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RuSpace: 2006

October

20/10: New cosmonauts! And an introduction

I thought I would try starting a proper blog (as an addition to the manually-typed HTML journal on my website) and focus on the Russian manned space program as no-one else seems to be doing it (in English, at least) that I know of! Nearly all the space blogs are focused on NASA and a lot are by “Paranoid Patriots” who think their country should be first at everything or the world will come to an end. :-P (Some examples being Curmudgeons Corner (he forgot the apostrophe in his title), Space Pragmatism – they all link to each other, so I won’t bother listing them.) They tend to be right-wing capitalist types – yuck (I am more left-wing – Да здравствует революция!).

I am trying to edit the template, so it might look a bit odd!

I am not, alas, a professional in anything; just an interested (and somewhat despondent) onlooker who has been a failure so far, and who has no life.

Also, I really can’t speak Russian as such, but have managed to learn the alphabet so far and a few words.

Last week the 2006 cosmonaut selection group was announced on the Russian Federal Space Agency site. There is one woman among the selection of seven, Elena Serova (wife of Mark Serov, 2003 selection). All the 5 military selections are pilots from the Russian Air Force (VVS) and some from the PVO (Air Defence Force) as well. An approximate (tidied-up Babelfish) translation of the notice:

11-10-2006 About the session of the interdepartmental commission for the selection of the cosmonauts

On 11 October, in the Roskosmos building under the leadership of A.N. Perminov and the Management of the Russian Federal Space Agency, there took place an interdepartmental commission session for the selection of cosmonauts. The commission is based on the proposals of the S.P. Korolev Rocket & Space Corporation Energiya, the Yu.A. Gagarin Russian State Science Research Cosmonaut Training Centre (RGNII TsPK) and the Russian Federation State Scientific Center - the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences concerning the represented candidatures to the enrollment into the force of cosmonauts by cosmonaut candidates, and also for the guaranteeing of timely preparation and fulfillment of the manned space flights on the ISS.

The decision was made:

To recommend the appointment of A.N. Ovchinin, S.N. Ryzhikov, A.A. Misurkin, O.V. Novitskiy, M.T. Ponomarev, N.V. Tikhonov, and E.O. Serova to the post of cosmonaut candidate in in the appropriate organizations and to charge RGNII TsPK and Energiya to solve a question about the attachment to RGNII TsPK of N.V. Tikhonov and Ye.O. Serov for the period of their general cosmonaut space preparation. To charge RGNII TsPK with organizing the routine basic spaceflight preparation of A.N. Ovchinin, S.N. Ryzhikov, A.A. Misurkin, O.V. Novitskiy, M.T. Ponomarev, N.V. Tikhonov, and E.O. Serova according to the program of preparation for the cosmonaut-testers.

Full names of the cosmonauts:

From the Russian Air Force (VVS, ВВС):

The candidates from Energiya:

Rather annoyingly they provided no biographies or individual photos. They didn’t for the 2003 selection either (or any previous selection). NASA does much better (their 2004 astronaut candidates have their own site section). The cosmonauts get little publicity at all, and they need much more done in this area!

It will likely be years before any fly; the group from 2003 have yet to get assigned flights and even from selections before this – some cosmonauts have been waiting a decade or so. It doesn’t help that the Russian Space Agency seems obsessed with leasing the third Soyuz seat to foreign astronauts or paying private space tourists, instead of giving their own cosmonauts valuable flight experience (this is something I will rant about occasionally). It would help if the Russian government increased funding. The RSA/ФКА should perhaps be renamed the Russian Space Tourist Agency as this is all they seem to do these days (instead of focusing on the long-term colonization of space, and the exploring of other worlds). The tourist flights are all they get an occasional mention for in the media here (in Australia). And don’t get me started on the miserable state of Russian unmanned space exploration – they have virtually dropped off the radar there (in contrast to NASA and its spectacularly successful Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the latest Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission).

A sorry contrast to the Soviet era …

November

2/11: That darn Elektron

The Elektron oxygen generator onboard the International Space Station (in the Russian segment) has been fixed (again) and is operating (for now). “Breathing Easy in Space Is Never Easy” by James Oberg gives an overview of the latest scene in The Elektron Saga (as I feel like calling it :-).

Progress M-58 (23P) launched and docked last week with the much-needed spare parts, though there was a glitch before it docked when an antenna of the Kurs docking system apparently did not retract. The docking was paused for 3½ hours while the problem was resolved. Progress launchings and dockings normally go smoothly, though.

Some news tidbits from Novosti Kosmonavtiki news № 585. The translations (using Babelfish, then “tidied-up” as best I can with my very limited Russian – well, I don’t speak it at all really :-() are not very good.

