Energiya said it would need $5 billion to complete the ISS Russian segment.
“Will Russia give space industry a boost?”, MSNBC.com, 11/4. Some items discussed at a conference dedicated to Cosmonautics Day:
- Space tourist flights will end after 2010 with the increase of the ISS crew to 6 (which will include 3 Russian cosmonauts).
- All Russian manned space programs would be transferred to the new cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East region of Amur, Vostochny, Восточны, by 2020.
- The Angara heavy booster rockets should continue to be developed.
The Buran test-analog OK-GLI arrived in Germany, transported by barge to the Speyer museum (description on their site). It is still described in some news articles as the orbiter that flew in space! It was an atmospheric model only, with two jet engines attached. Some photos of the journey along the river are at NASASpaceflight.com.
I was very enthusiastic about the Buran orbiter for a while, up to the hangar collapse in May 2002. After that I became disheartened and lost much interest (the Buran-Energiya program was unlikely to be resurrected again).
