Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #1

But then they are also working on a new rocket to replace the SS-18 so a new rocket motor that does not run on cryogenic fuels will be needed too.

I suspect they will want a dedicated heavy lift space rocket too... if they are planning moon bases they will need a very big very powerful rocket to do the job.

The old Energyia could launch 32 ton payloads to the moon... I am not sure if Angara can match that... certainly the 120 ton to earth orbit performance of Energyia would be useful in rapidly getting a space station into orbit and service quickly... a larger station with nuclear power and ion propulsion for station keeping and a hydroponics lab for producing food and breathable air while removing CO2 and dealing with human waste would be very useful practise for space stations orbiting the moon or Mars or indeed bases on the surface of both places.

I think Angara is the future as far as space launches goes once they streamline the test , production and various models of it.

Right now Russia is using different launch vehical with different engine causing quite a few failures.

Angara will have the same reliability as Europe Ariane 5 i read

The main purpose of Angara is its increase in performance means the Russians can afford to launch further north in Russian territory and will be less reliant on the Baikanour launch facilities further south.

The advantage of launching further south is that you get more of a rotational kick from the rotation of the earth the closer you launch to the equator. The main point behind Sea Launch and indeed the French space launch facilities in French Guyana is that it is more efficient to launch close to the equator than it is up north or down south for that matter.

The other purpose of course is that the Russians use a range of rocket types, and some of the lighter ones are based on old ICBMs like the SS-18 and therefore have Ukrainian parts and components, so having a new rocket family that can handle lighter loads right through to loads that would go up on Protons means they can be all Russian systems launched from the new Russian space port and Pletesk (spelling) (the old Russian space port).

They might have had a few technical failures recently, but most of their launch vehicles still have very good reliability performance records.

I dont think that was the key criteria of Angara at best those might be one of the advantages wrt to launch site.

AFAIK the key criteria for Angara was to reduce the type of launch vehical that Russia operatered , go for a modular approach for launch vehical from Light to Heavy with maximum commonality possible and improve the launch reliability significantly.

Arian-5 is probably the bench mark in reliability that Angara would love to catch up with.

Recent launch failures and partial failures have spoilt the name of Russian in this industry as Medvedev has said and I cant agree with him more.

Arian-5 is probably the bench mark in reliability that Angara would love to catch up with.

What a strange thing to say... Angara has not been launched yet so it has had zero failures and the same number of successes.

Ariane 5 has had only about 60 launches... perhaps when it has had 1,000 launches we can look at its reliability performance?

Angara is still on drawing board so cant compare to Arian-5 but i think Arian-5 has a good record so far and so is Soyuz from Russia it has the best record , I am sure Arian 5 would love to catch up with such record and even Angara.

By 2020, the Russian orbital spacecraft be 113 vehicles - Popovkin

MOSCOW, December 27. (ARMS-TASS). By 2020, the orbital be 113 spacecraft, told a meeting of government head of Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin."The implementation of the state program will be rolled orbital spacecraft in the 95 satellites by 2015, and 113 - to 2020", - he stressed.

The priorities of the state program called the head of Roscosmos ensure the presence of Russia in space, guaranteed delivery to space satellites and other devices, the needs of science, the implementation of human spaceflight. "Why is this third priority - because, in principle, up to 2020, mainly to operation of the ISS. At the same time, we are planning to do groundwork for new manned facilities that will be deployed and will be a weighty practical implementation after 2020" - said Popovkin.

The main problem of the industry he called unwillingness space industry to-date, according to ITAR-TASS. "The contradiction work, because of the expansion of space-based services and the increasing challenges to be solved with the use of rocket and space technology, have led to a tightening of requirements for prospective models. Also there was a systemic problem space industry lies in the inconsistency of its capabilities to the new demands of the state and world space market, "- said the head of Roscosmos.

According to Popovkin, all the necessary instructions to address this systemic problem is given, and organized their execution. "Just in January, we will be reporting the need for changes in management options space industry and the need to change the very space industry", - said the head of Roscosmos.

After six years on the ISS Russian modules will be 7

Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation issued a state program "Space activities of Russia in 2013 - 2020 years"

Until 2020, Russia will have to land on the moon automatic station "Luna-Resource" and to create a vehicle for manned mission to our natural satellite. Also, after 8 years we have developed technologies naplanetnoy interplanetary missions and activities. These plans set out in the State Russian space program for 2013-2020 years, which allocated 2.1 trillion. rubles.

