Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #1

Russian specialists to investigate causes of geckos’ death in space experiment

MOSCOW, September 01, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian specialists will investigate the death of geckos aboard Russia’s Photon re-entry capsule that landed on Monday, a source in the space industry said.
The commission will be set up by Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) shortly. All geckos died a week before the landing, officials at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems said.
It said it was too early to speak about the causes of the reptiles’ death, but “we can say with confidence that they died at last a week before the landing because their bodies were partly mummified,” the Institute’s official told ITAR-TASS.
“Hypothermia is not the main possible cause but only one of the options. Others include a possible malfunction of the onboard equipment and life-support system,” the source in the space industry told ITAR-TASS.

Roscosmos said earlier in the day that the fruit flies “got through the flight quite well, grew and bred” but “all geckos died, unfortunately”.
The Photon-M4 satellite was launched on July 19, 2014 from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft carried specimens for research of the biological effects of zero gravity and cosmic radiation.
The specimens include geckos, silkworm eggs, dried seeds, fruit flies, and mushrooms. The geckos were part of biology experiments conducted by Russia’s Institute of Medico-Biological Problems on the effects of weightlessness on mating.
Another experiment aboard the spacecraft is designed to measure the effects of microgravity on semiconductor crystal growth.
Several hours after the blastoff, the control communication with Photon-M was disrupted, although the spacecraft continued to transmit telemetric information. As a result of the malfunction, the satellite stayed on the support orbit, instead of being placed into the target orbit by its own engine on command from the Earth. The Institute of Medico-Biological Problems said after the control loss incident that it did not affect in any way the onboard life support system and the programme of automatic experiments.
It took seven days to restore communication with the spacecraft, space experts said.
The spacecraft’s flight time was limited to 60 days.
Photon satellites are designed and made by the Progress Rocket and Space Centre for research and experiments in such fields as the physics of weightlessness, space biology and biotechnology, including the affect of outer space on living specimens.
The first satellites of the series was launched in 1985 and operated for 13 days.
In 2005, the Photon-M2 satellite carried out about 20 scientific Russian and European research programmes. The next satellite, Photon-M3, in 2007 performed 45 Russian and foreign experiments.

Russia starts development of the most powerfull rocket mankind has seen

Rogozin: 'Putin Approves Developing Super-Heavy Rockets With Up to 150-Ton Cargo Capacity'

Geckos in Russia’s Photon satellite die due to decreased metabolism


MOSCOW, September 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Geckos aboard Russia’s Photon satellite that landed on Monday had died due to low-temperature-caused decrease in metabolic rates entailing inability to digest food, Vladimir Sychev, a deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medico-Biological Problems, told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.
He said the temperature factor of the geckos’ death was unquestionable but the reptiles had not get frozen to death. “Geckos cannot get frozen to death, they are cold-blooded animals. But their digestion depends much on air temperature. If it is not high enough, food is not digested,” he said.
Temperature aboard the satellite dropped on August 8 but it is next to impossible to say when exactly the geckos died, since video recording had stopped on August 5, he said, adding however that when planning the Photon program, specialists had feared overheating. “Taking these considerations into account, the system of thermoregulation was somewhat adjusted. It was planned that temperatures inside the spacecraft would vary in a range from 20 to 26 degrees Celsius, but at some point the temperature dropped down to 15 degress,” Sychev noted.
The Photon-M4 satellite was launched on July 19, 2014 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft carried specimens for research of the biological effects of zero gravity and cosmic radiation. The specimens included geckos, silkworm eggs, dried seeds, fruit flies, and mushrooms, and 22 sets of research equipment. Several hours after the blastoff, the control communication with Photon-M was disrupted, although the spacecraft continued to transmit telemetric information. It took seven days to restore communication with the spacecraft. The Institute of Medico-Biological Problems said after the control loss incident that it did not affect in any way the onboard life support system and the programme of automatic experiments.
The Photon re-entry capsule safely landed on September 1 in Russia’s Orenburg region. All the geckos aboard it died although fruit flies and microorganisms survived. 

Here is some unusual "news";

Sarah Brightman to start training for space station journey in January

Sarah Brightman will pay a total of $52 million for her next year’s flight on board of the Russian-made Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS.

ZVYOZDNY GORODOK (Moscow Region), September 03. /ITAR-TASS/. British famed soprano singer Sarah Brightman would begin pre-flight trainings for her journey to the International Space Station (ISS) as a space tourist early next year, instead of this autumn, Yuri Lonchakov, the head of the Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, said on Wednesday.

