Proton rocket

In 2008, Khrunichev paid two and a half times more for a 51 percent share in the U.S.-based International Launch Services (ILS) than the company it bought it from had paid only two years earlier, according to Izvestia.

The disparity between the purchase prices has vexed Russian investigators, as have the identities of those who controlled the British Virgin Islands company that sold its shares in ILS to Khrunichev.

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Another fine day for Russia’s space program. A Proton crashes with three GLONASS satellites.

The spectacular crash of Russia’s Proton rocket on Tuesday — with the loss of three navigation satellites — was simply the latest in a series of launch failures that have bedeviled the Russian and Ukrainian space industries over the last 30 months.

The table below shows a tale of woe that began in December 2010 and has resulted in the loss of 15 spacecraft and cost the heads of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and launch vehicle builder Khrunichev their jobs.

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As expected, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has fired Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov, ending his seven-year reign as head of the Russian space program. The dismissal, officially because Perminov was about the exceed the 65 year age limit for government officials, came after an embarrassing series of failures and harsh criticism that Roscosmos was falling behind on key projects. His departure was announced earlier this month. Putin appointed former First Deputy […]

ROSCOSMOS PAO — Presidents of Russia and the USA established Russian-US President Commission in July, 2010. A Space Cooperation Working group in the framework of the Commission is led by the Heads of Roscosmos and NASA. The 4th meeting of the Group took place in Roscosmos premises on April 15. The introductions by Anatoly Perminov and Charles Bolden were followed by discussion on: Russian and US space policy and future […]

Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov

In a stinging rebuke, Russia has announced that embattled Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov will step down after seven years at the helm of the Russian space agency. The announcement comes less than a week before Perminov is set to host the heads of 40 space agencies for the 50th anniversary celebration of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin and conduct high-level negotiations with NASA.

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As the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight approaches. Russia and China are laying out their plans for human missions to the Moon and beyond. They are similar in schedule if somewhat different in scope, with Russia seeing international cooperation as the key while China weights building a monster rocket capable of lifting 130 metric tons into orbit.

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Roscosmos is weathering severe criticism for losing four satellites over the last two months and delays in producing new spacecraft, AFP reports:

Russian space agency Roskosmos has committed “childish” errors and failed to build enough spacecraft, the government said Monday in an unprecedented rebuke to the Russian equivalent of NASA.

Russia’s powerful Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov issued the dressing down at a meeting with Roskosmos’s leadership after two satellite launches ended in partial or complete failure in the last three months….

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Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov

ROSCOSMOS PRESS RELEASES

Mission to Mars shall be implemented under international cooperation, Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov stated, answering the questions from the Twitter in Echo-Moscow web.

“No country is able of performing Martian mission by its own in the nearest future. That’s an issue of propulsion. In our program, we have human flight to Mars no earlier than 2035. On the other hand, advanced nuclear propulsion can be developed in 8 years or so, provided necessary funding. With this system, you can get to Mars in about 90 days,” Roscosmos head said.

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Soyuz rocket

There’s a great scene in the 1988 movie, Married to the Mob, in which Connie Russo (Mercedes Ruehl) explains the facts of Mafia life to Angela de Marco (Michelle Pfeiffer).

“We’re your friends, Angela, whether you like it or not,” she declares.

Angela was family, and there was no escaping it. Not even after Connie’s covetous husband, Tony “the Tiger” Russo (Dean Stockwell), rubbed out Angela’s hit man husband, “Cucumber” Frank de Marco (Alec Baldwin).

The situation is not so different for Kazakhstan. Nearly 20 years after it became the last Soviet republic to declare independence, the nation remains joined at the hip with Russia through its Baikonur Cosmodrome. And don’t expect that to change — ever.

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Soyuz rocket

Speaking to media editors-in-chief today, Roscosmos Head Antaoly Perminov laid out plans for a very busy year in space that includes four dozen launches, Russia’s first interplanetary probe in 15 years, a greater role in the International Space Station, and the development of new rockets and infrastructure.

During an appearance at the Club of the Leading Russian Media Editors-in-Chief in Itar-Tass, Perminov discussed the country’s space plans, which include:

• 48 launches, an increase from 31 last year
• October launch for Phobos-Grunt, an ambitious mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos
• assumption of the sole role in transporting crews to and from the International Space Station once the American space shuttle retires
• construction of roads, railways and worker housing for Russia’s new Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region
• completion of the GLONASS navigational satellite constellation
• debut of the Soyuz launcher in French Guiana
• development work on the Angara and Rus-M launchers
• launch of the Resource-P remote sensing spacecraft, which will have  0.4-0.6 meter resolution
• operation of the Electro-L satellite launched earlier this year
• design work on the Arctica space system.

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