While in 2011 the share of space industry of Russia in world output of rocket and space technology was 10.7%, in 2015 it promises to Roscosmos, tighten to 14%, and by 2020 - to 16%. Such growth will be possible by providing our technology modern radiation-resistant electronics, what it lacked in recent years.

Three main priorities

The program established three main priorities. The first concerns the development and application of space technology, applications and services for the social and economic sphere. The second priority is to create space for the benefit of science. Directly manned spaceflight program delivered in the third.

"Proton" replace "Angara"

By 2020, according to the program will be established and put into operation a new space rocket complex "Angara-A5." Booster "Angara-A5" (produced by the Center. Khrunichev) experts attribute to a class of missiles that can orbit 28.7 tonnes of payload. For the record, currently operating carrier rocket "Proton" is able to display up to 20 tons, and developed in the USSR in the NGO "Energy" booster "Energy" - more than 100 tons. Last - super-heavy carrier rocket carrying capacity equal to that not a single country in the world. She was successfully flight-tested in 1987 and 1988, respectively. However Roscosmos leadership made a bet on the development of "Angara", which many industry experts consider outdated.

In GLONASS satellites will be 113

Patriotic GLONASS satellite constellation to meet public needs and high precision navigation services should increment 95 spacecraft in 2015, and 113 devices in

2020. The system will be updated with new spacecraft "Glonass-K" with increased functionality. By 2015, the system will provide location accuracy consumers about 1.4 m, and in 2020 - about 0.6 m

ISS will grow two modules

By 2015, expanded the Russian segment of the International Space Station will replenish the 6th module, and in 2018 - the 7th module. It is assumed that the total production of the rocket and space industry, compared with 2011 increased by more than double.

In 2020, we developed the Moon

With regard to research in the field of astrophysics, the program provides for the creation of three space-based observatories - "Spectrum-UV", "Spectrum-M" ("Millimetron") and "Gamma 400" for studies of astrophysical objects. Geochemistry and planetary wait, finally, the deployment of the program in-depth study of the Moon - the mission of the orbiter "Luna-Glob" landers "Luna-Resource" and the mission to deliver to Earth samples of lunar soil for details. In addition, the whole class would develop new technologies - technologies naplanetnoy interplanetary missions and human activities. As for a manned flight to the Moon, it is also planned. In particular, the creation of advanced manned transportation system capable of manned missions to our nearest satellite, scheduled for 2018.

Russia to review new spaceship design for manned lunar mission

January 27, 2013 Ivan Cheberko, Izvestia

The lead designer of manned spacecraft at RSC Energia talks about the new interplanetary spaceship in development.

On Feb. 1, the science and engineering board of the Russian Federal Space Agency will review the design of a manned spacecraft that will replace the current Soyuz spaceship in seven or eight years.
The new generation ship has a rather checkered history: finalized preliminary designs for the project had to be revised when its original designation as a transport ship to deliver freights to low Earth orbit was upgraded, and it became an interplanetary vehicle capable of taking humans to the moon.
The lead designer of manned spacecraft at RSC Energia, Nikolai Bryukhanov, speaks to Izvestia about how they managed the project.
Izvestia: What changes had to be introduced to the project when the decision was made last year to prepare for a manned lunar mission?

Nikolai Bryukhanov: Changes were introduced to the design specification in April 2012. It seemed minor at first, but it necessitated major modifications in the work that we had been doing on the ship since 2010.
First of all, the velocity of atmospheric entry was changed. In the previous configuration for the orbital vehicle, we had all our calculations based on the velocity of 8 kilometers [4.9 miles] per second, and now we have to change it to 11 kilometers per second.
This is a huge difference: the new vehicle must have at least twice the kinetic energy as one that returns from low Earth orbit. This energy is converted into heat, so the thermal protection cover must be totally different.
The problem is that, since the Buran project was shut down more than 20 years ago, we have had no research in heat protection; we have made no progress whatsoever.
We had to conduct research of our own on a very tight schedule, to complete the work that others took decades to carry out. We managed to do it, and air tunnel and plasmatron trials were successful.
Ballistics was another challenge — easily the most complicated task when you’re talking about flying to the moon. Our country is far from the equator, and our position is quite poor as far as payload deployment is concerned. In order for a re-entry vehicle to get back to a Russian landing range, we need to deal with increased energy consumption and fit into the narrow “windows” to launch the vehicle from lunar orbit.
Izvestia: Where will the landing ranges be located in Russia?
N.B.: We are planning to have them in the southern regions. The vehicle will return to Earth via the South Pole, so the farther north the landing site, the more challenging the task.


