which will carry up to a six-member crew during the flight and provide its safe return to Earth. A pivotal agreement for the future of both European and Russian manned space program has been reached after half a year of negotiations between RKK Energia of Russia and European aerospace contractors Thales Alenia Space and EADS Astrium. The two sides had considered winged vehicles, so-called lifting-body configurations, enlarged Soyuz and finally settled on a conical shape for the crew capsule, which resembles NASA's Apollo and Orion spacecraft. According to Roskosmos, during the comparative analysis of the future spacecraft design, the two sides took into consideration Russia's decision to build a new launch site in Vostochny.

Although both sides will continue further refinement of the spacecraft configuration, it was agreed that the spacecraft with the approximate mass of 18-20 tons will be launched by a Russian rocket from Vostochny, Roskosmos said.

Flight testing is expected to take place in 2015 and the first manned mission in 2018. According to Roskosmos, the Russian company RKK Energia will be responsible for the development of the crew module, while European companies will supply the service and propulsion module, derived from the ATV cargo ship. Still, RKK Energia will be conducting the final integration of the vehicle, Roskosmos said.

By October 2008, the two sides hope to complete the documentation on the technical and programmatic aspects of the project, paving the way for a final decision to launch the vehicle development. An intermediate version of the agreement is to be considered at the combined meeting of the European and Russian space agencies in June 2008.

See also:

The concept of the ACTS spacecraft

In other news:

Russia sends supplies to station

Published: 2008 May 15

A Russian cargo ship blasted off toward the International Space Station, ISS, carrying supplies for the Expedition 17 crew.

The Soyuz-U rocket, carrying the Progress M-64 cargo ship, (No. 364) lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 1 on May 15, 2008, at 00:22:56 Moscow Time, Roskosmos said.

The launch followed a standard trajectory, delivering the 7,270-kilogram spacecraft into a 244 by 194-kilometer orbit with the inclination 51.65 degrees toward the Equator, according to mission control in Korolev, Russia. The vehicle carried around two and half tons of propellants, air, scientific equipment and other supplies for the crew of the station, including the Sokol KV-2 entry suit for one of the crew members. The original suit was damaged during the launch in April 2008. Progress M-64 was scheduled to dock to the station on May 17, 2008, at 01:37:30 Moscow Time (21:37:30 GMT on May 16).

Witness on the ground describes Soyuz TMA-11 landing

Published: 2008 May 13

Although rescue helicopters often manage to document Soyuz landings, the Soyuz TMA-11 apparently made a rare touchdown, which was actually witnessed by people on the ground from a relatively short distance.

On April 24, Almira Alishbaeva of the Kazakh publication Diapazon published a remarkable account of the landing by the members of the Shalkar agricultural community based in the town of Kumkuduk in the Aitekibiysky Region of Kazakhstan. According to Zhalgaskan Shurenov, the head of the community, on April 19, he and his brigade went to their fields to prepare them for planting seeds.

Around 1 p.m. workers stopped for lunch. "Suddenly, there was a boom in the sky and the black smoke appeared," Shurenov said, "It was like the aircraft exploded. It split in the sky into three parts (perhaps a reference to the heat shield separation) and one of them started descending under a white cupola. It looked like somebody was coming down on a parachute. Object was flying in our direction and soon landed around three kilometers from us."

Russia tries to chart its space future

Published: April 15, 2008

Four years after NASA had announced its intention to return to the Moon, Russian future goals in space remained murky. On April 11, the eve of Cosmonautics Day, the outgoing Russian president Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of his Security Council (known in Russian as Sovet Bezopasnosti), with the official goal of considering various aspects of the Russian space program until 2020.

Although few specific details, such as expected cost or exact aims of the manned space program, had been released to the taxpayers in the wake of the meeting, Russian space officials did come out with broad and sometimes contradicting statements about the direction of the national space effort.

According to Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian space agency, although Russia had committed to stay in Baikonur until its current agreement with Kazakhstan would expire in 2050, the Security Council established the year 2015 as a “solid date” of the first launch from new launch site in Vostochny.

New vessel arrives to the station

Published: 2008 April 3; updated April 4

Europe's brand-new cargo ship to re-supply the International Space Station successfully docked with the orbital outpost Thursday, April 3, 2008, at 10:45 a.m. EST.

According to the European Space Agency, ESA, contact of the vessel's docking probe with the station's service module was originally expected at 16:41 CEST (14:41 UT), with full capture scheduled for 17:15 CEST (15:15 UT). However, a few hours before final contact, flight controllers considered delaying the docking a few minutes to improve lighting conditions on the docking targets onboard the station's service module.

See our special on the little-known history of the ATV spacecraft.

The Russian-European space cooperation to face moment of truth

Published: 2008 March 16

The European Space Agency, ESA, will continue advancing its manned space program with or without Russian cooperation, Europe’s space chief said.

