Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #4

MOSCOW, December 27 - RIA Novosti. The Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Fregat upper stage and 36 OneWeb communication satellites was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome , the broadcast is on the Roscosmos website.

The flight to the separation of the head unit with satellites at an altitude of 200 kilometers will last a little less than ten minutes, then the Fregat will deliver them to the mark of 450 kilometers, after which they will reach their orbits on their own.

This is the first launch from Baikonur of a rocket with so many OneWeb satellites. Prior to that, 36 vehicles were launched on Soyuz only from the Vostochny cosmodrome. The difference is due to the higher energy characteristics of the rocket when launched from Vostochny. Roscosmos announced work on optimizing flight trajectories from Baikonur.

Earlier, 11 out of 19 OneWeb satellites launched under the contract with Arianespace took place : four from Baikonur, six from Vostochny and one from Kuru. In 2022, six launches are planned from Baikonur (in January, February, two launches in April, May and August), as well as one launch from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana (February 10).

MOSCOW, December 31. / TASS /. The delivery of liquid-propellant rocket engines RD-171MV for flight tests of the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle will begin in 2022. This is stated in the message of Roskosmos, distributed on Friday.

"Delivery of RD-171MV for flight tests begins in 2022," the message says.

As noted in the state corporation, in 2021 NPO Energomash completed a series of fire tests of several copies of this engine in full.

"NPO Energomash also sent the RD-171MV engine to the Progress RCC (part of Roskosmos) for assembly and testing as part of the first stage of the launch vehicle," the message says.

In December 2020, the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin announced the first full-size fire test of the world's most powerful liquid-propellant rocket engine RD-171MV, all parameters were normal. This engine is being developed for the promising medium-class Soyuz-5 launch vehicle and a super-heavy rocket.

BEIJING, 25 January. /TASS/. The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and China on cooperation in the creation of a lunar station is almost ready and can be signed soon. This was stated at a press conference by Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov.

"The agreement is almost ready, it seems that it can be signed soon enough," the diplomat said. He recalled that all states were invited to participate in the creation of the International Lunar Station.

"As far as I know, agreements are already being signed on certain research topics. Such agreements have been signed with eleven countries and international organizations, including Russian research organizations," Denisov said. According to him, "there is already a certain legal base in this direction."

The diplomat noted that this is a long-term cooperation program. As previously reported in the Chinese media, unmanned flights are supposed to be made first, and only around 2035 will the actual lunar station begin to be created.

During the XLVI Academic Lectures on Cosmonautics (Royal Readings 2022), Director General of the State Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin spoke about the promising projects of Roscosmos and its subsidiaries.

Russian Ambassador: Russia and China are preparing to sign an agreement on the creation of a lunar station soon

Scorpius wrote:

Big_Gazza wrote:Its not often that a space launch is scheduled that I earnestly wish to fail, but the Ukropi Sich-2-30 is such a mission. Due to be launched on 13 Jan from a F9, I'm hoping to hear about the shoddy piece of junk failing in orbit within a day or two...     Screw these maggots.  Space is no place for hardware from a Nazi-controlled police state...

it looks like your wish has been fulfilled. It looks like the satellite is lost.