“She will begin trainings in the Star City in January of 2015 and therefore we are all waiting for her,” Lonchakov said adding that he believed “her training will be a success.”
Less than three months ago Lonchakov said that the famous singer had already passed a number of medical examination and tests and was ready to begin preparations for the trip to the ISS at the Star City space training facility in the Moscow Region in September or October.
Lonchakov’s earlier statement that Brightman could start her trainings this autumn was also confirmed in June by the president of the US-based company in charge of organizing her trip.
Tom Shelley, the president of US-based Space Adventures Ltd. company, said at a National Space Club Florida Committee meeting in June that Brightman, 54, planned to make the trip to the ISS in September of 2015 and this fall she intended to start the pre-flight trainings at the space training center outside Moscow.
"She is absolutely 100% committed. She's putting together her mission plan now,” Shelley said adding that Brightman wants to be the first professional singer ever to sing in space.
Shelley also said that Brightman would pay a total of $52 million for her next year’s flight on board of the Russian-made Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS, where she plans to spend 10 days as a space tourist.
Brightman, who starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's “Phantom of the Opera” and is the world’s best-selling soprano singer with over 30 million of CDs sold, first announced her intentions to travel to the ISS as a space tourist in August 2012.
Last year the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) announced that it reached a relevant agreement with Space Adventures to proceed with the superstar’s plans of traveling into space.
If the British singer reaches the ISS next year, she will become the eighth space tourist in the world.
The pioneer space tourist is US entrepreneur Dennis Tito, who made the flight to the ISS in 2001 for $20 million and spent eight days at the station. The most recent space tourist at the station is Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte, who spent 11 days at the ISS in 2009 for $40 million.
The only female space tourist so far reaching the ISS is Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American engineer and co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems. Her 12-day stay at the space station in 2006 cost her $20 million.

The massive construction of the Vostochny space port in the Russian Far East promises to transform the nearby military settlement of Uglegorsk into a state-of-the-art "science city." Russia's new space capital could be christened Tsiolkovsky, after the self-taught scientist and philosopher who is widely regarded as the prophet of the space age.

• Initial new settlement;
  
• Akademgorodok (or "academic town") for the space program engineers;
  
• Administrativny (Administrative) for officials;
  
• Spalny-Elite (private houses for top personnel);
  

As of April 2013, the first phase of construction was to be completed by the end of 2015. The initial housing district was to include 24 buildings for 12,000 residents and social infrastructure. (678) This plan was also quickly scaled down to 17 buildings for 5,000 people.
By the end of January 2014, Spetsstroi promised to "soon" complete 17 buildings including 12 apartment blocks with 1,482 apartments, with the top floors being in process of construction. However due to the late arrival of construction documentation in October 2013, real construction could only start in November, Spetsstroi complained.
Plans apparently continued to be scaled down in 2014, when the official certificate for the town projected the completion of 1,045 apartments for 3,500 people in December 2015. A kindergarten would accommodate 230 children and feature a swimming pool. The residential complex would also include an administrative building, a new hospital and a pediatric center.
Probably responding to the lack of workforce, in April 2014, Russian officials announced plans to recruit student brigades for the construction of the residential area during summer months.
During his visit to the site on Sept. 2, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against the Soviet practice of building technical infrastructure at the expense of residential housing. In fact, that was exactly what was going on. According to Putin, during his helicopter tour he had seen only about eight new apartment blocks for 3.5 thousand residents under construction, while 40 had been promised for 12,000 people. A press-release from Spetsstroi issued at the same time said that three blocks with 228 apartments would be completed in 2014 and another nine buildings, a kindergarten and support infrastructure would be finished by June 2015.


What's in the name?
In April 2013, Putin reportedly proposed to christen the new city Tsiolkovsky. During public hearings in Uglegorsk, on March 14, 2014, town residents reportedly approved re-naming the town into Tsiolkovsky. However six days later, deputies at the legislative council of the Amur Region ordered a referendum of the local population on the name change. Official Russian media were seemingly confused -- sometime identifying the town as Uglegorsk and other time as Tsiolkovsky. It should be said that the name Tsiolkovsky does not sound very well in Russian. Not surprisingly, the issue apparently remains open.
(To be continued)
 
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/vostochny_residential.html

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/kobalt_m.html#2014

Soyuz with Russian cosmonauts and US astronaut undocks from ISS

KOROLYOV /Moscow region/, September 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz TMA-12M manned spaceship with Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artyomyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson has undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and in now heading for the Earth, a spokesman for the mission control centre told ITAR-TASS early on Thursday. The ship’s landing module is to land in Kazakhstan at 06:25 a.m. Moscow time.
“Soyuz TMA-12M undocked from the ISS at 03:00 a.m. Moscow time on Thursday. The flight proceeds as per normal, Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artyomyev and Steven Swanson feel well,” the spokesman said.
The remaining crew onboard the International Space Station include Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev, who took over the command from Swanson, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst.
The Soyuz is planned to land in the Kazakh steppe, some 148 kilometres southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan. At about 05:30 a.m. Moscow time, the ship’s engines will begin to slowdown and the ship will de-orbit to enter the dense atmosphere at 06:01 a.m. Moscow time. The landing module’s parachute will be released at an altitude of 11 kilometres.