25/10/2006/20:05 Russia will allocate over 170 billion roubles for space activity in the next few years

Russia will allocate 171.7 billion roubles till 2010 for the realization of space programs, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, declared on Wednesday, answering questions of citizens on the air. About this reports the agency Interfax.

“As for general expenditure, this will be increased in addition by the federal target program (GLONASS – “IF”) in the near future in order to accelerate it. It is 41.8 billion roubles. From 2008 to 2010, 129.9 billion roubles will be allocated to the federal space program,” V. Putin said.

He has emphasized that Russia should accelerate full input in building the GLONASS global navigating satellite system – analogous to the American GPS. “And I very much expect that the participants of economic activities will be switched to national global navigating system as soon as it will earn,” V. Putin said. The president noted that now the orbital grouping of satellites of system GLONASS comprises 14 devices. “Still, it is necessary to produce some devices, and they will provide full coverage over all the country’s territory. And the next step will be for their coverage to be global,” V. Putin said.

He noted, that Russia “is considerably more advanced than the European partners” in the satellite navigating system project. Now the incorporated group creates its own navigating satellite system, “Galilleo.” Meanwhile the first and unique satellite of this system, whose orbital grouping should total about 30 satellites, has been launched.

Parts of the following article are somewhat incoherent as I could not figure out their translation!

25/10/2006/00:05 Why Russia is relinquishing its position in the global space market

In the 24 October edition of the newspaper New News («Новые известия»), Nikolai Orlov’s article, “Why Russia is relinquishing its position in the global space market,” was published. In the publication the article describes the critical state of affairs in the domestic space branch, and fears that the next few years will not be good for Russian astronautics.

Below are some extracts from the article.

“[…] Roskosmos persistently does not wish to recognize the obvious: year by year, Russia relinquishes its position in the space market. Today it is significant that our country (from shares of 40%) is represented only in a segment of commercial launches which falls within up to 70% of its space export. But the annual volume of this segment is estimated to be 2.5-3 billion dollars while the segment of manufacture of commercial satellites makes already about 10 billion, the segment of the navigating equipment and services comes nearer to 20 billion, the satellite communication segment and D33 at a level of 60 billion. Thus, if the immediate prospects for markets of launch services and satellite manufacture are stagnant (as is predicted by the majority of experts) the growth of other segments, on the contrary, remains respectable. So, in five years altogether the volume of the satellite communication market is estimated to be already at 150 billion dollars, D33 – at 50 billion, and the navigating equipment and services – at 70 billion. As a result by 2010 the global space market should reach a total of 300 billion dollars. And what will be the Russian share here even if it will be possible to eliminate the market consequences of launch failures?

What lies ahead? On the way, the Russian space enterprises will be superseded by competitors in the less profitable markets of the new space countries which only start performance of national space programs and where our enterprises still can act in the role of a “donor” of space technologies. But even here the inexplicable passivity of Roskosmos leads to paradoxical situations. So, of the two countries in the Kazhakstan-Russian space cooperation with an obvious difference of space power ratios … Astana plays the leading part! Russia only goes downstream, and all initiatives – the Ishim and Baiterek projects, the creation at Baikonur of tourist space center (modeled on the organization of tourism in the American space center at Cape Canaveral) are initiated by Kazakhstan.

Another example: in May of this year Nigeria accepted a program of outer space exploration according to which, in particular, a flight to the Moon is planned for 2030. To such plans of the country receiving considerable means from export of oil, it is possible to concern, certainly, with irony, however Ukraine already prepares for a number of agreements with the National Agency of Space Development and Researches of Nigeria. They actively work with this country and China. And here on the Roskosmos site Nigeria is not mentioned at all in the list of potential participants of international cooperation. […]

But then that in an active? Than, if not strategy of development of branch, the management of Roskosmos is engaged? Apparently, a lot, but it is more likely connected not with the development of the branch, but with the circulation of monetary flows.

For example, one year ago a number of leading enterprises of the country created the International Association of Space Activity Participants (МАКД, Международная ассоциация участников космической деятельности, MAKD). The purpose of the association seems good on the surface – to increase the level of coordination and interaction, but strange on closer examination – in fact almost 90% of the enterprises of branch are FGUPy, and the major share of the state capital remains with them. In other words, for the decision of these problems – coordination and – the state has just created interactions and finances special federal agency – Roskosmos. And then it is stranger, that the chairman of board – joint agency MAKD – the government official – the head of Roskosmos is selected. Thus according to the MAKD charter he individually carries out powers of a joint agency – the MAKD board, which gathers only twice a year. Moreover, he is not required to have his actions approved by the MAKD board. Similarly, this is a new trend in Russian corporate practice. Yes, as it happens, our high officials are selected to control the commercial and noncommercial organizations – in the supervisory councils, boards of directors. But never before did they enter into agencies and were not engaged in operative management! Cunning to the point of irrationality – the head of Roskosmos without the power of attorney works on behalf of MAKD.

