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The Big Picture: Russia readies Soyuz rockets ahead of ISS mission
When American astronaut Scott Kelly Russian Cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka leave Earth for their 12 month stay on the International Space Station, they'll be riding this Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft. The launch is scheduled for this Friday from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the team will return March, 2016 aboard the TMA-18M.
Russia will resume space tourism in 2018
Russia's Roscosmos space agency is in a bind. It makes money ferrying American astronauts to the International Space Station, but it's going to have a lot of unclaimed seats once NASA starts using capsules from Boeing and SpaceX. The solution? It's resuming space tourism. When 2018 rolls around, Energiya (the main company handling manned trips) will fill the empty third chairs on Soyuz flights to the ISS with tech moguls and anyone else who has the time and money to enter Earth orbit just for kicks. It's not going to be as glamorous as purpose-built space tourism programs (whenever they're finally ready), but something tells us that Russia won't have a problem finding paying customers. [Image credit: NASA, Flickr]
Frozen fuel lines made those European satellites go off course
Remember those two European satellites that went spectacularly off-course in August? Well, it turns out that the reason the vessels entered into the wrong orbit was due to frozen fuel lines. Space Travel reports that pipes containing the Russian Soyuz rocket's (which put the satellites into space) propellent were placed too close to some pretty frigid helium lines, which in turn restricted the flow of fuel to a pair of altitude control thrusters and subsequently caused a lack of power. The good news is that this "design flaw" is apparently fixable easily and immediately for future missions. That won't help the Galileo GPS satellites for now however, because they don't have enough fuel to reach the intended orbit. Assuming there's enough money to go around there's always next time, at least.
New Soyuz route cuts travel time to ISS from two days to six hours
Normally, a trip from Earth to the ISS takes about two days. Thursday, a Soyuz capsule docked with the orbiting laboratory after less than six hours of flight time, setting a record. Accelerating the trip wasn't an issue of newer technology or more powerful engines, necessarily, but of better math and planning. The Russian vehicle essentially took a shortcut that required precisely timed steering over the course of four orbits, putting three crew members (including one American astronaut) on the space station at 10:28pm ET -- just five hours and 45 minutes after takeoff from Kazakhstan. Russian engineers are already looking at ways to trim more time off the trip, by cutting two more orbits from the route. Obviously the human cargo appreciates spending less time in the cramped quarters of the Soyuz. But getting equipment and materials for experiments to the ISS quicker should also yield better and more reliable scientific results. For a few clips of liftoff and the docking itself check out the NASA link in the source.
Russia's new spaceship will fly you to the moon, let you swing among the stars
Russia's protracted attempts at replacing the aging space warhorse that is Soyuz may finally bear fruit. RSC Energia has announced that it has finished the design of a prototype spacecraft under the country's Prospective Piloted Transport System -- the equivalent of the Orion program. The as-yet unnamed craft is expected to be ready for testing by 2017, and unlike the current model, will be fully reusable. It's been designed not only as a taxi to take cosmonauts (and the odd multi-billionaire) to the International Space Station, but also ferry crews to the moon. That is, of course, assuming that Elon Musk doesn't get there first and make the moon his summer home.
US and Russian space agencies to launch first year-long mission on the ISS
If you thought that year out around Europe was an eye opener, how about 12 months on the International Space Station? That's what's in store for two unnamed astronauts. Currently, the maximum stay on the ISS is six months, but in 2015, one Russian, and one American will work their way through the whole calendar, in a trip that could help pave the way for deep space travel. Plenty of data has already been collected about the effect microgravity has on the body, but less is known of the longer-term implications. NASA is already considering sending manned expeditions to near-Earth asteroids and Mars in the coming decades -- but the results from this excursion could prove invaluable. The names of the chosen two haven't been revealed, and the Soyuz capsule's (currently unaccounted for) third-seat has also sparked talk of another person possibly coming along for the ride. Time to re-plan that gap year?