Soyuz TMA-12 lands successfully
Three out of six members of the 40th long-duration expedition onboard the International Space Station, ISS, returned to Earth after 167 days in space.
Undocking of the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft with NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev onboard from the station's Poisk module took place as scheduled on Sept. 11, 2014, at 03:01 Moscow Time (7 p.m. EDT on September 10). The spacecraft then initiated a 4-minute, 40-second engine firing to leave the orbit. In the meantime on the ground, rescue team helicopters headed to primary and backup landing sites to support the arrival of the crew.
The touchdown of the descent module also took place as scheduled three and half hours later at 06:25 Moscow Time on Sept. 11, 2014, (10:23 p.m. EDT on September 10) 148 kilometers southeast of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft landed in vertical position and its crew was safely extracted by search and rescue personnel.

- Just to let all know, there is more on what George1 posted on in the "lifters and spacecraft" thread.

I bear some bad news....

Soviet cosmonaut Berezovoy dies at age of 72

Berezovoy was the commander of the first resident crew at the Soviet Salyut-7 orbiting station in 1982


MOSCOW, September 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Soviet cosmonaut Anatoly Berezovoy died on Saturday at the age of 72, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said.
Berezovoy was the commander of the first resident crew at the Soviet Salyut-7 orbiting station in 1982.
On July 30 of the same year he and his colleague Valentin Lebedev made a spacewalk, staying in outer space for 2 hours and 33 minutes.
Their mission aboard the station was a record long one at that time - 211 days.
Berezovoy was “a member of a legendary generation of cosmonauts, a man of great will and courage, a top-class professional who did so much for the development of cosmonautics and major research projects”, Roscosmos Head Oleg Ostapenko said.

May he rest in peace.

Russia’s Proton-M carrier with Luch data relay satellite set to blast off on Sunday

MOSCOW, September 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Proton-M carrier rocket equipped with Briz-M booster and carrying data relay satellite Luch is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on September 28, the Khrunichev Space Centre said on Tuesday. According to the center, which manufactures Proton-series carrier rockets, the Proton-M was already installed on its launching pad in Kazakhstan and was undergoing final preparations for its scheduled Sunday launch, which will be the first after an unsuccessful launch in May. This May Russia’s Proton-M rocket with an Express-AM4R telecommunications satellite went down shortly after blasting off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The rocket burned down in the thick layers of the atmosphere while the satellite after the Briz-M booster failed to separate from the spacecraft. Russia in recent years experienced a number of unsuccessful space launches. Prior to the May incident another Proton-M went down after the launch in 2013 failing to deliver three Glonass navigation satellites into orbit. Similar accidents happened in December 2010, in August 2011, and in August 2012.
Failures also haunted the launches of other Russian carrier rockets: Rokot with a geodesy satellite in February 2011 and Soyuz-U, which failed to orbit a Progress spacecraft carrying a cargo for the International Space Station (ISS) in August of 2011. In November 2011, the Russian-Ukrainian Zenit-2SB rocket carrying the Fobos-Grunt space probe failed to reach the designated trajectory for its mission flight to Mars. The launch of a similar rocket carrying US telecommunications satellite Intelsat failed in February 2013.

http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/750926

First manned spaceship to be launched from Vostochny on time — deputy PM

STAR CITY, September 23 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Tuesday that the first manned spaceship would be launched from a new Vostochny space launch facility in the Russian Far East on time and without delay. “I would like to fix one very vital date which no one should call into question. I mean the year 2018 and the first manned launch from Vostochny (which is still under construction),” Rogozin told trainees at the space training center which he visited on Tuesday. The vice-premier who visits Vostochny, located near the town of Uglegrosk, at least once in three months has taken the construction works under personal control.
President Putin visited Vostochny during his trip of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East in the first days of September. More than 400 facilities, including 120 launchers, an airfield with a 4,500-meter runway, more than 170 kilometers of railways and roads are to be built at Vostochny. The first launches are to start in 2015. The construction of launch facilities for the Angara rocket will get under way in 2016. Russia also plans to start launching manned spaceships from Vostochny in 2018.

http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/750924