Forgot to mention last entry that along with the New York Times article “The Long Countdown”, there was a Soyuz interactive diagram, so below are all the screenshots from the Flash-animated diagram (I hate Flash as individual images can’t be linked to!).
Soyuz TMA-13 launched on 12/10 at 7:01:33 UTC and docked on 14/10 to the Zarya module at 8:26. TMA-12 is due to land on 24/10; its main issue is whether there will be another ballistic landing or not! Depending upon what counting method is used, this is the 100th Soyuz flight (What is the Number of Soyuz TMA-13 Mission to be Launched Soon?, Roskosmos site; also a CollectSPACE article).
Information about Soyuz space missions (for all Soyuz modifications).
Soyuz – the following vehicles bearing this name flew into space:
- Soyuz: 40 vehicles (Soyuz-1 – 23/4/1967, Soyuz-40 – 14/5/1981). Among these vehicles, Soyuz-2 (25/10/1968), Soyuz-20 (17/11/1975) and Soyuz-34 (06/6/1979) were launched unmanned. Though Soyuz-34 returned cosmonauts V. Lyakhov and V. Ryumin, who were launched in Soyuz-32, which returned to the Earth unmanned. In addition, one Soyuz launch – 5/4/1975 – failed; this vehicle followed suborbital trajectory during its mission (numbered Soyuz-18-1).
- Soyuz Т: 15 vehicles (Soyuz Т-1 – 16/12/1979, Soyuz Т-15 – 13/3/1986). In this row, Soyuz Т-1 (16/12/1979) was unmanned. A launcher exploded during prelaunch processing of one Soyuz Т-type vehicle (26/9/1983), and the cosmonauts escaped due to proper triggering of the launch escape system (numbered Soyuz Т-10А).
- Soyuz ТМ: 34 vehicles (Soyuz ТМ-1 – 21/5/1986, Soyuz ТМ-34 – 25/4/2002). Soyuz ТМ-1 (21/5/1986) was launched unmanned.
- Soyuz ТМА: 12 vehicles (Soyuz ТМА-1 – 30/10/2002, Soyuz ТМА-12 – 8/4/2008).
Totally, 101 Soyuzes were orbited from 1967 up to now. Out of this number, 97 vehicles were manned, (95 – up and down, 1 – only up, 1 – only down).
In addition to official Soyuzes, Kosmos vehicles (unmanned) were also launched.
If Kosmos vehicles are taken into account, we have even more Soyuz missions. Soyuz mission 100 can result from the count if we include:
- 37 vehicles of Soyuz type (1, from 3 to 19, from 21 to 33, from 35 to 40)- launched manned
- + 1 vehicle of Soyuz type (34) – returned manned
- + 1 vehicle of Soyuz type – which made suborbital mission
- + 14 vehicles of Soyuz Т type – launched manned
- + 1 vehicle of Soyuz Т type (in which LES was triggered during a blow-up at the launch pad)
- + 33 vehicles of Soyuz ТМ type – launched manned
- + 12 vehicles of Soyuz ТМА type – launched manned.
Total: 99. In other words, Soyuz ТМА-13 can be considered the 100th mission in this case. However such estimation looks doubtful, and such procedure/method has never been used. I do not recommend to use this counting method, since it would be difficult to explain the way to obtain this number (100). Moreover, this number is not reasonable.
(Following the request from Roscosmos site, Mr. Aleksander Zheleznyakov prepared this answer.)
Somewhat alarmingly, the ISS toilet broke down again (same gas-separator issue), but was apparently fixed.
“Space Crew Conflicts Not Expected”, Aviation Week, 6/10. Sergei Krikalyov’s opinions on crew interactions during long space missions. He was in Scotland for the 59th International Astronautical Congress. Best quote:
Asked about disagreements in which one astronaut might consider another’s approach to a problem “stupid,” Krikalev drew applause from the audience when he said “the way we do it in Russian space program, U.S. space program, the European program, we don’t have stupid people in our programs.”
“What Will Flight To Mars Reveal”, RIAN/Space Daily, 13/10. The main challenge for interplanetary missions is creating a sustainable Life Support System (LSS); the ones on the ISS are still dependent upon regular supplies from Earth.
“The Long Countdown”, New York Times, 14/10. Quite a good article about NASA/Americans’ experiences in Star City. International relations there have much improved since the tense and uncertain 1990s.
