The Russians Are Coming…to launch rockets from European base
AFP
“Today, though, the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) is girding for a new era when it will host Russian rockets and Russian engineers who just a short while ago were Europe’s space rivals.
“On Sunday, a freighter is due to dock in Cayenne bearing a first consignment of 150 containers of equipment to fit out a launch pad at CSG where, from the second half of 2009, the first “European” Soyuz is scheduled to blast into space.”
Russian Rocket Launches German Reconnaissance Satellite
Spaceflight Today
“The capstone of a fleet of German military satellites rocketed into space from Russia early Tuesday, completing a series of five launchings of spacecraft designed to scout locations around the world.
“The SAR-Lupe 5 satellite, a 1,700-pound craft (771-kg) outfitted with cloud-piercing and night-vision radar, launched aboard a Russian Kosmos 3M rocket at 0240 GMT Tuesday (10:40 p.m. EDT Monday), according to news reports.”
Manned spaceship design unveiled
BBC News
“It is designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia and will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation. The reusable ship was conceived to carry four people towards the Moon, rivalling the US Ares/Orion system….
“‘If ESA and the Russian Space Agency reach agreement, Europe will supply the service module of that co-operative spacecraft,’ [Anatoly] Zak told BBC News.
“This service module will use technology - such as the propulsion systems - developed for Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), an unmanned freighter recently sent to re-supply the International Space Station (ISS).”
ESA aims for manned capsule by 2020
Flight International
“A €300 million ($475 million) three-year Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Advanced Return Vehicle (ARV) development project, to be proposed to the European Space Agency’s November ministerial meeting, could become a stepping stone to a human transport system in 2020.
“ESA wants to evolve its expendable 20,000kg (44,000lb) ATV, which docked with the International Space Station for the first time in April, into an EADS Astrium Ariane 5-launched ARV. That cargo vehicle would be the basis for the manned system operating around 2020. ESA will design ARV with a view to man-rating it in future. The cargo version will be about 5,000kg lighter than the Ariane 5’s low-Earth orbit capability to allow for the future addition of a launch abort tower.”
Undaunted by a record of near total failure at Mars, the Russian space agency will launch an ambitious mission next year to land on the planet’s moon Phobos and return soil samples to Earth.
The massive 8-ton Phobos-Grunt (”soil”) spacecraft, set for launch in October 2009, would be one of the most ambitious missions ever launched to Mars. It will also be the first Mars spacecraft launched by Russia since the ill-fated Mars 96 mission, which plunged into the Pacific Ocean.
If it works, Phobos-Grunt would be the first successful effort to return soil from a Martian moon. It would also reverse a nearly 50-year record of failure. Of 20 missions launched by the Soviet Union and Russia, not one was a complete success.
Anatoly Zak has a great story about Phobos-Grunt on the Air & Space Magazine website.
Russia to Double Space Exploration Expenditure in 2009 - Agency
Interfax-AVN
“Russian budgetary expenditure on space exploration will more than double in 2009, Federal Space Agency Deputy Director Vitaly Davydov told Interfax- AVN at the Farnborough Air Show.
“‘The Finance Ministry has informed us of budgetary allocations planned for the federal space program in 2009. I am glad to say that the allocations will more than double,’ he said.”
Orion program over budget, behind schedule
Florida Today
The cost problems include an $80 million overrun on a motor system. The Orion spacecraft’s current design remains too heavy for the proposed Ares 1 rocket. Software development, heat-shield testing and a host of other complex work remains either behind schedule or over budget. Those are just a few of dozens of serious challenges and issues, many of which are noted as ‘worsening.’
NASA has repeatedly stressed its aggressive internal 2013 target required few technical surprises and stable budget. The new report indicates neither of those conditions exist.
Google Co-Founder Brin to Fly; Invests $5 Million to Join Exclusive Club of One
Space Adventures announced a deal with the Russian Space Agency on Wednesday to charter one Soyuz flight annually to the International Space Station beginning in 2011.
The flights will include one Russian cosmonaut and two paying tourists. Previously, space tourists have occupied the third seat on flights that swapped out older Soyuz vehicles attached to the station. The privately-funded mission will be conducted outside of the normal rotation of spacecraft and crews to and from the orbiting outpost, officials said.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin may occupy one of the two tourist seats on the 2011 flight. He has invested $5 million in Space Adventures, money that serves as a down payment on a space fight. The flight will apparently cost in excess of $35 million.
Brin is now the founding (and, to date, only) member of the new Orbital Mission Explorers Circle, which represent an effort “to build a definitive consortium of future private space explorers who share a lifetime goal of orbital spaceflight or the investment therein,” Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson said. The circle will eventually include six members.