Speaking to reporters in Kourou, French Guiana, a few hours before a successful launch of the continent’s new-generation ATV spacecraft, Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's Director General, said that Europe would pursue new directions in manned space flight, however the pace of any such program would depend heavily on the ability of Europe and Russia to pull resources.

Columbus enters space

Published: 2008 Feb. 7

After more than two decades in the making, the Columbus laboratory module reached orbit Thursday, after a flawless launch onboard Space Shuttle Atlantis.

The cornerstone of Europe's space program, Columbus embodied many great hopes and saw bitter disappointments, as other human missions beyond Earth faced at the turn of the 21st century.

Russia orbits German milsat

Published: 2008 March 27

After a two-day delay by bad weather, Russian Cosmos 3M rocket lifted off from the Russian cosmodrome Plesetsk on March 27, 2008, at 20:15 Moscow Time. The rocket was carrying the fourth SAR-Lupe radar satellite, which it successfully released into its intended orbit 28-minutes later, the official Russian media said.

Details inside

Mission to complete Russian GPS system takes off

Published: 2007 Dec. 25

Russia launched a second trio of navigation satellites aimed to complete the national global positioning system.

A Proton M rocket with Block DM-2 upper stage lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Dec. 25, 2007, at 22:32 Moscow Decree Time. It carried three Uragan-M satellites for Russia's GLONASS navigation network.

The mission was designed to deliver satellites into a circular orbit with the altitude 19,137 kilometers above the Earth surface and the inclination 64.8 degrees toward the Equator. According to a press-release of the Khrunichev enterprise, the developer of the Proton rocket, issued shortly after the liftoff, the launch went nominally. The satellites were expected to separate from the upper stage on December 26, 2007 at 02:24 Moscow Time.

The latest mission delivering the Uragan spacecraft became the second in 2007, marking a major boost for Russia's navigation constellation. In the previous years, the project would only see a single launch per year, leaving the constellation incomplete for more than a decade. With six spacecraft added to the system in 2007, Russian officials promised to increase the total number of working satellites to 18, possibly making the GLONASS network operational during 2008.

Russia launches military communications satellite

Published 2007 Dec. 9; updated Dec 10

Russia successfully delivered a classified payload for the nation's armed forces, the official media reported. The Proton-M rocket with Briz-M upper stage blasted off from Site 81 in Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 9, 2007, at 03:16 Moscow Time (00:16 UTC). Four minutes later, as the launch vehicle was continuing a powered flight, the control center of the Russian space forces initiated tracking of the mission.

The satellite successfully reached its intended orbit at 12:17 Moscow Time, while out of range of ground control stations. The spacecraft was expected to establish contact with the ground at 12:55 Moscow Time. According to the Russian media, the ground control did establish reliable contact with the satellite.

Russia orbits secret satellite

Published: 2007 Oct. 23

Russian space forces launched a military satellite Tuesday from Northern Cosmodrome in Plesetsk.

A four-stage Molnia-M rocket lifted off on October 23, 2007, at 08:39 Moscow Time, carrying a classified military payload into orbit. After reaching the initial parking orbit, the 2BL upper stage of the launch vehicle was then expected to maneuver the satellite into highly elliptical orbit.

According to the official statement, Russian space forces successfully established communications with the new satellite at 10:15 Moscow Time. In accordance with a traditional practice for the military payloads, the spacecraft was officially identified only as Kosmos-2430. However it is known that over the years Molnia rocket had been used to deliver Oko ("eye") series of satellites, providing Russian military with the early warning information about missile launches around the world.

Zenit-3SLB flies from Baikonur

Published: 2008 April 28

The Zenit-3SLB, a variation of the Sea Launch-based launch vehicle, flew its first mission from Kazakhstan. The rocket equipped with a DM-SLB upper stage blasted off from Site 45 in Baikonur on April 28, 2008 at 09:00 Moscow Time. It carried Israel's AMOS-3 communications satellite.

According to the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, the launch went flawlessly and the satellite was released into its planned orbit.

The mission was previously expected in the fourth quarter of 2007 and wa later rescheduled to March 12, 2008. It was also scrubbed by technical problems on April 24, 2008.

Soyuz lifts European navsat

Published: 2008 April 26

The Soyuz-FG rocket with the Fregat upper stage blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome's Pad No. 6, on April 27, 2008, at 02:16 Moscow Time, (22:16 UTC on April 26) carrying a GIOVE-B satellite for Europe's future global positioning system.

Preliminary information showed that the vehicle successfully reached its initial orbit and the Fregat upper stage initiated its maneuvers to insert the satellite into the final orbit. Total three firings of the Fregat upper stage were planned before the separation of the satellite at 29,600-kilometer orbit with the inclination 56 degrees toward the Equator three hours 45 minutes after liftoff.