In truth, the Association is an individual agency – the president of the Association is the dear academician of the Russian Academy of Science, Nikolai Anfimov. But the developers of the charter have reduced his functions to participation in board meetings and the performance of his assignments. Such is the “ZITs (Regional Informational Center) chairman.”

What is the Association for Anatoly Perminov’s rule? A Hobby comprising a lot of free time, or a buffer for the future? Can, therefore the head of Roskosmos, and in combination chairman of board MAKD (or on the contrary, in combination head Roskosmos? In fact frequently him represent so!), at any opportunity does not get weary of reminding of the existence and necessity of such organization. But what then do the members MAKD receive? According to the charter: assistance in reception of the license for space activity, services on selling production and performance of contractual relations, etc. And according to the MAKD charter, the MAKD board chairman, Anatoly Perminov, represents these state bodies’ interests, so, and in Roskosmos. Whether and then there is at the enterprises of branch a choice? Whether they can find the decision of the problems in Roskosmos if will not be presented there by chairman of board MAKD? […]

Comments, I think, are superfluous.

25/10/2006/00:05 The Soyuz modernized spacecraft will not be ready earlier than 2010

The Soyuz modernized piloted spacecraft will be created from 2010, Roskosmos deputy Viktor Remishevskii informed journalists today, as ITAR-TASS reported. The “modernized” Soyuz “will be created with improved characteristics,” he specified. “From 2010 we should receive this ship which can carry out piloted flights, and it will be real.” As he said, the modernized ship can carry out lunar expeditions around the Moon and returning to the Earth, and flights to the International Space Station.

Answering a question on prospects of the Kliper piloted ship, V. Remishevskii said that “it will be a forthcoming stage of piloted Russian astronautics.” “It is supposed that it will be the six-seater ship a universal type which can fly to the ISS and carry out lunar expeditions,” he noted.

24/10/2006/13:06 Roskosmos complains of a shortage of money for construction of Kliper

The 9 billion roubles allocated Roskosmos for the Kliper project till 2012 to construct a new piloted spacecraft is impossible. This was declared by the Roskosmos deputy Viktor Remishevskii, reports RIA Novosti.

“As is known, the Roskosmos competitive commission has suspended the tender for construction of a new piloted reusable spacecraft. And I headed this competitive commission,” said Remishevskii.

“We have really looked at things and have understood, that means at a rate of 9 billion roubles till 2012 and from them about 500 million roubles till 2010 is an extremely insufficient sum, and to construct a new spacecraft with this money is impossible,” he said.

According to Remishevskii, it is necessary to involve tens of billions of unappropriated funds.

“Besides there were doubts as to the planned winged constuction of the new piloted ship – it has not been examined, besides it is very expensive,” added Remishevskii. As the Roskosmos deputy has noted, the ship’s weight was 13-14 tons and any new booster rocket would not be ready to carry it.

24/10/2006/00:05 Nikolai Sevast’yanov stated that RKK Energiya will radically renew its fleet of spacecraft

The Rocket-Space Corporation Energiya is realizing a program of the radical renovation of its fleet of manned and cargo spacecraft, stated the President of RKK Energiya, Nikolai Sevast’yanov.

The “first stage of program is the modernization of the Soyuz. This will make it possible to increase its capabilities, to reduce cost, to increase commercial attractiveness,” reported N. Sevast’yanov on Monday at the spaceport Baikonur, where he was present for the launch of the Progress cargo ship M-58. According to N. Sevast’yanov, today the Soyuz spacecraft can fly to space and return to the earth with two professional cosmonauts and one nonprofessional aboard.

“The crew will be able to consist of one professional and two nonprofessional cosmonauts on the modernized Soyuz. The first launching of this new Soyuz is planned in 2011,” said N. Sevast’yanov. The new Soyuz, he emphasized, “will fly not only to the ISS, it will be able to fly, also, to the Moon.” The “modernized” Soyuz “will be capable of returning from the Moon to the Earth with planetary escape velocity; on it will be installed an astronavigation system and a number of other systems,” Sevast’yanov said.

It is planned that the new Soyuz will be launched from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana with the aid of the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket, noted N. Sevast’yanov.