Those who work side by side with their Russian counterparts say that strong relationships and mutual respect have resulted from the many years of collaboration. And they say that whatever the broader geopolitical concerns about relying on Russia for space transportation during the five years when the United States cannot get to the space station on its own rockets, they believe that the multinational partnership that built the station will hold.
[…]
But the shuttle will soon be out of the picture. Those who are most familiar with the nations’ joint efforts in space say that the controversial pause between American flights can go smoothly, if the politicians would only stay out of the way.
[…]
The American workers at Star City say that on a personal level, geopolitics simply do not matter. Mr. Thiessen said that when such issues came up in conversation with his Russian counterparts, they would say: “That’s politics. Let the government worry about the government. We’re engineers. Let’s solve this problem.”
And this anecdote is rather funny:
Those early days were also marked by wariness and distrust, and the first Americans had a strong impression they were being watched. Mark Bowman, an early contract employee in Russia who is now back in Moscow as deputy director of NASA’s human space flight program in Russia, recalled a weekly teleconference with his boss in Houston. “Thirty minutes into the call the line would go dead,” Mr. Bowman said. “And that would happen every 30 minutes.”
One day during the teleconference, Mr. Bowman warned 28 minutes in that the line was about to go dead and said testily, “I sure wish these damned KGB guys would get longer tapes.”
“The next telecon we had,” Mr. Bowman recalled, “I swear to you, it went 45 minutes and then it went dead.” Apparently, he said, his hosts had upgraded to 90-minute cassettes.
China’s third manned spaceflight and first spacewalk last weekend were successful.
“Now, NASA and Russians need each other”, MSNBC.com, 1/10. A new James Oberg opinion piece on the contentious NASA deal with Russia to fly NASA astronauts during the period where the Shuttle is retired and whenever Orion makes its first flight.
“Magnetic Hunger Could Drive Space Travelers Insane”, RIAN/Space Daily, 2/10. Rat experiments have shown that the absence of Earth’s magnetic field has deleterious effects on the brain, which has implications for long spaceflights to Mars.
China’s third manned space mission, Shenzhou-7, launched yesterday at 13:10 UTC with 3 taikonauts onboard. They are only staying in orbit for 68 hours, less than 3 days. The spacewalk will take place between the 29th and 30th orbits of Earth and last for around 20 minutes.
A trivia note is that this is the first Shenzhou with a toilet!
No toilet was on board of the previous two manned spaceships. The men had to wear diapers. But this time a toilet is set up. The toilet seat is tailor-made to the astronauts’ physiques and it also includes a separate urinal.
From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №731:
26/9/2008/00:05 – Roskosmos believes China is not a competitor but a partner
China’s space program is not considered by Roskosmos as a competitor. “We do not see China as a competitor rather see it our partner in the exploration of outer space,” said Aleksander Vorobyov, the head of the Roscosmos press service on Thursday, commenting on the launch of China’s third manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7 with three cosmonauts.
He congratulated China on the successful launch, recalling that the Russian and Chinese space agencies are cooperating on a wide range of works, including the first EVA of Chinese astronauts into space. One of the spacesuits on the ship Shenzhou-7, was produced in Russia.
In the coming years, Russia and China will organize joint projects of the exploration of Mars and the Moon with automated spacecraft. The project “Phobos-Grunt”, whose main task is to deliver to Earth samples of soil Martian satellite Phobos, the Russian interplanetary station will carry a Chinese autonomous vehicle to carry out Martian research. In turn, Russian specialists are directly involved in the Chinese lunar research program (orbiting, photography, landing on the surface, sampling soil and delivering it to Earth).
26/9/2008/00:05 – Russia needs to reorient its space program to co-operate with China
Russia should think about strengthening its co-operation in space with China, said a member of the K.E. Tsiolkovskii Russian Academy of Space.
“Today we need to think about who are our key partners in space. Perhaps the time has come to switch our focus from the West to the East. Economic, technological and political centers are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, where a vigorously developing China, Japan and South Korea are located,” a Russian expert, Aleksandr Ionin, commented during the launch of the third manned Chinese spacecraft.
In this context, said A. Ionin, the decision to build a cosmodrome in the Far East from a strategic perspective is the right step. He called for increasing cooperation with China in space. “Our country, unlike the U.S., does not suffer the affliction of an ambitious world leader and is ready to engage in manned and unmanned space,” said A. Ionin.
According to him, launching China’s third manned spacecraft during the flight of which a taikonaut will attempt an EVA, “this is a big step for China, but a small accomplishment for the world of space. In today’s world, beginning of EVA, which the Soviet Union and the U.S. have carried out more than 40 years ago, is a normal activity,” said the expert.
