Oleg Kononenko using the 3D bio-printer aboard the International Space Station. (Credit: Roscosmos)

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — INVITRO, a leading medical company, and 3D Bioprinting Solutions biotechnology laboratory announced a successful completion of the first stage of the Magnetic 3D Bioprinter space experiment. On December 3, 2018, the Organaut bioprinter was delivered to the ISS on board the Soyuz MS-11 manned spacecraft. For the first time on orbit, cosmonaut-researcher Oleg Kononenko printed human cartilage tissue and a rodent thyroid gland using a Russian bioprinter.

The Organaut was already aboard the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft on October 11, 2018, but its crew returned to Earth 20 minutes later after an emergency situation. The bioprinter landed in the habitation module and was significantly damaged by overload. The backup was prepared and the crew’s repeated training was organized in the shortest possible time.

(more…)

Some good news for the Russian satellite company Dauria Aerospace: Cybernaut will be pumping US$70 million into the creation of a group of 10 satellites for daily imaging of the 100 biggest cities in the world with an accuracy of 0.7 metres per pixel. The Chinese investment fund will be collaborating with Russian private space company Dauria Aerospace. The pair signed a term sheet yesterday at the second Chinese-Russian Expo […]

The Russian state corporation Vnesheconombank has invested 60 million rubles ($1.1 million) into Dauria Satellite Technologies, which is a spinoff of the private Russian satellite company Dauria Aerospace.

The funding will help advance development of the Auriga optical remote sensing spacecraft, which will take high resolution images of the Earth.

The investment contract was signed at Startup Village on Tuesday by Dauria Aerospace general director Sergei Ivanov and VEB chairman Andrei Morozov.

(more…)

I recent found a couple of interesting analytical pieces about the state of Russia’s struggling high tech sector and space program. Together, they paint a rather dismal picture of the prospects that Russia will be able to revive its once-proud space effort and break free of its economic reliance upon oil, gas, minerals and heavy metals.

In “The Short Life and Speedy Death of Russia’s Silicon Valley,” James Appell looks at the declining fortunes of Skolkovo, the Russian government’s $4 billion incubator outside Moscow that was designed to be the nation’s answer to America’s famous tech center. Then-President Dmitry Medvedev launched the ambitious effort in 2009 after visiting California as a way to diversify the Russian economy.

(more…)

A brief roundup of recent news from the Skolkovo Space Cluster outside Moscow: Dauria Aerospace Satellite Contract. Aniara SpaceCom LLC of India has signed a $210 million contract with Dauria Aerospace for two all-electric Ku-band telecommunications satellites.  The plan is to launch the satellites on an Indian Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket in late 2017. The purchase is being funded through a direct loan from the Export Insurance Agency […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks over plans for Vostochny. (Credit: Roscosmos)

A couple of stories in The Moscow Times provide some insight into the re-nationalization of Russia’s space industry.  One story claims the changes will create a giant black hole that will suck in billions of rubles while producing little of value. The other spotlights the firing of a prominent space analyst who dared oppose the changes.

(more…)

Two-stage Aldan rocket. (Credit: Lin Industrial)

Even as Vladimir Putin and his merry band of bureaucrats and oligarchs are busy re-nationalizing the Russian space industry under the control of one fully-owned government company, there is some sign of independent entrepreneurial life within the nation’s space effort.

Start-up companies have sprouted up to launch satellites and to pursue small satellite launch vehicles and space tourism systems. All of these companies appear to be nurtured by a government created and run incubator called Skolkovo that is designed to be Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley.

(more…)

MOSCOW (Energomash/Roscosmos PR) — Experts at Energomash and RSC Applied Chemistry who are working on a specially designed experimental setup have obtained the first experimental batch of the latest high-performance rocket fuel, acetyl.

The results confirmed the previously conducted theoretical studies, and showed the effectiveness of the technology for production of the new fuel.

(more…)

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. (Credit: A. Savin)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

As I first reported back in February,  Russia is moving forward with the development of its own DARPA. Ruler-for-Life Vladimir Putin has sent a bill to the Duma to establish the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry, which Wired has dubbed DARPASKI.

The establishment of the foundation will be overseen by hardline Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, whom Putin appointed last December as defense czar with the goal of cleaning up the corruption-prone defense and error-prone space sectors.

(more…)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

Roscosmos and the Skolkovo Fund will work together on developing advanced space and telecommunications technologies as part of the space agency’s long-range development plan that extends out to 2030 and beyond, Russian media report.

(more…)