In the second stage of the program implementation, he said, will be created the “Parom,” «Паром» reusable transport system, which will replace the Progress cargo transport ships. “The fact is that today the Progress delivers to the ISS 2.5 tons of dry and liquid cargo. But this is a one-flight mission. We plan to solve the task of a significant reduction in the cost of cargo delivery by approximately four times,” he emphasized. In this case N. Sevast’yanov added that the “Parom reusable orbital module system will be located in the composition of the Station, and from the Earth they will launch containers with loads of up to 12 tons.”

In the program’s third stage will be created the Kliper ship, reported the RKK chief. It will be based on the technologies that will be developed in the first two stages. The onboard systems will be utilized from the modernized Soyuz spacecraft, the program elements from the Parom system, noted N. Sevast’yanov.

“We have special hopes for Kliper. This is an transport industrial system of new qualities. When a fleet of Klipers is created, they will be based at Baikonur. Hence ships will launch and return here. This will give a big impetus to the development of the Baikonur infrastructure. For the care of the fleet of Klipers will have to create the valuable operational company, which will assume Kliper, to prepare it for the following flight,” said N. Sevast’yanov.

When the ships of the Kliper series begin to fly, he noted, this will make it possible to considerably increase the number of cosmonauts. “The prime cost of cargo delivery will be lowered approximately three times. From other side, the overheads which appear with launch and landing, will be lowered considerably, which will make it possible to expand the circle of participants in the flights,” added the Energiya leader. About this reports the Interfax Agency.

And some more Russian space news tidbits, from SpaceDaily.com:

I would like to see Russia reach Mars first – it would make up for all the previous setbacks in their program, and the miseries endured during the 1990s. Unfortunately, funding is lacking (the government doesn’t seem particularly interested) and a lot of the country’s money was stolen by the oligarches during that period (I think they should be rounded up and shot, and their money taken back by the government and put into the space program and social welfare. Well, that is what I would do :-).

I am uncertain as to whether to continue this blog or not (my website takes up enough of my energy), but The Accidental Russophile mentioned it (to my horror – I thought it was hidden!) so I guess I had better, for now! It is nice to have a comments facility, though if and when I start to get comment spam I will have to moderate them. I also managed to upload some photos for the blog design (I modified the template a bit) so I rather like it!

(Note: title derived from the movie That Darned Cat)

8/11: Cosmonaut blogs?

Yet another thing that dismays me is that no professional cosmonauts have posted blogs or journals online from the ISS. The NASA astronauts have, but the cosmonauts remain silent. As they are government employees, the astronaut journals tend to be somewhat bland (if they said anything controversial I guess they would not fly again!), and are static HTML journals (not blogs with comments enabled). It would be good publicity for the Russian space program if the cosmonauts did keep journals.

One cosmonaut, Sergei Ryazanskii (not yet flown in space), has a Livejournal (thanks to “Siberian Tiger” for finding it!), though it seems to have “died” (not updated since March this year – lost interest? Too busy?). The approximate title translation is, “Thoughts of nothing, or of everything at once.” He also has a website.

News tidbits:

“Russian Space Program Fuels Up With New Ideas For Earth Sciences And More,” Space Daily.

12/11: Russia-China space co-operation

A summary of a Russian exhibition in Peking, paraphrased from reports in Novosti Kosmonavtiki news № 588 and some reports at the Roskosmos site.

Roskosmos, the Russian Space Agency, was part of a larger Russian exhibit in Peking, China, from 6-12 November: “Russia and China: new ways of commercial and economic collaboration in the 21st century.” The Roskosmos chief Anatolii Perminov was there, along with various dignitaries. The Russian space organizations who had displays at the exhibitions were: RKK Energiya (РКК «Энергия» им. С.П.Королева), FGUP GNPRKTs Progress (ФГУП ГНПРКЦ «ЦСКБ-Прогресс»), FGUP NPO Lavochkin (ФГУП НПО им.С.А.Лавочкина), FGUP NPO M.F.Reshetnev Applied Mechanics (ФГУП НПО прикладной механики им. М.Ф.Решетнева), FGUP RNII KP, Jet Propulsion Scientific Research Institute (ФГУП «РНИИ КП»), VNII electromechanics (ВНИИ электромеханики), TsNII Comet Central Scientific Institute (ЦНИИ «Комета»). (Sorry, names of organizations are confusing and I don’t know how to translate them properly – see Russian Institutes & Industry at ESA Permanent Mission in Russia, and R&D Organizations in the Soviet Space Program at Soviet Web Space for some.)

It was the largest Russian exhibition in China in the last 50 years. 2000 people from 46 regions of Russia participated.

On 7/11, A. Permoniov said at a press conference that a Russian-Chinese project on the study of the Moon could be realized in 2010-2011. It assumes that in 2007 the Chinese pilotless apparatus will complete a flight around the Moon, and Russia would actively be connected to the project in the later stage. Provisions would be made for landing apparatus on the Moon, photo-reconnaissance and soil samples. The mission would be launched from China.