However, we also need to think about emergencies — for instance, if the crew has health problems and we have to return the ship to Earth. We must be able to do this at any time, but if the “windows” are so narrow, there is a safety issue.
The propulsion system should, therefore, be able to produce an impulse that is strong enough to bring the ship back to Earth. However, low Earth orbit ships require an impulse of hundreds of meters per second, whereas a lunar ship needs a much more powerful thrust.
It was hard, but we offered a flight procedure that allows the ship to get back to Earth in case of emergency. The propulsion bay got a big bigger, because we need about 8 tons of fuel in there.
Otherwise, the original concept remained: a re-entry space shuttle landing on shock-absorbing blocks (that is, without the “tumbling” that is typical of Soyuz).
Izvestia: Were the priority research sites on the moon factored in your calculations?
N.B.: We took on a major challenge to land on the polar orbit of the moon. If we manage to land there, then we’ll be able to land virtually anywhere on the moon in the future.

Furthermore, it is the polar regions that attract researchers the most. That’s why we chose a universal trajectory to address multiple tasks.
Izvestia: Have changes been introduced to the equipment design of the ship?
N.B.: Some things had to be changed. We need to upgrade the radio systems, because the distance is greater. The life support system must be built on different principles, because it is one thing when astronauts travel to an orbital base (and it takes them two days, at the most) and a totally different thing when they travel to the moon.
We must have a more reliable system, because we can return a cosmonaut from the [International Space Station] any time, but it takes at least three-and-a-half days to fly from the moon. We also had to revise the thermal control, electrical power and some other systems.
Overall, the entire project had to be revisited — we had to redo the work that we did in 2011 and early 2012.
Izvestia: Theoretically, when do you think the new ship will be ready for test flights?
N.B.: It’s hard to say. The adopted schedule includes specific project stages, and the most expensive stage starts now. As soon as we complete design documentation, we will have to build test units, including experimental ships to test drop-offs from planes, launches, emergency rescue systems, etc.
We are working on the assumption that we have to be ready with the unmanned version by 2018.

"Imagine how we felt hurt"
CEO NPO. Lavochkin explained why the failure of the project "Phobos-Grunt"

http://lenta.ru/articles/2013/01/29/laspace/

Another Sea Launch Failure ....guess the first launch failure for Russia in 2013

Sea Launch Zenit 3SL with Intelsat 27 fails during first stage flight

I thought Zenit was Ukranian, and the whole project multinational.

Russia is 2nd biggest stake holder with 25 % stake , US 40 % and Ukranian 15 %

Any ways it seems the first stage engine just shut off abnormally and Russia is responsible for the 3rd Stage Block-DM SL.

Any ways a bussiness loss if Sea Launch Shuts off ,Not that Proton dont have their own share of problems to deal with.

I just hope Russia has better luck with Rocket Launches in 2013.

Interview with general designer RSC "Energia" Vitaly Lopota

Russia has retained the technologies needed for the development of the Moon and Mars - general designer RSC "Energia" Vitaly Lopota

Aerospace cluster upgrade

Proton-M launch with Satmex 8 sucessful satellite seperated

ILS Proton Successfully Launches Satmex 8 Satellite for Satmex

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan, March 27, 2013 – International Launch Services (ILS), a leader in providing mission integration and launch services to the global commercial satellite industry, today announced that it has successfully carried the Satmex 8 satellite into orbit on an ILS Proton launch vehicle for Satélites Mexicanos S.A. de C.V. (Satmex) of Mexico City, Mexico.

The ILS Proton Breeze M vehicle launched from Pad 39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 01:07 today local time (19:07 GMT and 15:07 EDT on March 26). Utilizing a standard 5-burn Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) mission design, the Breeze M successfully released the Satmex 8 satellite into orbit 9 hours and 13 minutes after launch. The satellite, built on the flight-proven 1300 platform, weighed nearly 5.5 metric tons at liftoff and was the 25th Space Systems/Loral (SSL) satellite launched on an ILS Proton rocket. This was also the first Satmex satellite launched by ILS and the first ILS Proton launch of the year.