Excalibur Almaz wants to offer the first private trip to the Moon -- provided you've got £100 million
Sir Richard Branson might want to look over his shoulder, since Virgin Galactic now has an even more ambitious rival. Britain-based Excalibur Almaz is planning no less than a trip to the Moon using reworked, Soviet-era Salyut space stations and Soyuz capsules as the vehicles for the multi-stage, 500,000-mile total voyage. Accordingly, no one will be living in the lap of luxury on the way there: there's just two habitation modules that will take three people each, and the six-month trip isn't going to leave much room for perks other than an isolated room in the event of a solar radiation blast. Not that there's as much of a rush given the efforts involved in making this look-but-don't-touch Moon orbit a reality. Anyone who travels needs to be in tip-top shape -- and the £100 million ($156 million) ticket will make Virgin's Spaceship Two rides seem downright frugal. Be sure to pack your gym shorts and a briefcase full of cash.
A vacation worth a cool million: five days in the CSS space hotel
Boarding the Soyuz rocket, seven hotel patrons will be asked to fork over £500,000 ($825,000) for the flight and another £100,000 ($165,000) for a five-night stay -- who needs family road trips when you can vacation in space? Russian company Orbital Technologies announced plans to construct a Commercial Space Station (CSS) by 2016, offering guests an unforgettable vacation and kick-ass view of Earth below. Way more fashionable than the ISS 62 miles away, customers can lounge in horizontal or vertical beds, enjoy some astronaut ice cream or chill with this guy.
Soyuz space capsule landing captured in an awesome set of pictures
NASA shutterbug Bill Ingalls has snapped some pics of the recent Soyuz TMA-18 landing in the Kazakhstan steppes, and they're pretty sweet. We're glad to report that the three astronauts, who had spent the last six months in the International Space Station, arrived safe and in one piece (well, three pieces total) on September 25 of this year, after a failed undocking attempt the day before. Various versions of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been in use since 1966.
Next Russian space capsule could land on a gentle cushion of fire
We're all used to space vehicles making a fiery ascents into the heavens whilst sitting atop massive, earth-shaking rockets that fill the sky with light and hearts with awe. What's a little more unusual is a spacecraft that relies on the same technique make a gentle return trip. Ships landing under rocket power have been bandied about for decades, but now the Russians seem intent to make it a reality for their next space capsule. The current Soyuz capsules do use rockets to cushion landings, firing at the last seconds before touchdown, but still descent is largely managed by a series of parachutes. This next-gen ship would forgo such frilly things in favor of rather more pyrotechnic ones, a change that sounds rather exciting but, to be honest, somewhat less than reliable. Given our choice we'd probably take a halo of silk above rather than a pack of explosives below, thanks.[Via BBC News]
Watch a video of Richard Garriott's geeky but enviable space voyage
By now a lot of you know that Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa, is in space. Sadly, since we didn't watch the live broadcast of his liftoff, we only know this through second-hand reports. But it's all going to be okay -- the NASA TV broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube, so if you missed it as we did then you too can watch an eccentric and wealthy nerd experience his lifelong dream. We've embedded it after the jump. Enjoy!Garriott lifted off on October 12th, carrying with him the DNA of Operation Immortality participants, including some Tabula Rasa players. Shortly after liftoff he displayed to the camera a Logos message to the camera on the spacecraft -- simultaneously an inspiring quote about space travel from a Russian scientist ("Earth is the cradle of humanity but mankind will not be in the cradle forever.") and a hint at upcoming additions to Tabula Rasa.[Via Joystiq]
Google honcho Sergey Brin plans first-ever private trip to the ISS
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is about to join an extremely short list of space tourists, according to reports. The search engine-kingpin just dropped a $5 million dollar "investment" on the company Space Adventures, which all but guarantees him a seat on the outfit's next flight in 2011. The trip aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket will take Brin to the ISS in the first-ever private flight to the station (Ubuntu head Mark Shuttleworth has made the trip, though not on a private mission). The company stresses that the ride will be less about tourism and more about commercial exploration, with passengers bringing aboard experiments and taking part in flight operations. Now the only riddle left to solve is whether the last Cylon is Brin or Bezos.[Via Gear Diary]
Second Galileo GPS satellite goes into orbit
Finally, the EU's Giove-B GPS satellite was shot into space by the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Strapped atop a Soyuz-FG rocket, the Giove-B reached orbit at 8:01am this morning, and is the second satellite launched for the nascent next-generation European Galileo satellite navigation system. This particular model is kitted out with dual redundant rubidium atomic clocks that the ESA says are "the most accurate in space". The next bird -- just three of thirty -- is slated to go up in 2010 with a full-system launch around 2013. Until then, it looks like they'll be stuck using the US's crappy, less-sensitive GPS network (boo hoo).[Via Physorg]