A development for a protective Martian diet:
26/09/2008/00:05 – Cosmonauts going to Mars will drink “light water” during the flight
Cosmonauts on the interplanetary flights may drink “light water” – water from which has been removed the heavy hydrogen isotopes and oxygen and possessing positive biological side-effects, which in particular, provide protection from radiation, Russian scientists said.
As the professor of the Institute of Biomedical Problems Yurii Sinyak reported at the conference in Moscow, dedicated to the development of life-support system for space flights, studies showed that “light water”, where deuterium and heavy oxygen are absent or their content considerably lowered, on the contrary, possess a number of useful biological properties.
In the experiments at the IMBP it was shown that light water protects from radiation: mice that received a significant radiation dose, had the longer lifetime, if they drank light water.
Furthermore, the anti-carcinogenic properties of light water was discovered; experiments showed that it slows down an increase in some types of tumors.
In experiments on Japanese quail birds, those that drank light water had a higher weight.
Professor Yurii Sinyak noted that studies of water with the changed isotopic composition began from the study of melt water, which also possessed a number of useful properties. He expressed the opinion that these properties were connected precisely with its isotopic special features.
“We decided to completely remove deuterium and then to verify how it worked. Then they began to remove heavy oxygen. They decided to test on plants, then on animals and finally man, to explain its anti-carcinogenic and anti-radiation properties,” said the agency representative.
He explained that the anti-radiation properties of light water are especially important for space flights. “If we fly to Mars, there there is no shielding from magnetic belts (Earth is protected from the cosmic rays by its magnetic field); therefore the danger will considerably higher for cosmonauts. It is necessary to search for methods both chemical and mechanical to reduce such radiation exposure,” said the professor. At the same time he emphasized that “everything which in space is achieved, is applicable on the Earth.”
(Article also at the Russian Federal Space Agency site, in Russian: «Космонавты в полете на Марс будут пить легкую воду», 25/9/2008)
“The US Has No Option But To Use Russia’s Soyuz Craft”, RIAN/Space Daily, 23/9.
NASA administrator Michael Griffin has described extending the service life of the hopelessly outdated shuttles, costing an additional $4 billion, as a jihad. Hence, he believes, the first and most obvious likelihood is that there will be no American astronauts or cosmonauts from U.S. or international partners on the space station after December 31, 2011. Only Russians will be there, he said.
The American concern has not a leg to stand on: Russia has always been noted for the scrupulous observance of its commitments. It never broke them even during the Cold War. Still, it will not give free rides to the Americans. The problem needs to be solved before 2009: Russian ships have a two-year production cycle.
Russia does not yet believe that the Americans can quit a multi-billion dollar project and let down their European, Canadian and Japanese partners. What’s more, Griffin said the ISS’s life could be extended beyond the established deadline of 2015. He said the U.S. was committed to building and using the station for most of the next decade. He added that the ISS held the main niche in U.S. space policy over the coming years and that medical and biological research on it would contribute to future Moon and Mars expeditions.
Typical of the negative attitude of many towards such co-operation is this post at NASASpaceflight.com, from the generation who grew up during the worst of the Cold War. Perhaps when my generation and those following (born in the 1970s onwards) are in power this nonsense will fade into the past?
I am in my 38th year as an engineer, I have worked Apollo, Shuttle and part time with Constellation. I normally only comment about the orbiters on this fine website as there’s a heart warming amount of interested people. However for the first time in my career I am now considering immediate retirement.
This is related to the passing of the INKSNA waiver, because NASA, and the U.S. showed how weak we are to countries like Russia, Iran and anyone else who have little regard for us.
Led by Mike Griffin, and a number of gullible politicians, we have sacrificed not only our domestic manned launch capability, but we have roadblocked domestic options to bridge the gap, with no regard for national security.
Well, you only have yourselves (namely, clueless U.S. politicians) to blame!
The next time Russia invades an ally of the U.S. and we see lots of angry reaction from the elected few, turn off the television, because they are liars.
More accurately, “when Russia responded to the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia”, but who cares about the facts? And since when was Georgia such an important ally anyway?
We’ve just approved billions of tax payers dollars to be taken out of the pockets of hard working American engineers, and into the pockets of the regime in Moscow. I’m old enough to remember the Soviet threats to my family and myself and a leopard does not change its spots, as we have seen recently. The message is “invade as many of our allies as you wish, we’ll stamp and shout, but we’ll also happily keep writing checks. Feel free to tell us to sit down and be a good USA.”
