Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov

Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov told the media that Russia will spend $6 billion through 2015 to build its new Vostochny spaceport and to develop replacements for the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft, Interfax reports.

“The total cost of building a promising manned transport system, a new space rocket complex, Rus-M, the ground processing facility will be about 180 billion rubles by 2015,” he said.

Perminov said that the new Rus-M rocket being developed by TsSKB Progress will be capable of launching up to 24 metric tons into orbit. The new rocket will be tested in 2015, with human launches of a new six-person spacecraft being built by RSC Energia planned to begin in 2018. Designs for the new rocket and spacecraft were drawn up last year.

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Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov has a new deputy. Alexander P. Lopatin was appointed to the post on Jan. 13. He replaces Victor Remishevsky, whom President Dmitry Medvedev fired last month in the wake of a Proton launch failure that send three GLONASS navigation satellites to the bottom of the Pacific. Roscomos PAO posted his bio: Lopatin was born on April 14, 1956. Formerly, he served in Space Forces as Deputy […]

Russia will name the Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on March 30 after Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human in space almost 50 years before on April 12, 1961.

This is just one of many commemorations being planned to mark the historic anniversary. The Voice of Russia reports that Roscosmos has invited the heads of 49 space agencies as well as astronauts and cosmonauts who have flow on Soviet and Russian spacecraft to attend gala celebrations in Moscow on April 12.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the Organizational Committee at the Mission Control Center on Tuesday. Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov gave him a briefing on the status of preparations. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Chief Sergey Krikalev reported about the celebrations set for Star City. Smolensk Region Gov. Sergey Antufiev told Putin about events planned for Gagarin’s native land.

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tours RSC Energia in July. (Credit: Russian Federation Government)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced that the government will spend 115 billion rubles ($3.8 billion) on national space programs in 2011, RIA Novosti reports. Putin said that Russia’s space plans include:

• Launch of about 50 spacecraft in 2011
• Long-range development of the GLONASS navigational system until 2020
• Long-term plan to increase global market share through development of new automated and human spacecraft
• Construction of a new spaceport in the Russian Far East.

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ROSCOSMOS PAO In accordance with the Resolution of the French President, Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov is awarded with Honored Legion Order of the Republic of France for his outstanding contribution into the Soyuz and Guiana Space Center project. The European Space Agency (ESA) set up the program “Soyuz at the Guiana Space Center (CSG)” to bolster collaboration with Russia on launch vehicles. The program is organized as follows: ESA is […]

NanoSail-D - Lost in space? (Credit: NASA)

As upstart SpaceX was feted this week for the successful flight and recovery of its first Dragon spacecraft, engineers on three continents were puzzling out the reasons behind three high-profile failures in space, demonstrating anew the challenges associated with the difficult field.

In Russia, officials watched as a Proton rocket sent three navigational satellites to the bottom of the Pacific off Hawaii, delaying the nation’s efforts to provide full global coverage for its GLONASS program. Japanese engineers scratched their heads over why their Akatsuki probe ended up in orbit around the sun instead of Venus. And NASA is not quite sure what happened to an experimental solar sail satellite that blasted off into space from Alaska.

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Aviation Week was able to talk to press-shy NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who says that NASA is taking a slow approach to cooperation with China and a list of proposed joint projects with the Russians: Bolden suggested space cooperation has been subsumed in larger financial issues that will be addressed when Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the U.S. in January, with the Executive Office of the President, the White House […]

International Space Station

ROSCOSMOS MISSION UPDATES

The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft will bring New Year presents to the International Space Station (ISS), commander Dmitry Kondratyev said, quoted by news media.

The Soyuz TMA-20, carrying cosmonaut Kondratyev, the U.S. and Italian flight engineers, Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli, is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on December 15. The three astronauts will be on board the ISS for 152 days.

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Roscosmos and NASA Negotiate Missions to Distant Space Roscosmos PAO Space agencies of Russia and US, Roscosmos and NASA, discuss space missions to distant space, Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov stated at the summit of the space agency heads held under the aegis of International Academy of Astronautics in Washington. Perminov and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who both lead Space Cooperation Working Group in the framework of the Russian-US President Commission, […]

Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov

ROSCOSMOS PRESS RELEASES

Construction of new Russian space port Vostochny won’t impact Baikonur’s operations, Head of Russian Federal Space Agency Anatoly Perminov said during the press conference  after the 13th meeting of the Baikonur Subcommittee of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan Intergovernmental Cooperative Board hosted by Astana on Nov. 9-10.

“Design and research efforts are ongoing currently at Vostochny. In other words, we are preparing the territory for further construction. It will continue at least for the first half of 2011,” Roscosmos Head stated.

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