Award and spacewalk

On 23 May, Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov, Vice-president of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, pilot cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union, Hero of the Russian Federation, was elected an honorary freeman/citizen of Saint-Petersburg. This decision was taken by the Deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Petersburg. Honorable citizens have the right to introduce laws for examination by the urban parliament, their pensions will be increased, and they do not have to pay public transport fares. The award was presented on the 27th, and photos (low-resolution only) of the presentation are available at the Official Portal of the Administration of St. Petersburg website. Photos showing Sergei (note the tie he is wearing!): 2, 8, 9, 10. Governor V.I. Matviyenko thanked cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov for his help to St. Petersburg, his support of many undertakings and projects, and active participation in the public life of his native city. There is also a press release at the Energiya site (and a portrait photo).

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov of Expedition 15 successfully completed their spacewalk this morning (the first time for both of them). There was a 45-minute delay in starting because of communications difficulties, but the rest of the spacewalk proceeded well for 5h 25m (19:05-00:30 UTC). Fyodor Yurchikhin was EV1, Orlan-M №26 (blue stripes), BRTA-13 telemetry system; Oleg Kotov was EV2, Orlan №0520025 (25) (red stripes), BRTA-18). (Relevant thread at NASASpaceflight.com.) The second spacewalk is on 6 June.

Progress M-60 launches

Progress M-60, the 25th Progress flight to the ISS, launched on 12 May 2007 at 03:25:38 UTC and docked to Zvezda at 15 May 2007 at 05:10 with no problems.

Alexei Krasnov, the head of the Russian Space Agency’s department for manned flights, said that ISS crews will be increased to six people by 2009 on 11 May.

“A tale of two rockets...with a happy ending”, James Oberg, MSNBC.com, 14/5. 15 May is the 50th anniversary of the R7 rocket, and the 20th anniversary of the first launch of the Energiya booster rocket. Both were originally intended for military purposes, but the R7 became a successful launch rocket for civilian missions, and the Energiya was intended to covertly launch weapons but was cancelled after the USSR collapsed.

From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №627. Nikolai Sevast’yanov told journalists at Baikonur Cosmodrome on 15 May that Energiya would present the Kliper project to Roskosmos at year’s end. Energiya’s primary goal is the development of a new space transport system of a new qualitative level.

Energiya has begun the construction of the 6 piloted Soyuz and 3 Progress cargo spaceships ordered by NASA under contract for nearly U.S.$1 billion. The ships will be completed between 2009-2011. As the construction takes 2-3 years, Energiya has begun “bookmarking” the ships, though the method of financing is not certain yet; the company is beginning the work with its own resources.

Cosmonaut Group update

An updated list of the Cosmonaut Group was posted by Anik at NASASpaceflight.com, reproduced below:

Cosmonauts of GCTC Detachment
Baturin, Yurii Mikhailovich	Deputy Commander of GCTC Detachment, Instructor-Cosmonaut-Tester of 2nd Class, 2 spaceflights
Ivanishin, Anatolii Alekseievich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Kondrat’ev, Dmitrii Yur’evich	Commander of Group of GCTC Detachment, Cosmonaut-Tester
Kotov, Oleg Valeriovich	Commander of Group of GCTC Detachment, Cosmonaut-Tester, 1 spaceflight
Lonchakov, Yurii Valentinovich	Commander of GCTC Detachment, Cosmonaut-Tester of 2nd Class, 2 spaceflights
Malenchenko, Yurii Ivanovich	Instructor-Cosmonaut-Tester of 2nd Class, 3 spaceflights
Padalka, Gennadii Ivanovich	Instructor-Cosmonaut-Tester of 2nd Class, 2 spaceflights
Romanenko, Roman Yur’evich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Samokutyaev, Aleksandr Mikhaylovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Sharipov, Salizhan Shakirovich	Deputy Commander of GCTC Detachment, Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 2 spaceflights
Shkaplerov, Anton Nikolaevich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Skvortsov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Sura’ev, Maksim Viktorovich	Commander of Group of GCTC Detachment, Cosmonaut-Tester
Tarelkin, Evgenii Igorevich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Tokarev, Valerii Ivanovich	Commander of Group of GCTC Detachment, Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 2 spaceflights
Val’kov, Konstantin Anatolievich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Volkov, Sergei Aleksandrovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Cosmonauts of RSC Energiya Detachment
Artem’ev, Oleg Germanovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Borisenko, Andrei Ivanovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Kaleri, Aleksandr Yur’evich	Instructor-Cosmonaut-Tester of 1st Class, 4 spaceflights
Kononenko, Oleg Dmitrievich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Kornienko, Mikhail Borisovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Kozeev, Konstantin Mirovich	Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 1 spaceflight
Krikalyov, Sergei Konstantinovich	Instructor-Cosmonaut-Tester of 1st Class, 6 spaceflights
Lazutkin, Aleksandr Ivanovich	Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 1 spaceflight
Revin, Sergei Nikolaevich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Serov, Mark Vyacheslavovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Skripochka, Oleg Ivanovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Tyurin, Mikhail Vladislavovich	Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 2 spaceflights
Vinogradov, Pavel Vladimirovich	Commander of RSC Energiya Detachment, Instructor-Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 2 spaceflights
Yurchikhin, Fyodor Nikolaevich	Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 2 spaceflights
Cosmonauts of IMBP Detachment
Morukov, Boris Vladimirovich	Commander of IMBP Detachment, Cosmonaut-Researcher of 3rd Class, 1 spaceflight
Ryazanskii, Sergei Nikolaevich	Cosmonaut-Researcher
Cosmonauts not included in Detachments
Moshchenko, Sergei Ivanovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Zhukov, Sergei Aleksandrovich	Cosmonaut-Tester
Shargin, Yurii Georg’evich	Cosmonaut-Tester of 3rd Class, 1 spaceflight
Russian cosmonaut candidates
Misurkin, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich	Candidate for cosmonaut-tester for GCTC Detachment
Novitskii, Oleg Viktorovich	Candidate for cosmonaut-tester for GCTC Detachment
Ovchinin, Aleksei Nikolaevich	Candidate for cosmonaut-tester for GCTC Detachment
Ponomarev, Maksim Vladimirovich	Candidate for cosmonaut-tester for GCTC Detachment
Ryzhikov, Sergei Nikolaevich	Candidate for cosmonaut-tester for GCTC Detachment
Serova, Elena Olegovna	Candidate for cosmonaut-tester for RSC Energiya Detachment
Tikhonov, Nikolai Vladimirovich	Candidate for cosmonaut-tester for RSC Energiya Detachment

Groups of preparation in GCTC

Designated ISS crews

Group	Prime	Backup
MKS-16 (ISS Expedition 16)	Whitson	Fincke
	Malenchenko	Sharipov
	Tani	Magnus
	Eyharts	De Winne
	Reisman	Kopra
MKS-17 (ISS Expedition 17)	Volkov	Padalka
	Kononenko	Sura’ev
	Magnus	Stott
MKS-18 (ISS Expedition 18)	Fincke	Lonchakov
	Sharipov	Barratt
	Wakata	Noguchi
	Chamitoff	Creamer

ISS preparations

MKS-gr1 (ISS Group 1)	Baturin, Kaleri, Tokarev
MKS-gr2 (ISS Group 2)	Kondrat’ev, Skvortsov, Valkov
MKS-gr3 (ISS Group 3)	Moshchenko, Revin, Skripochka, Shargin
MKS-gr4 (ISS Group 4)	Ivanishin, Samokutyaev, Tarelkin
MKS-gr5 (ISS Group 5)	Aimbetov, Artem’ev, Aymakhanov, Borisenko, Serov
EP-13 (Visiting Crew 13)	Prime/Backup: Shukor/Bin Khaleed
OKP (General Space Preparation)	Novitskii, Misurkin, Ovchinin, Ponomarev, Ryzhikov, Serova, Tikhonov
Yuzhnaya Koreya (South Korea)	Ko San, Yi So-yeon

Cosmonauts not included in Groups of preparation in GCTC

• Yurchikhin and Kotov are performing spaceflight aboard ISS as the Expedition 15 commander and flight engineer-1 accordingly
• Tyurin is on post-flight rehabilitation at GCTC
• Shkaplerov is GCTC representative at JSC (replacing Dmitrii Kondrat’ev, who was there twice more than previous representatives)
• Kozeev, Krikalyov, Lazutkin and Vinogradov are working in RSC Energia
• Morukov and Ryazanskii are working in IMBP
• Zhukov is working in Roskosmos

There was some confused reports that Anatolii Perminov said that NASA had rejected a proposal to co-operate in exploring the Moon, but as reported by New Scientist Space, NASA has denied this. In any case, the relevant thread at NASASpaceflight.com brought out the usual “Paranoid Patriots”.

I am debating whether to transfer this blog to an account at Wordpress.com; still can’t decide! The one thing I dislike about the free WP account is that the style sheet can’t be altered as it can with Blogger. The link to my blog isn’t showing up on my Blogger profile for some reason.