Griffin will tell you Shuttle is at the risk of a 1/8 chance of a disaster: An insult to the hundreds of engineers who have worked tirelessly after Columbia, which was a FREAK accident, and people like myself who have worked hard after Challenger, which was a FREAK accident, to ensure over 100 safe missions. And you think Soyuz is safe? It nearly killed its crew on the last two landings.
Two “freak” accidents? Perhaps indicative of design flaws? The Soyuz isn’t 100% safe either, but the two off-nominal ballistic landings were back-up modes and they certainly did not “nearly kill” their crew (though they caused some discomfort).
I won’t bother to post a snarky reply in that thread as it will likely just get deleted.
“If I Were to Land on Mars...”, Air & Space Magazine, 1/11. Astronaut Don Pettitt’s account of the Soyuz ballistic landing he and Expedition 6 endured on 3 May 2003. He does note one positive aspect: the landings could be regarded as rehearsals for Mars landings!
So we had made a serendipitous discovery: Because of how the mission unfolded and culminated in a lost recovery, it had an uncanny resemblance to a trip to, and a landing on, Mars. We showed that barriers associated with such a trip, in the form of human physical performance deficits, can be overcome with the knowledge gained from the similar effects experienced on long-duration space station missions.
The parallels are striking. First we lived in a weightless environment for five and a half months. Depending on the choice of propulsion, six months is a good estimate for a one-way trip to Mars. So our level of deconditioning was about the same as that of a crew arriving at the Red Planet. We piloted our own spacecraft through a high-G entry maneuver, similar to what a crew may have to do at Mars. Our landing sequence involved a combination of parachutes and landing rockets, culminating in a hard landing on dry ground in one of the more remote places on Earth. For reaching the Martian surface, such a combination is an attractive option. And the landing site will be remote.
On our own, we performed a number of basic operational tasks not unlike those a crew might execute after landing on Mars, such as spacecraft safing, which involves reading procedures, flipping switches, and pushing buttons on the control panel to power down unneeded equipment to extend battery life for the radios. Since the Soyuz capsule ended up on its side, we did this strapped into a seat fixed to a slanted ceiling. We then opened the hatch by ourselves, unstrapped, and crawled out. In my spacesuit, I weighed 200 Earth pounds. On Mars, at 0.38 of Earth’s gravity, it would require over 500 Earth pounds to equal the same loading on my body. So while future Mars astronauts will wear heavier suits with life support systems, they will be lighter there than I was in Earth’s gravity. We deployed the survival gear that was scattered in numerous small bundles throughout the spacecraft. It takes a pair of strong hands to pull these bundles from their stowage in odd nooks and crannies – woolen clothes, food, water, a medical kit, a portable radio, and a flare-shooting pistol.
We performed all these operations with no outside help. We might as well have been on Mars.
“Opening The Window For Shenzhou 7”, SpaceDaily, 19/9. Shenzhou-7 is due to liftoff on 25 September. Zhai Zhigang will perform the EVA in an experimental Chinese-built suit, called “Feitian” after a mythological flying god; it weighs 120 kilograms, and each model will cost about 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) to produce. Liu Boming will wear a Russian Orlan suit to come to his rescue if necessary. Jing Haipeng will remain inside the pressurized Descent Module
“Russia And France Sign Contract To Launch 10 Rockets From Kourou”, RIAN/SpaceDaily, 22/9. The rockets will be Soyuz-ST carrier rockets used to launch geostationary satellites.
(Oh, and thanks to “FlyingSinger” for the nice post!)
Progress M-65 (30P) launched on 10/9 at 19:50:02 and was due to dock on 12/9, but this has been delayed until 17/9 due to Hurricane Ike forcing the evacuation of Houston Mission Control (and the rest of the city) – “Hurricane Ike disrupts traffic in space”, MSNBC.com, 12/9.
NASA has set up backup Mission Control teams for the space station near Austin, Texas, and in Huntsville, Ala. Yembrick said that the main Mission Control room in Houston is preferred to feather the space station’s U.S. solar arrays into an edge-on position to incoming spacecraft to avoid damage from thruster firings.
From orbit the hurricane looks deceptively calm and serene (ISS photos ISS017-E-015751 and ISS017-E-015752); like swirled cotton wool or whipped cream. NASA has a Hurricane Resource Page with updates, and the NASASpaceflight.com forum has a dedicated thread. The hurricane is a Category 2 and is very wide (nearly 1000 km across). The low-lying Texas coast means the storm surge will flood the region.