The Russian-Chinese collaboration in the region of space during 2007-2009 was affirmed at the exhibition. Chinese ministers spent more than the planned time at the Roskosmos exhibition, apparently pleased by it.

The USA has also made outreaches to China concerning its space program. NASA chief Michael Griffin earlier visited China in September, and a Chinese delegation visited America at NASA’s invitation in Autumn for talks about the possibility of China participating in NASA’s plans for return to the Moon. There was a suggestion that NASA was considering the Chinese Shenzhou ship as an alternative to its crew being transported on Russian Soyuz ships. Nikolai Sevast’yanov, during a videoconference between Moscow and Peking on 10/11, cast doubts on this proposal. Russia is considering increasing Soyuz production so that four ships can fly each year, thus increasing the crew on the ISS. Energiya is also developing a cargo version of the Soyuz spacecraft that would be able to deliver and return to Earth 500 kg of cargo. The Chinese manned program also did not currently include plans for flights to the ISS, and thus far the negotiations of Russia and China about the flight of a Chinese cosmonaut to the ISS were not carried out, Sevast’yanov replied in answer to a journalist’s questions.

The chief of NPO Lavochkin, Georgii Polishchuk, said that there were plans to include a Chinese micro-satellite on the Phobos-Soil, «Фобос-грунт» mission to the Mars moon Phobos, which would deliver a soil sample back to Earth. Ten countries were participating in the mission, planned to launch in October 2009.

The Roskosmos deputy, Yurii Nosenko, stated in the Moscow-Peking videolink that he did not fear that China would surpass Russia in its space program in the near future. They would more likely move in step within the context of their partnership. It also depended upon how the Russian space program continued to develop, for it had been badly retarded in the turmoil of the last 10-15 years. Things had changed somewhat with the adoption of a federal space program. He also said that Russia was opposed to the militarization of space.

14/11: Silent cosmonauts

“Space station veteran glad to be home,” MSNBC.com. Astronaut Jeff Williams comments about his stay on the ISS as part of the ISS-13 crew. But why is nothing ever heard from cosmonauts? Did Pavel Vinogradov have any opinions?

19/11: Silly stunts

The Dumb Golf Stunt is set to happen during the spacewalk on 22/23 November, performed by Mikhail Tyurin. I really hate this aspect of the Russian space program; I am sure none of the cosmonauts joined their profession in order to be glorified salespeople. It’s undignified and the Russian government should increase their funding so that the space agency gets enough money and doesn’t have to resort to such tacky commercialism. The government space programs should be about exploring and colonizing space, not this nonsense.

Expedition 14 Mission Status Briefing Materials, NASA ISS site.

22/11: MLM update

Expedition 14 is to begin their spacewalk from the Russian Pirs airlock at 23:00 UTC on 22 November (10:00 a.m tomorrow in Melbourne) and finish at 04:47 UTC (3:47 p.m) on 23/11.

Some news tidbits from Novosti Kosmonavtiki news № 591. The completion of the Russian MLM module is to begin at last (the next module to be launched – the last was Pirs on 15 September 2001):

22/11/2006/00:05 A new order for RKK Energiya

The Energiya Rocket & Space corporation named after S.P. Korolev has received from the Federal Space Agency the order for the creation of the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM, МЛМ) for the Russian segment (RS, РС) the International Space Station (ISS, МКС). The company press-service announced this.

On the press release published on the RKK Energiya site, it is emphasized that the state contract for the carrying out in 2007 of works on creation of the МЛМ is signed by the heads of Roskosmos and RKK Energiya on 3 November 2006. According to the contract the Corporation is certain by the general contractor of these works. Other participants in the project are: GKNPTs Khrunichev, NIITP (НИИТП), RNIIKP (РНИИКП), NIIAO (НИИАО), VNIIEM (ВНИИЭМ), NPP Quantum, NIIMASh Submicron, NPP Zvezda, etc.

The MLM will be created for the purpose of research & development, applied and functionalities of the Russian segment of the Station and increase the economic efficiency of its use due to an increase in volume and the list of given services. Its start into a circumterraneous orbit and incorporation into the structure of the Russian segment is planned to be carried out in 2009.

To effectively achieve the MLM’s intended use, universal and specialized workplaces on technology of replaceable useful loadings will be placed onboard, the onboard complex of management on the basis of modern devices and the equipment will be installed, and the configuration of its internal volumes in the interests of an increase in space for scientific equipment and payloads will be optimized. In the structure of the module it is planned to install a number of developments of the European Space Agency: the ERA manipulator and the DMS-R multipurpose onboard computer.

