NASA has issued a statement in response to Dmitry Rogozin’s Twitter rant in which the head of Russia’s space program threatened to drop the International Space Station on the U.S., Europe, China or India. NASA continues working with all our international partners, including the State Space Corporation Roscosmos, for the ongoing safe operations of the International Space Station. The new export control measures will continue to allow U.S.-Russia civil space […]

Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin went on rant on Twitter, raging against what he called “Alzheimer’s sanctions” imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, and threatening to the International Space Station on a uncontrolled re-entry over four countries. His tweets were in Russian, which were translated into English by Twitter. The translation might not be exact, but the message seems pretty clear. ALZHEIMER’S SANCTIONS Biden said the new sanctions […]

Translated from Russian by Google Translate

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at the XLVI Academic Readings in Cosmonautics (“Royal Readings – 2022”), Vladimir Solovyov, General Designer for Manned Space Systems and Complexes, spoke about the plans for the development of the Russian manned space program.”

Translated from Russian by Google Translate

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — The place where modern cosmonautics was born is known for sure: it is the legendary “Gagarin Launch”, site No. 1 of the Baikonur cosmodrome. It was here that the launch of the first satellite opened the Space Age of mankind. It was from here that Yuri Gagarin ascended into orbit on April 12, 1961.

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — In accordance with the approved Russian schedule of flights to the International Space Station, today, October 28, 2021 the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Progress MS-18 cargo spacecraft launched successfully at 00:00:32 UTC from Launchpad 6 (Vostok) of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In 8 minutes 48 seconds after liftoff the spacecraft and the third stage of the carrier separation was confirmed, the solar panels and antennas were deployed.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

For Russia, 2020 was a mixed year in terms of launch. Once the world’s leader in sending payloads into space, the nation finished a distant third behind the United States and China with only 17 orbital flights. That figure was eight below the 25 launches in 2019, and Russia’s lowest number of the 21st century. The U.S. and China finished with 44 and 39 launch attempts, respectively.

On the bright side, 2020 was the second year in a row in which Russia did not experience a launch failure. That streak came after more a decade during which the Russian launch industry was plagued with multiple fmishaps.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Live coverage of Russia’s Progress 78 cargo spacecraft’s launch and docking to the International Space Station will begin at 7 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 29, on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app. The uncrewed spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket at 7:27 p.m. (4:27 a.m. Wednesday, June 30, Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Progress spacecraft will go into orbit […]

SpaceX dominated, China surged and Russia had another clean sheet as American astronauts flew from U.S. soil again in a year of firsts.

First in a series

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a very busy launch year with a number of firsts in both human and robotic exploration. A total of 114 orbital launches were attempted, with 104 successes and 10 failures. It was the same number of launches that were conducted in 2018, with that year seeing 111 successes, two failures and one partial failure.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — An uncrewed Russian Progress 76 spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment on the station’s Russian segment at 1:45 p.m. EDT, a little more than three hours after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:26 a.m. (7:26 p.m. Baikonur time). At the time of docking, the spacecraft were traveling about 250 miles over Earth. The cargo spacecraft is delivering almost three […]

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Russian cargo spacecraft delivering almost three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) beginning at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 23. The uncrewed Russian Progress 76 is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz rocket at 10:26 a.m. (7:26 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Rendezvous and docking […]