Continue reading ‘In ‘Paradigm’ Shift, Space Adventures Sells Two Tickets on Same Soyuz Flight’
Speaking in Paris, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin urged European space officials and executives to build on the success of the Automated Transfer Vehicle to develop a human space vehicle, the Associate Press reports.
“We welcome the development of independent European capabilities in space to provide redundant systems in the event of failure of any one partner’s capabilities,” Griffin said, referring to the International Space Station.
NASA will retire the space shuttle in 2010; it could be five years before its replacement, Orion, will be ready to fly with astronauts. In the meantime, the Russian Soyuz will be the only vehicle capable of carrying humans to ISS. There is great concern in the United States about being too dependent on Russia.
Interestingly enough, any European human space program could increase dependence on the Russians. ESA and Russia are considering whether to jointly develop a new vehicle, which might fly on a new Russian booster, Flightglobal.com reports.
“The Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Centre’s in-development Angara rocket could launch the proposed Russian-European Space Agency Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS) spacecraft, according to the head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov.”
Europe is studying several options for human spaceflight. It also has a vehicle, Ariane 5, that could be used to launch the new vehicle. No decision is expected at least until European space ministers meet this Fall.
Orbital Sciences Corp. seems to be taking its time in making a decision about where it will launch its new Taurus II rocket. WNDT-TV reports that officials at Wallops Island on are anxiously awaiting a decision on whether Orbital will stay in its home state of Virginia or go south to Florida.
Meanwhile, 20 members of Florida’s Congressional delegation have released a statement urging Orbital to locate its new launch facility at the Kennedy Space Center.
In other news:
- Russia and Kazakhstan have signed an agreement concerning joint cooperation in space exploration and the continued use of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
- Officials in New Mexico are moving ahead with plans to create a tax district to support development of Spaceport America.
Mars500 Habitat (Credit: ESA TV)
ESA PRESS RELEASE
Last week, 32 talented candidates gathered at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, with the hope of becoming part of a unique study that will act as a platform for human exploration of the Solar System. The study, called Mars500, is a ground-based simulation of a mission to Mars and back.
Two of the candidates, together with four Russian volunteers, will be sealed in an isolation chamber for a total of 105 days starting in October. This is followed by the full isolation period with another two European candidates, which lasts for 520 days starting early in 2009. Part of the chamber simulates the spacecraft that would transport them on their journey to and from Mars and another part will simulate the landing module that would transfer them to and from the Martian surface.
Continue reading ‘ESA Evaluating Candidates for 105- and 520-Day Mars Mission Simulations’
South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon is out of the hospital after treatment for injuries she received during the rough landing of her Soyuz vehicle last month. The Korean Times reports that she still has a sore back.
“I’m still wearing a brace, and my doctor said that I must not run, yet. That’s really hard because I love running,” Yi said at a press conference on Friday. She will leave South Korea on Sunday for a mission debriefing in Moscow.
Meanwhile, the man she replaced on the flight, Ko San, denied an earlier report that he was booted from the International Space Station mission for attempting to send classified documents about the Russian space program home to Korea.
“I’m not that stupid to try to steal important documents that way. There were really subtle incidents and Russian officials later agreed they did not matter,” Ko told The Korea Times. “The replacement of astronauts was a very complicated matter because intelligence agencies were involved in it.”
Ko said he was trying to understand how Soyuz’s systems worked so he could participate in the mission safely.
Continue reading ‘South Korea: Yi on the Mend, Ko Says He Didn’t Steal Documents’
Taylor Dinerman examines the current state of the reusable launch vehicle industry over at The Space Review. He is particularly intrigued by a test of a sub-scale space plane that Lockheed Martin conducted in New Mexico last December.
Rob Coppinger of Flight Global takes a look at the success of SpaceX, the El Segundo, Calif. rocket company that has secured a NASA launch services contract that could be worth up to $1 billion without ever having launched anything into orbit. The contract involves the company’s Falcon 1 vehicle, which has failed in its only two launch attempts, and the larger Falcon 9, which has yet to fly.
Coppinger also examines new rocket and spacecraft concepts under consideration by Japan and Europe on his Hyperbola blog. JAXA is considering a VTOL concept that looks a lot like the vehicle that Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is working on. Meanwhile, ESA and Russia are jointly examining various designs for a crew transport.
A major initiative has been launched to improve quality control for the Proton launcher, which has suffered two failures in eight months, Coppinger reports. Russia’s Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and its partner, International Launch Services, will be working closely with subcontractors to prevent future problems.
In American space news, the Rocketsandsuch blog has a new post claiming that costs on NASA’s Orion program have risen again by about $3 billion.