Been depressed and haven’t felt much motivation to write here. Turning 38 doesn’t help my mood!
Soyuz TMA-12 landed on 24/10 at 03:36 UTC with no incidents (i.e. a normal not a ballistic landing). Expedition 18 is now on the ISS. STS-126 Endeavour launched successfully; its crew will install equipment (such as a regenerative environmental control and life support system) to enable the ISS’s crew to expand to 6 next year.
More money woes for Energiya (a familiar lament): “No Money, No Spacecraft, Russian Producer Warns”; “Finances may threaten Soyuz construction”, Space Daily, 24/10.
Astronaut Leroy Chiao has a blog entry about getting a look at a Chinese spacesuit.
“A Russian resurgence? (part one)”, The Space Review, 10/11. The situation for Russia’s space program has much improved since the dismal 1990s, but there are still funding problems to contend with, and the economy is precarious.
14 November marked 20 years since the first and only launch of the Buran space shuttle; a rather poignant anniversary of what could have been.
Today, 14 November, the Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya marked the 20th anniversary of the flight of the space shuttle Buran.
In the Conference Room, Energiya brought together those who took part in creating this unique system, the representatives of various enterprises rocket and space industry of Russia, whose combined efforts made this flight possible.
Leading the commemorative meeting, the president and general designer of RKK Energiya, Vitalii A. Lopota presented a welcoming speech, congratulated the anniversary and screened a documentary about the creation of the Buran system. Those actors in the film were familiar – the guests and employees of Energiya recognized their much younger selves. A scene of the Buran landing was met with thunderous applause.
At the meeting, several shared their memories of that time: Vitalii Khusseinovich Doguzhiev (Виталий Хуссейнович Догужиев), Minister of General Machine- Building in the Soviet Union between 1988-89; Oleg Dimetrievich Baklanov (Олег Дмитриевич Бакланов), Minister of General Machine-Building USSR between 1983-88 and the secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1988; Yurii Pavlovich Semenov (Юрий Павлович Семенов), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, General Designer of RKK Energiya, 1989-2005, and one of the leaders of the Buran development; Vakhtang D. Vachnadze (Вахтанг Дмитриевич Вачнадзе), Director General of NGO Energiya between 1977-1991; Maj. Gen. Vladimir Evgeni’evich Gudilin (Владимир Евгеньевич Гудилин), head of training and of the start-up launcher Energiya and the universal space-rocket transportation system Energiya-Buran.
All speakers pointed out that the achievements of the time and date are unique in the world, and regretted the closure of the Energia-Buran program, said that today Russia needs to pay more attention to space programs, and improve support and development of the personnel policy branch.
In conclusion, V.A. Lopota once again congratulated all the participants of the meeting. “Who knows whether history will repeat its mistakes,” said Vitalii Alexandrovich, thus expressing the mood and aspirations of all those present.
A cosmonaut from Kazakhstan will fly on the ISS in October 2009. There are two in the Cosmonaut Group with the qualification of cosmonaut-tester (космонавт-испытатель): Mukhtar Aimakhanov (Мухтар Аймаханов) and Aidyn Aimbetov (Айдын Аимбетов). Both joined the 2003 selection group.