Satmex 8 will replace Satmex 5 and will provide enhanced performance and capacity in North, Central and South America at 116.8 west longitude. This new high-power, fixed service satellite has 24 C- and 40 Ku-band transponders, and will improve the current continental and regional services for video contribution and distribution, broadband, cellular backhaul and distance learning.

Satmex 8 adds 45% of total capacity over Satmex 5 which translates to 94% of increased capacity on Ku band to fulfill the growing demand for satellite services in the Americas.

This was the 384th launch for Proton since its maiden flight in 1965 and the 78th ILS Proton launch. The Proton Breeze M vehicle was developed and built by Khrunichev Research and Production Space Center of Moscow, Russia’s premier space industry manufacturer and majority shareholder in ILS.

“We want to thank Satmex for entrusting us with the launch of the Satmex 8 satellite. We also want to express our sincere appreciation for the ILS, Khrunichev, Satmex, and SSL teams for their tireless work in ensuring the mission’s success,” said ILS President Phil Slack.

Satmex President and CEO Patricio Northland added, “We are delighted with the successful ILS Proton launch and orbit of Satmex 8, the latest satellite in our expanding fleet. Satmex offers fixed satellite transmission services to more than 90% of the population in the Americas, and this important addition will provide enhanced performance and capacity to our coverage areas. It also positions us well for future launches of advanced models that will mark step-change expansions in our capabilities. Our sincere gratitude goes to all those who played a role in building and orbiting the Satmex 8 satellite.”

As per plans Russia will put 68 spacecraft into orbit by 2015 .

The number of its communications satellites will rise to 44 by 2020 .

The number of D33 remote sensing satellites will rise from four as of now to 26 by 2020 .

A number of these launches in all likelihood will take place from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome which will become operational by the end of 2018 .

The International Space Station, which is basically the Mir2 design, is currently scheduled for de orbit in about 2020, though they are in talks to extend that to 2028.

The Russians are going to send up some new modules and there are some plans to detach the Russian components of the ISS when it is deorbitted to create an all Russian station for missions to the moon and mars.

Further info here: http://en.rian.ru/science/20130326/180265397/Russia-May-Build-Own-Space-Station-From-New-Modules--Energia.html

Interview with Vladimir Popovkin

Dreaming of Space

Interview with Vladimir Popovkin

Roskosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin: Russia has a space know-how

Well today is Cosmonautics Day - It is time Russia reclaim the old glory

Russian space industry to get $52bn investment, possibly own ministry



On Cosmonautics Day, the Russian space industry was promised billions in funding and its own ministry to maintain its edge in manned spaceflight, and to overcome delays in work on commercial communications satellites and socially important projects.

“In the 21st century, Russia should preserve its status of the leading space power. Therefore, the development of our space capabilities is set to be the top priority of state policy. Our attention to this industry will be increasing,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Putin said that by 2020, the Russian government is planning to allocate some 1.6 trillion rubles (about $52 billion) to the national space industry.

By 2030, the turnover of the space industry globally might grow by five times, reaching $1.5 trillion from its current $300-400 billion. Russia must use this window of opportunity to ensure it achieves a leading role in the world’s space industry, Putin explained.

Putin said he had authorized the government to consider transforming the national space agency into a space industry ministry, since most space industry enterprises belong to the Russian state. At the same time, he stressed that the creation of a ‘space ministry’ should only be done after the Roskosmos national space agency is “fully equipped.”

Despite the progress it has already made, Russia’s satellite industry still lags behind the satellite programs of other industrialized states in the commercial and civil spheres. The Russian satellite industry must concentrate on “the most promising” application of science and technology, Putin said.

For decades Russia’s space program has been primarily oriented towards manned space flights, which comprised 58 percent of the space budget. That explains the underfinancing of other space industries, such as communication satellites, remote mapping of our planet and deep space exploration.

Russia must “keep the leader’s experience of the manned flights and catch up in other space exploration programs,” Putin said, adding that to achieve this, Russia is already constructing new launching site.

