Expedition 22 (Maksim Suraev & Jeffrey Williams) landed on 18/3. Maksim was the first Russian space blogger, and his informal entries proved very popular with the public.
Roskosmos chief Anatolii Perminov said at the traditional meeting for the Soyuz TMA-18 crew on 19/3 that the financial crisis had not affected the process of preparing the cosmonauts for flight.
Some items from NK №843:
Russia could possibly increase the number of yearly Soyuz manned spacecraft launches from 4 to 5 from 2012 onwards, because of the timing of the construction cycle that takes 2.5 years. The fifth would carry a space tourist. Since 2009, Russia has doubled the number of launches from 2 to 4 to service the ISS with an increased crew of 6; space tourist flights were thus suspended in 2010. Two Indian cosmonauts will make an orbital flight on one of the extra ships in the 2013-2015 period, according to an agreement reached recently between Russia and India. The chief of Enerigya, Vitalii Lopota, said that a fifth Soyuz could possibly be constructed in 2010 to carry a tourist, possibly in mid-year.
Academican Lev Zelenyi (Лев Зеленый) of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that Russian scientists are not satisfied by the small quantity of the research experiments implemented on the International Space Station (only 2 or 3 out of 500 experiments proposed). Most experiments carried out are technological rather than pure science (one of the latter being “Plasma Crystal”). Despite his misgivings, though, his own opinion of the ISS has become more positive.
“In the beginning I was a complete opponent of the ISS, considering that it was a waste of time and resources. Why? It was the 90s, in space no nothing, space science ceased existence under Yeltsin. We started to put our scientific instruments on Western machines, and ISS absorbed most funding. This was done not in the name of science, but for the sake of political prestige. But now it is possible to assess what happened, not to look guilty or innocent, and to perceive what become a reality. ISS made it possible to preserve the ‘human face’ of our space program, and that its merit. It is certainly important in developing space medicine. Americans in this area have we learn something. And if we start talking, and then carry out a manned flight to Mars, some experience on the ISS will certainly be in demand and useful. Over the past years, we have much lost in space, but the experience of long flights is still preserved,” concluded the Academican.
Two women will be part of the second generation Chinese spaceflight group (along with 5 men), selected from a shortlist of 15. They are all aged between 27 and 34, are qualified to fly fighter jets, and all must be married mothers. (Guardian, Space Daily)
Xu Xianrong, an expert at the air force general hospital, said women had advantages as astronauts over men because they were more mentally stable, better able to bear loneliness and had better communication skills. The insistence that they should also be wives and mothers does not relate to their multi-tasking abilities. Officials are concerned that space flight might affect their fertility. “It’s out of the consideration of being responsible for the female pilots,” Xu told the state news agency Xinhua. “Though there is little evidence on how the space experience will affect the female constitution, we have to be extra cautious. After all, it’s unprecedented in China.”
They seem to be a bit more enlightened than Russia regarding women in space! (See 16/10/2007 entry.)
China is to launch the 1st unmanned experimental module of a planned space station next year (2011). It is an 8.5 ton (7.7 tonne) module, named Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace”, and is to be first used for docking practice by the Shenzhou spacecraft – an unmanned Shenzhou-8 in 2013 – then manned -9 & -10 flights.