Russian version, Русская версия.

(I have no idea what all the acronyms of the various Russian companies mean!)

21/11/2006/15:05 The financing of space science in the Federal space program for 2006-2015 totals 26 billion rubles.

The financing of space science in the Federal space program/ФКП for 2006-2015 is planned to reach 26 billion rbl. The deputy head of the Roskosmos Federal Space Agency, Yurii Nosenko informed a press conference today about this.

Having reminded them that the common financing of the ФКП totals 305 billion rbl., he has informed that 16 percent (that is 26 billion rbl). This sum makes only 2 percent from the means allocated in the world on a space science is allocated for science, has emphasized the Roscosmos deputy.

According to Y. Nosenko, ITAR-TASS reports, in the FKP ФКП 12 large scientific projects are incorporated in three directions: astrophysics, researches of solar-terrestrial communications and research of the Solar system.

Now Russia does not have any scientific space vehicles. “We only participate in foreign scientific projects,” ascertained Y. Nosenko regretfully. Among these projects he has named five foreign astrophysical projects and five projects on studying the Solar System. According to the Roskosmos deputy, the Russian devices are installed on foreign space vehicles, and “work very successfully.”

Russian version, Русская версия.

24/11: Cash-strapped

Expedition 14’s spacewalk yesterday suffered a few glitches. The exit from Pirs was delayed by 1h 17m as Mikhail had to exit his spacesuit to straighten a kinked cooling suit hose. They also had some trouble opening the hatch because of an obstruction. There was also problems setting up for the golf stunt (wasting about 38m) and Mikhail only managed to get off one shot before having to move onto the other tasks. The initial order of the successive tasks was subsequently changed. The spacewalk was shortened as the initial delay meant they used up consumables (the lithium hydroxide CO2 scrubbers in their spacesuits); TsUP tend to be conservative with spacewalk length. You can follow the LIVE: ISS Expedition 14 Spacewalk and Golf Stunt thread at NASASpaceflight.com.

I initially thought cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov was doing the Russian communications between the cosmonauts and TsUP, but it turned out to be another Sergei K – Kireevichev – so I was rather disappointed about that!

The spacewalk lasted 5h 38m, from 00:17 to 05:55 UTC.

“Spacewalker takes orbital golf shot,” MSNBC.com. Naturally the golf stunt got the most attention from the media, no doubt pleasing the company who sponsored it, but (again) making the Russian Space Agency look like cheap salesmen who would pawn their own grandmothers to get some cash. (The media usually include the phrase “cash-strapped” whenever referring to the Russian space program.) I would like to have a few choice words with those in the RSA who make cosmonauts do these stupid promotions. It is not what the Russian space program should be about.

It follows other commercial ventures at the space station that the Russian space agency has allowed, sometimes to the chagrin of NASA. The cash-strapped Russians have allowed Pizza Hut to paint its logo on a rocket and have a pizza delivered to the space station. And it once charged PepsiCo $5 million to have cosmonauts float a replica of a soda can outside the Mir space station.

NASA has taken a grin-and-bear-it attitude. The U.S. space agency is indebted to its Russian partner for flying U.S. astronauts to the space station while shuttles were grounded after the Columbia disaster.

An unrelated source of dismay is that the daily ISS On-Orbit Status reports seem to have stopped (the last posted 6 October, and they have been very erratic this year). An email I sent to Spaceref came back with the reply that they had stopped receiving them, for some reason. The Reports are posted in the L2 section of NASASpaceflight.com, but that section is paid subscriber-only, which I can’t afford (I don’t have a credit card, anyway). I am very disappointed as they were the only detailed source of daily life on the ISS (I think they are for NASA personnel in the ISS program).

28/11: Who wants to be a cosmonaut?

Who wants to be a cosmonaut? Not many, according to this article at MSNBC.com, “Cosmonaut careers are losing their luster.” Also commented on at Slashdot: The Incredible Shrinking Cosmonaut Corps. There was one rather dismaying comment by a “PeterAitch”:

I’ve just come back from Korolev (aka Space City) as a paying guest of Energia Corporation. I was there with some 17-18 year olds for the “Space Olympics,” an annual international event where the Russians are trying very hard to enthuse the next generation about Space Exploration in general. At the same time, they are making shed-loads of money out of their "guests": very New Russia.