Construction of the new Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur Region in Russia’s Far East, near the Chinese border, will cost Russia almost $20 billion. Putin said the installation will host a scientific center, and proposed a name for the town being constructed for the personnel of the launch site – Tsiolkovsky, for the founder of Russian and Soviet rocket construction, astronautic theoretician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

Vostochny Cosmodrome will feature two launch pads, one each for light- and medium-class Soyuz-2 rocket boosters. The pads are due to be completed by 2015. Beginning in 2018, Vostochny will be capable of performing manned space launches.

But the development of new installations in Russia does not mean that the old Soviet Baikonur cosmodrome that Moscow is currently leasing out from Kazakhstan for $115 million a year will be suspended. With the contract valid until 2050, Russia would not abandon the world’s largest – though outdated – cosmodrome in Baikonur, Putin said.

Simultaneously to the president’s visit to Vostochny cosmodrome, the Russian Parliament has proposed to make Cosmonautics Day, April 12, an official holiday celebrated nationwide. For over half of a century, the USSR and later Russia celebrate the day when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961, when he orbited Earth for 108 minutes.

In 2011, the UN established the International Day of Human Space Flight, to be celebrated on 12 April.


LINK

I just love Soviet monuments. Gagarin square.



Monument to space conquer

Buildings reminds me of the Roman Empire



Little from US back than - always good to remember



Stamps - for collectors



TIME - always following biggest events





I must admit I have not been following space development in Russia recently and this is a good day to start.

NASA Images May Show 1970s Soviet Mars Lander

WASHINGTON, April 12 (RIA Novosti) – A group of Russian space followers think they have spotted the remnants of a Soviet spacecraft that made the first successful soft landing on Mars more than 40 years ago in an image from 2007 taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

“While following news about Mars and NASA’s Curiosity rover, Russian citizen enthusiasts found four features in a 5-year-old image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that resemble four pieces of hardware from the Soviet Mars 3 mission: the parachute, heat shield, terminal retrorocket and lander,” NASA said in a statement.

The Soviet space program’s Mars 3 mission made a soft landing on the Red Planet on December 2, 1971 and sent data back to earth for 14.5 seconds before the transmissions stopped abruptly.

When Russian space aficionado Vitali Egorov saw an image taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the crater where Mars 3 was believed to have landed, he made models of what key pieces of the Soviet spacecraft would have looked like and got members of an online community that follows NASA’s Curiosity rover to look for objects in the image that matched his models.

The group identified four specks in the bottom part of the image from the MRO that they thought might be Mars 3’s heat shield, parachute, retrorocket and lander.

Alfred McEwen, the principal investigator of the University of Arizona’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) for NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, was asked to analyze a follow-up image of Mars 3’s landing site, and said the objects identified by the Russian sleuths could be the real thing.

“The parachute, which is seen as an especially bright spot, was the most distinctive and unusual feature in the images,” McEwen told RIA Novosti.

“Overall, the way the images look and their layout on the ground – everything makes sense as belonging to Mars 3,” McEwen said.

But the US scientist said he was still on the fence and wanted to follow up the Russian citizens’ investigation to see if we can “definitively resolve that this is Mars 3.”

Earlier suspected finds of spacecraft remnants on Mars were found by HiRISE to be “energetic particle hits that make ‘noise’ in the image,” McEwen said.

Egorov was quoted by NASA as saying that the Russian citizens’ project showed that “Mars exploration today is available to practically anyone” and that their detective work allowed them to “connect with the history of our country.”

Anik G1 | Mission Success!
http://www.ilslaunch.com/mission-control/mission-blog/anik-g1-mission-success

April 15, 2013 11:50 pm (GMT)
ILS Communications Team

We have had a successful mission with the ILS Proton M Breeze M rocket, carrying the ANIK G1 satellite built by SSL for Telesat. We have had confirmation that the satellite separated from the vehicle on schedule at 11:49 PM Eastern Time, or 3:49 AM GMT, 9 hours and 13 minutes after liftoff.

Everything occurred as planned with ignition, shutdown and separation of the Proton’s first three stages. Then the Breeze M upper stage with the Anik G1 satellite aboard continued the mission, igniting five times, and then releasing the satellite into transfer orbit.

Nice

Russia Boosting Space Budget To Surpass China, Equal Europe

LINK