“Mars-500 Simulated Space Mission”, 24/12: image gallery at RIA Novosti. The latest issue of Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine, №1 2008, has an article about the recent Mars-500 experiment on its site: «В ИМБП стартовал проект «Марс-500»», “IMBP began the Mars-500 project”, including an interview with cosmonaut Sergei Ryazanskii (use Babelfish for a rough translation – the article is very long and I do not have the energy to struggle to correct the translator’s convoluted attempts!).
Sergei Krikalyov seems to have been dropped from the Soyuz TMA-14/ISS-19 crew as commander; he is no longer in the latest ISS flight crew roster up to ISS-21, though the roster is not yet finalized. (Via Olaf and this thread at the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum, posted in August.) So perhaps he was moved to a later mission? Or will he be in management for a few years, though he is still an active cosmonaut?
| Expedition | Prime crew | Backup crew |
|---|---|---|
| ISS-17 | Sergei Volkov, Oleg Kononenko | Maksim Sura’ev, Oleg Skripochka |
| ISS-18 | Salizhan Sharipov | Yurii Lonchakov |
| ISS-18S (6-person crew begins) | Gennadii Padalka | Maksim Sura’ev |
| ISS-19S | Yurii Lonchakov | Dimitri Kondrat’ev |
| ISS-20S | Mikhail Kornienko, Roman Romanenko | Aleksandr Skvortsov, Oleg Skripochka |
| ISS-21S | Maksim Sura’ev | Fyodor Yurchikhin |
Anatoly Zak has a new article on his website: “Russian space program: a decade review (2000-2010)”, 3/1. After the near-catastrophic social turmoil in the 1990s, Russia’s space program is slowly being reinvigorated, but it is dangerously dependent upon continued high oil prices for most of its funding.