Having met five cosmonauts (4 active; 1 retired) on this trip, it’s my impression that they are all still struggling to some extent to come to terms with life in modern Russia. Mostly in their late 40’s or early 50’s, they seemed tired and somewhat cynical, or even bored with the endless PR. Many of the technical support people have baled out, either to administrative jobs within the same sector or elsewhere completely. There was a definite “Soviet” feel to the trip, as our Russian hosts have not made a complete psychological transition from the old ways when they were truly elite. For example, we were not permitted to visit any working churches (e.g. St Basil’s in Red Square) and they kept driving us round and round Moscow to ensure that we ran out of time rather than allow this visit. Lenin’s mausoleum was, naturally, “highly recommended” (i.e. mandatory).

Even so, most of those in Space City proper (which strictly is a separate part of the much bigger city of Korolev) are still an elite by Russian standards. They have bigger apartments – twice the average floorspace – and much better shops. The best schools (e.g. Lyceum № 11) are eye-opening for someone from the UK educational system. Although not amazingly lavish in terms of resources (although still good), the attainment of their top students is awesome. Their performance in science, mathematics, foreign languages and performing arts was extremely impressive.

On the other hand, traffic is utterly chaotic, the food was mostly appalling and their organisation (general, rather than specialist) was quite poor. Medical care was surprisingly cursory (I fell ill during the visit) and they certainly don’t trust the banking system – I had to go to the airport exchange booths in the middle of the night to cash travellers’ cheques to pay them in CASH for our visit. (Very unsettling for someone from the West!)

There are certainly enough technically-minded young Russians (and Kazakhstanis) around to keep the system supplied with cosmonauts – at least within a few years’ time. They currently fund specialist scholarships to Moscow State University and have a range of other incentives. Crucially, they are all still very proud of their long legacy of cosmonautics (edited for deaths and maimings, inevitably) and it was a real thrill even for me to be able to physically grab hold of Yuri Gagarin’s re-entry capsule, which is displayed with loads of other hardware in Energia’s museum.

Then again, when the Russo-American-European ISS has become the world’s highest advertising platform with this recent golf-drive stunt, who can really be sure what the future holds for science and scientists? When I trained 30 years ago, I never really expected to end up teaching young adults, even when moving towards the sunset of my working life.

The Australian team actually won the “Space Olympics” he is referring to! The competition is mentioned at the Scouts Australia site, the results here and there is a site for the American students. The students appeared to have had a great time, at least! And how I envy them, and wish I was young again!

December

13/12: Cosmonaut photos

The Encyclopedia Astronote (Космическая энциклопедия ASTROnote) site got hold of portraits of the latest cosmonaut selection (see my 20/10 entry). Low-resolution photos, but better than nothing. Quick links to the photos on the site: Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Misurkin, Oleg Viktorovich Novitskii, Aleksei Nikolaevich Ovchinin, Maksim Vladimirovich Ponomarev, Sergei Nikolaevich Ryzhikov, Elena Olegovna Serova, Nikolai Vladimirovich Tikhonov.

Sy Liebergot is a “Paranoid Patriot” (perhaps typical of the cranky conservative types of his generation, though). A posting by him at CollectSPACE (in the Griffin says space shuttle was a mistake thread):

I was part of the original Space Station design and program office 1979-1986) before the program office was moved to Reston, VA. In my very personal opinion, NASA’s next big mistake was involving Russia and moving it into an orbital inclination of 51.6 deg. You see, one of our major forward planning features was to use the Station as a transportation node, i.e. construct upper stages on-orbit and head back to the Moon and on to Mars. We even planned a sample isolation module for Mars return samples. All that went away when we gave up on i=28.5 deg. and approx. 30% of payload lift capability. All this to save money. But then I rant.

Would be interesting to hear the Russian point-of-view about that!

(I just Googled “Paranoid Patriots” but apparently I didn’t make the term up – drats! My site comes up on the second page, though.)

I changed my blog over to the Blogger Beta (all blogs will have to soon, so I thought I might as well). It seems OK so far; I like being able to “label” entries.

“Darth Vader” gave me a nice mention on his blog. :-) I am still not sure if I am going to maintain this one yet. Somehow I don’t think anyone is interested in the topics I write about! I seem to have a habit of becoming interested in things few others care much about.

15/12: Smoking cosmonaut!

While browsing through the USSR Airspace site I was rather dismayed to come across this photo of cosmonaut Yurii Malenchenko SMOKING!!!! I thought the cosmonauts would be health-conscious, but apparently some aren’t! :-( Looks like a job for the Quit campaign.

20/12: Shuttle fuss

STS-116 Discovery undocked today and as usual the mission has been reported in breathless detail by the world’s media. It was a spectacular mission that involved four complex spacewalks by the Shuttle crew.

In contrast Russian missions are rarely reported by the mainstream media as they probably seem rather dull in comparison and aren’t doing anything noteworthy, apart from transporting crew. There’s been no Russian ISS components added since Pirs in 2001, and the MLM isn’t to be added until 2009 at the earliest (see 22/11 entry).