The Progress is carrying the first of the new Orlan-MK spacesuits, numbered 4; this is fitted with a digital computer in its life support backpack to process and transmit systems information, rather than the previous BRTA, БРТА radio-telemetry equipment. It will also indicate malfunctions and display the necessary recommendations to deal with these on a new special liquid crystal display (LCD) screen on the front chest part of the spacesuit. The Orlan-MK will be able to work in two modes: with the digital computer (as the MK) or without (as the previous M version).
Interesting tidbit: if a spacesuit’s serial number has a last even digit (2, 4, 6, etc.), then the spacesuit has blue stripes, if a last odd digit (1, 3, 5, etc.), then red stripes – a tradition of NPP Zvezda. (Via Anik) Thus Orlan-MK №4 has red stripes.
Some photo links of the spacesuits used for testing:
“Florida lawmaker opposes giving NASA permission to buy Russian spacecraft”, The Write Stuff, 12/9. If NASA loses its Russian/Soyuz access to space, the blame can be laid squarely upon cranky U.S. politicians! “Russia invaded Georgia” is somewhat more accurately phrased as “Russia responded to Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia”.
Former astronaut LeRoy Chiao has a reasonably balanced blog post on the topic: “U.S.-Russian relations”, 31/8.
Prime Minister Putin signed a directive allocating 45 billion rubles ($1.8 bln) in additional funding for Russia’s space program. Funds will go firstly toward the construction of the new Russian spaceport, Vostochnii, in the Amur Region. Secondly will be ensured compliance with all the manned programs, which Russia exercises in the framework of international cooperation, taking into account all their commitments to the ISS. The third aspect is spacecraft, designed to enhance the effectiveness of Russia’s economy, such as meteorology, weather forecasting and scientific research.
Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov is having a really bad year (annus horribilis). I am a bit confused about the sequence of events: in June he had to be resuscitated after having unspecified surgery. In August he developed pneumonia and this worsened, causing him to have a heart attack. He was given drug treatment in the clinic as the specialists were reluctant to operate because of his age (74), but his condition contined to worsen and he was operated on, in a procedure called a coronarography. One cause of his deterioration was his accidentally learning of the death of his 87-year-old sister, Raisa (his parents and 9 other siblings are deceased). Then to add insult to injury, his house near Star City was recently robbed! Details at the CollectSPACE forum here and here, and the Orbiter Forum.
“The Politics Of Shenzhou”, Space Daily, 8/9. The launch of the third Chinese manned space mission is due to take place between 25-30 September, carrying a crew of three.
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov turns 50 today! С днём рожденья, Сергей! (Not that he ever reads this…) I wonder what he will achieve in his next half-century? Maybe be 1st on Mars!
From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №724:
28/08/2008/00:09 – The President of Russia, D.A. Medvedev, congratulated the pilot-cosmonaut S.K. Krikalyov on his 50th birthday
On 27 August the President of Russia, Dmitrii Medvedev, congratulated pilot-astronaut and deputy chief designer of Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya, Sergei Krikalyov, on his 50th birthday.
“You are deservedly considered one of the record holders among cosmonauts for the total length of time spent in orbit,” Mr. Medvedev said in his telegram. “Your truly heroic biography is an outstanding example of courage, strength of will and firmness of character. Your competence, organisational talents and professional and personal qualities have earned the deserved respect of your colleagues and friends.”
From the Energiya website:
August 28, 2008. S.P.Korolyov RSC Energiya, Korolyov, Moscow region.
An S.P. Korolyov RSC Energiya deputy general designer, instructor-cosmonaut-tester, 1st Class, Hero of the Soviet Union and of the Russian Federation, Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov turned 50 on August 27, 2008.
The President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev sent him a congratulatory telegram, which, among other things, says: “You are rightfully considered one of the record-breakers among active cosmonauts with regard to the total duration of your orbital missions. Your truly heroic biography became an outstanding example of courage, will-power and fortitude. Your competence, managerial ability, professional and personal qualities earned you a due respect of your colleagues and friends” (news on the web site of the Russian President www.kremlin.ru).
On this significant day, S.K. Krikalyov was congratulated by Governor of St.Petersburg V.I. Matvienko, heads of the Federal Space Agency, management and staff of the S.P. Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya, representatives of various companies and organizations in the Russian space industry and Russian Academy of Sciences, including the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Head of the town of Korolyov A.F. Morozenko, S.P. Korolyov RSC Energiya cosmonaut team, NASA representatives, friends and colleagues.