The mission was previously expected to take place on April 14, Nov. 27, Nov. 30, 2006, and the end of February 2007. At the end of 2006, the mission was delayed from April 2007, by the failure of the onboard computer. It was further delayed from Dec. 29, 2007, February, March and April 14, 2008.

Zenit delivers comsat

Published: 2008 March 20

The Sea Launch international venture successfully delivered a broadcast satellite into orbit from an ocean-based platform on the Equator, the company announced.

A Zenit-3SL rocket lifted off on March 19, 2008, at 3:48 pm PDT (22:48 GMT) from the Odyssey Launch Platform, positioned at 154 degrees West Longitude, as scheduled. According to Sea Launch, all systems performed nominally throughout the flight. The Block DM-SL upper stage inserted the 5,923-kilogram DIRECTV 11 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, on its way to a final orbital position at 99.2 degrees West Longitude. Acquisition of the spacecraft’s first signals from orbit were expected later.

The DIRECTV 11 satellite is based on Boeing's 702-series platform, and according to the manufacturer, it is among the largest and most powerful Ka-band satellites built to date.

Proton fails during launch

Published: 2008 March 15

The workhorse rocket of the Russian space program left its cargo in a useless orbit just half a year after a previous failure.

The Proton-M rocket with Briz-M upper stage lifted off from Baikonur at 02:18:55 Moscow Time, carrying the AMC-14 communications satellite.

According to International Launch Service, ILS, which markets the vehicles around the world, preliminary
flight information indicated that the anomaly occurred during the second burn of the Briz M upper stage.

Sea Launch returns to flight

Published: 2008 Jan. 15

Almost a year after a spectacular explosion, which damaged an ocean-based launch pad, the Sea Launch venture has returned to flight successfully, with the first space launch of 2008.

The Zenit-3SL rocket blasted off from the Odyssey platform stationed in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 15, 2008, at 11:49 GMT. It carried the 5,180-kilogram Thuraya-3 communications satellite for Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company, based in the United Arab Emirates.

According to unofficial reports, the mission went flawlessly, with orbital insertion and two firings of the Block DM upper stage completed.

This was the first mission for the Sea Launch venture since the January 31, 2007, launch failure, which destroyed the rocket and its payload, as well as damaged the floating launch platform, just seconds after blastoff. Shortly after the accident, the video of the rocket collapsing and exploding below the platform had become one of the post popular features on the YouTube web site.

At the beginning of March 2007, KB Yuzhnoe's statement promised the return to flight in the summer-fall 2007. The launch was later expected on Oct. 28, 2007. During the first attempt to return to flight, the platform had arrived to the launch area, however bad weather forced to scrub the lift offs scheduled for Nov. 13, 14 and 17, 2007. The vessel had to return home for the new try in January 2008.

Read our special report on the history of Sea Launch venture

Russia delivers Canadian Earth explorer

Published: 2007 Dec. 14

Russia launched a Canadian satellite designed to provide all-weather imagery of the Earth surface. The Soyuz FG rocket with the Fregat upper stage lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 14, 2007, at 16:17 Moscow Time, carrying the RADARSAT-2 spacecraft for the Canadian Space Agency. Following the liftoff, the rocket headed north to reach a 798-kilometer sun-synchronous circular orbit with the inclination 98.6 degrees toward the Equator. The Fregat was expected to fire twice to deliver the satellite and the third engine burn would be used to deorbit the upper stage after the separation from its payload at the end of the deployment mission. According to reports from Russia, the launch of the satellite went flawlessly.

The 2,200-kilogram RADARSAT-2 satellite is equipped with a powerful radar, designed to provide images of the Earth surface with the resolution up to three meters. To achieve such resolution, the spacecraft features a deployable radar antenna measuring 15 by 1.5 meters. It emits signals at the frequency of 5.405 GHz within C-band of radio spectrum. RADARSAT-2 is expected to work in orbit for at least seven years, providing imagery primarily for Canadian federal agencies.

The RADARSAT-2 launch was previously scheduled for August, October and November 2007.

Proton launches comsat

Published: 2007 Nov. 18

Russia launched a commercial satellite for a Swedish company. The Proton-M rocket with Briz-M upper stage blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome’s Pad 39 at 04:39 local time on Nov. 18, 2007, (5:39 p.m. EST on Nov. 17) The vehicle carried the SIRIUS 4 communications satellite for SES SIRIUS of Stockholm, Sweden. Officials overseeing the launch had confirmed that the vehicle successfully reached its initial orbit.

The 4,385-kilogram spacecraft was based on the A2100 AX platform developed Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, Newtown, Penn.

The SIRIUS 4 satellite sports 52 active Ku-band transponders, 2 active Ka-band transponders. During its nominal 15-year life span, the SIRIUS 4 was expected to provide a wide range of telecommunications services over Europe, Africa and the Baltic/Nordic region.

