Russia – Page 40 – Spaceflight Now

Assembly complete for ExoMars’ Proton launcher

March 8, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe’s ExoMars orbiter, due to begin a seven-month journey to the red planet March 14, has met its Russian Proton rocket booster as launch preparations enter the final stages at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

European Mars probe encapsulated for launch

March 3, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe’s ExoMars orbiter was enclosed inside the nose cone of its Proton rocket Wednesday ahead of its March 14 launch toward the red planet.

With Russian launch grounded, Iridium flips order of satellite deployments

February 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Stymied by Russian government dithering that has indefinitely grounded a launch on a modified Soviet-era missile, Iridium officials say that SpaceX agreed to move up to July the first of seven Falcon 9 launches from California with the company’s next-generation mobile communications satellites.

Shannon Lucid gives a guided tour of the Mir space station

February 29, 2016 Spaceflight Now

NASA Astronaut Shannon Lucid spent six months aboard the Mir Space Station in 1996. In this video she gives a guided tour of the Russian space outpost.

Putin blasts mismanagement at new Russian spaceport

October 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

The first launch from Russia’s new cosmodrome in the country’s Far East will not occur until at least early 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week, in a widely-anticipated delay after reports of botched construction and corruption beleaguering the spaceport project.

Russia gives up on Progress supply ship docking

April 29, 2015 William Harwood

Russian flight controllers have given up attempting to salvage a Progress cargo ship loaded with 3 tons of supplies and equipment intended for the International Space Station. Astronaut Scott Kelly, on board the lab for a year-long mission, said Wednesday the Progress will not be docking and instead will plunge back into the atmosphere.

Galileo launch failure blamed on frozen Fregat fuel line

October 8, 2014 Stephen Clark

A design flaw in a Russian Fregat upper stage was responsible for the botched orbital injection of two European Galileo navigation satellites in August, causing hydrazine fuel to freeze inside the rocket’s maneuvering system and rendering it unable to point in the right direction during a critical engine burn.