Dear Sergei Konstantinovich!
The management and staff of the S.P. Korolyov Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya heartily congratulate you on this significant day of your 50th anniversary!
Upon graduating with honors from the Leningrad Mechanical Institute in 1981, you took a job with the world-known Korolyov’s company, where you have been working for more than a quarter of a century now, having risen through the ranks from an engineer to a deputy general designer.
You worked on developing manuals for cosmonauts, proposals on displaying operator’s data on consoles of the Mir space station, updating the on-board documentation of the Salyut-7 space station. You worked at the Mission Control Center during several long-term missions. After communication was lost with Salyut-7 in 1985, you, as a member of a “ground crew”, took part in developing various options for procedures of flying and docking with the uncontrollable space station. Afterwards, this operation was successfully performed for the first time in history! The same year you joined the team of cosmonauts of NPO Energiya. You were training yourself and were taking an active part in training cosmonauts at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and at Baikonur.
You have accomplished six space missions to the muti-modular space station Mir, the unique creation of the 20th century, and the International Space Station, an ambitious international project of the 21st century, during which hundreds of sessions of scientific and applied research experiments were carried out, providing invaluable results for Russian and world science. And your pictures taken in space are the envy of any professional photographer!
Special milestones in your career are the activities on the International Space Station. Three times you worked onboard the station, and each of these missions was unique in its own way. The first mission was the first manned mission under the International Space Station assembly program, in the course of which US Node 1 module was docked to the Functional Cargo Module Zarya. Together with Space Shuttle Commander R. Cabana, you were the first to open the hatch leading to ISS. The second mission was under the program of the first expedition to ISS (ISS-1). It started the continuous operation of the ISS. You were the first to make habitable the Service Module Zvezda and Functional Cargo Module Zarya, and, later on, the Laboratory Module Destiny, and started scientific research under Russian and US programs. In the third mission you set up the absolute world record for the total space flight endurance of 803 days, which remains unbroken by any other nation in the world!
For the courage and heroism displayed during your missions into space, you were given titles of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of the Russian Federation, and awarded both Russian and foreign orders and medals. You are an honorary citizen of St. Petersburg. Your energy, commitment and perseverance in achieving your goal, high professionalism and erudition, communication skills and kindness towards people earned you due respect among your Russian colleagues and foreign partners. Everybody also knows about your achievements in sports: you have learned to fly several types of airplanes, including a foreign airplane, and you won prizes several times at the USSR, Europe and world championships.
On this great day, dear Sergei Konstantinovich, please accept our heartfelt wishes of good health, happiness and prosperity to you and your relatives, of new creative successes and luck in the course of flight design tests and operation of the rocket and space hardware for the sake of strengthening the power and prosperity of Russia.
– President, General Designer V.A. Lopota
(Photo via Energiya)
I’ve had a head cold since last week, so I haven’t felt much like doing anything. *Snuffle*
“Going to Space? First Stop: Eight Months of Grueling Training in Russia’s Star City”, Wired Magazine, September 2008. An overview of Star City, Звёздный Городок. A somewhat quirky overview of the place from the point-of-view of the space tourists training there.
Marina Driga, a military captain and press liaison, confides what some around Star City think of its high-profile trainees: “People say it is better to send monkey.”
“Mission Possible”, Anatoly Zak, Air & Space Magazine, 1/9. An overview of the Phobos-Grunt probe to be launched in 2009 (hopefully).
Georgia’s pea-brained hothead of a president decided to provoke Russia by invading South Ossetia, this while the Olympics are on too. Naturally the Western media are siding with Saakashvilli, who has them well and truly conned (“Saakashvili as a propaganda phenomenon”, RIA Novosti). This thread at NASASpaceflight.com speculates whether the hostilites will affect the ISS partnership, seeing as the USA has sided with Georgia (whose military has been trained by U.S. forces). Though as one notes, the U.S. invasion of Iraq didn’t affect the partnership.
Some blog commentaries: Da Russophile (beginning from this entry); Saakashvilli’s War at Sean’s Russia Blog. The Western media is generally useless for anything approaching impartial reporting when regards to Russia (some exceptions: “Russo-Georgian conflict is not all Russia’s fault”, Christian Science Monitor; “Plucky little Georgia? No, the cold war reading won’t wash”, Guardian).