During the launch, the first three stages of the Proton were expected to use a standard ascent trajectory to place the Briz-M fourth stage, with the satellite, into a suborbital trajectory, from which Briz-M would place itself and the spacecraft into a circular parking orbit 173 kilometers above the Earth surface and inclined 51.5 degrees toward the Equator. After three more firings, Briz was expected to inject its payload into a 35,786 by 7,030-kilometer transfer orbit with the inclination 17.3 degrees toward the Equator.

Following separation from the Briz-M nine hours 13 minutes after the launch, the satellite was to perform a series of liquid apogee burns to raise perigee, lower inclination, and circularize the orbit at the geostationary altitude of 35,786 kilometers to reach its final position of 5 degrees East over the Equator.

A contract to launch SIRIUS 4 was announced on May 4, 2005. The mission was previously expected in the second quarter of 2007 and it was later postponed to July 7, 2007, and August 2007.

Russia launches commercial satellites

Published: 2007 Oct. 20

The Russian rocket boosted a quartet of communications satellites for a mobile network, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

The Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket carrying four Globalstar satellites, lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome's Site 31 on October 21, 2007, at 00:12:25 Moscow Time (02:12 local time).

The launch vehicle was scheduled to deliver its payload to the initial parking orbit, after which the satellites would used their own propulsion systems to enter 1,414-kilometer final orbits.

The mission was previously scheduled to take off on Sept. 24 and Oct. 20, 2007.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Experimental lander in trouble, main Foton capsule lands flawlessly

Published: 2007 Sept. 25; updated Sept. 26

A European experiment designed to test a new method of returning cargo from space run into problems in orbit.

According to the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, a six-kilogram, 40-centimeter long Fotino capsule started descending from the Foton-M No. 3 spacecraft on Sept. 25, 2007, as scheduled, while remaining connected to the "parent" satellite with a half-a-millimeter-thick tether. According to the plan of the YES 2 experiment, sponsored by the European Space Agency, ESA, the tether would be extended to the length of 30 kilometers below Foton, after which it would be cut off and the Fotino capsule would reenter the Earth atmosphere and land.

However, the unwinding of the tether had apparently slowed down below nominal rate during second phase of deployment. As a result, the tether was ultimately cut off on a command from a timer, when the capsule had reached a distance of only 8.5 kilometers from the "parent" satellite. The further fate of the experimental capsule was not immediately clear. According to the representatives of the Young Engineers Satellite 2, YES-2, experiment, they were still trying to determine the status of the Fotino capsule, as of mid-day September 25, 2007.

According to the flight director of the Foton-M mission Nikolai Sokolov, quoted by the Interfax news agency, the tether started deploying at a rate of five meters per second, instead of nominal 12 meters per second. Sokolov speculated that the capsule could be stranded in orbit, as a result of higher then expected release. During the experiment, Foton-M No. 3 was circling the globe in the 260 by 300-kilometer orbit. A radio beacon onboard Fotino capsule was programmed to be activated, when it descended to the altitude of five kilometers above the Earth surface. Absence of signals from the radio beacon complicated the search for the capsule, Sokolov said.

Foton-M No. 3 lands

In the meantime, the main capsule of the Foton-M No. 3 spacecraft reentered the Earth atmosphere on Sept. 26, 2007, and successfully touched down at 11:58 Moscow Time within a predetermined area, some 150 kilometers south of the city of Kustanai, Russian space agency announced. A search helicopter landed near the vehicle at 12:04 Moscow Time.

Inflatable de ja vu

Published 2005 Sept. 28; updated Oct. 7

Another test of the once-promising inflatable landing device developed in Russia and funded by Europe ended in apparent failure.

The launch finally took place on October 7, 2005 at 01:30 Moscow Time from the Barenz Sea. The Volna rocket carrying the Demonstrator D-2R inflatable breaking device, NTU, flew what appeared to be a normal flight toward the Kura impact range in the Kamchatka Peninsula.

However, initial efforts to locate the landing craft at the impact site were unsuccessful. The analysis of the telemetry from the launch showed that the inflatable device separated from the rocket and was spin-stabilized. Its navigation, video-monitoring and autonomous radio-telementry systems were activated. The telemetry transmission from the spacecraft was received at the Kura impact range and the reentry device was released and inflated some 356 seconds after the launch and the altitude of 238 kilometers.

The spacecraft entered the discernible atmosphere at the altitude of 100 kilometers and soon after its transmission was interrupted by the layer of plasma, as expected during the reentry. With the dissipation of plasma, the radio contact was restored and continued for 25 seconds. No further data came from the craft and no debris was found at the expected landing site.

Some preliminary information indicated that the spacecraft might have overflown Kamchatka and fell into the Pacific Ocean.