Sunita Williams has replaced Thomas Reiter as the third crew member; she will be the third American woman to stay for a long-duration ISS mission. Again Russia is a sorry contrast; they have not sent any Russian women into orbit since 1997 (Elena Kondakova on STS-84) and whose sole hope for another woman cosmonaut, Elena Serova, is only beginning her training, and (assuming she succeeds) it will be many years before she gets into orbit.

Some Russian news from Space Daily:

And an article from Interspace News: “Russia’s Plans For The Next 26 Years In Space.” A detailed examination of Russia’s space plans for the future – but will the Government support them?

Still waiting for Charles Simonyi to begin his blog!! He also said that his two Russian cosmonaut crewmates, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, will be posting entries too, so I look forward to that! (I might add that I really hate Flash-animated sites as I have to “load” the site every time I visit, and I can’t copy-and-paste text to quote it! The photos are also Flash, so I can’t save them to my computer unless I take a screenshot and open it in a photo editor. Annoying!)

26/12: Energiya book to download

This post at FPSpace has a link to download the book ROCKET AND SPACE CORPORATION ENERGIA – The Legacy of S. P. Korolev in PDF format (and in English). It is a 13 MB download in a zipped file. If you don’t have the software to unzip the .rar file, try the open-source ZipGenius. This book was also published by Apogee Books; I saw it in a bookstore a few years ago for A$50! Don’t know how long the link will be available.

This site, Интернет-выставка: «К 100-летию С.П. Королёва», is an exhibition site (in Russian only) for the 100th anniversary of Sergei Korolyov’s birthday with lots of photos and images.

I miss my daily On-Orbit Status fix. :-( I have been following them since about 2002.

27/12: Not for sale

“Russia Won’t Transfer Space Technology”: via NASA Watch, seems like Russia is at long last realizing that selling off its space technology to China may not be in its best long-term interests. About time! Russia has sold too much in the last decade.

Some resent the way in which the rocket program’s family silver has been sold off at bargain basement prices to rivals who stand to gain huge profits from their lifetime’s investment. The joint ventures have drawn criticism that they will lead to a brain, patent and knowledge drain to the United States and that the once-great Russian rocket industry will lose its ingenuity and ability to innovate.

– Russia in Space: The Failed Frontier?, Brian Harvey.

Russia Won’t Transfer Space Technology

Dec 26 1:24 PM US/Eastern

By Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press Writer, Moscow

Russia will cooperate with China on space projects, but will not transfer sensitive technologies that could enable Beijing to become a rival in a future space race, the head of Russia’s space agency said Tuesday.

Anatoly Perminov, chief of Russia’s Federal Space Agency, said Moscow and Beijing would cooperate in robotic missions to the moon. He added, however, that Russia would maintain restrictions on sharing technology.

Russia sold China the technology that formed the basis of its manned space program, which launched its first astronaut in 2003 and two others in 2005. The Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft closely resembles the Russian Soyuz.

“The Chinese are still some 30 years behind us, but their space program has been developing very fast,” Perminov said at a news conference. “They are quickly catching up with us.”

The next Chinese manned space flight is due next year. China also wants to send up a space station and land a robot probe on the moon by 2010.

Perminov said that Russia would cooperate with China in space exploration strictly within the framework of a bilateral agreement that doesn’t envisage exporting Russian space technologies.

“We aren’t transferring any technologies to China now,” Perminov said. “This issue has been under special control of the government.”

He said some Russian scientists who violated the ban have been punished – an apparent reference to Valentin Danilov, a physicist who was convicted of spying for China in 2004. Danilov pleaded innocent in the case, saying the information on satellites he provided was not classified and that he had published some of it in scientific magazines.

“For China, whose economy has seen an immense growth, its space program has been one of the top national priorities,” he said. “They are spending much more on space compared to Russia … and their space industries employ many times more the number of scientists and workers than Russia’s.”

After decades of rivalry, Moscow and Beijing have developed what they call a strategic partnership since the 1991 Soviet collapse, pledging their adherence to a “multipolar world,” a term that refers to their opposition to the perceived U.S. domination. China also has become a top customer for Russia’s weapons industries, purchasing billions of dollars worth of jets, missiles, submarines and destroyers.

But despite the burgeoning bilateral ties, some Russian politicians and political experts have voiced concern that China’s growing could eventually threaten Russia and pointed at a growing flow of Chinese migrants to Russia’s sparsely-populated Far East.

Perminov said Russia led the world in the number of space launches this year, accounting for about 24 of the world’s total of 65 space launches so far – about 40 percent and ahead of the United States, which he said had a 28 percent share.