Spaceflight insider

NASA has issued a public challenge where you can help design a critical sensor that would be needed for a future rover on Venus.

Artist’s concept of the AREE Venus rover. The rover would be wind-powered and able to last on Venus’ hellish surface much longer than previous landers. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech.

There’ve been missions to Venus over the past decades, but Venus is a tough place to visit, with temperatures on its surface hot enough to melt lead. The last probe that landed on Venus’ hellish surface was part of the Vega 2 mission in 1985; it transmitted data from Venus’ surface for 57 minutes. Now NASA wants to visit Venus’ surface again, not with just another lander … but with a rover.

On February 21, 2020, NASA announced a public challenge to help design a future Venus rover called Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE). The challenge – Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover – is specifically to develop an obstacle-avoidance sensor for the rover. The concept is being funded by a grant from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program.

The few landers that have made it to Venus’ surface, from the Soviet Union in the 1980s, didn’t last very long in the extremely hot, corrosive and high-pressure environment. Now, with current technology, NASA wants to build a rover that could last a lot longer and therefore be able to do a lot more science. And, of course, being a rover, could cover a variety of terrain that a stationary lander could not. Jonathan Sauder, principal investigator for AREE, said in a statement:

Earth and Venus are basically sibling planets, but Venus took a turn at one point and became inhospitable to life as we know it. By getting on the ground and exploring Venus, we can understand what caused Earth and Venus to diverge on wildly different paths and can explore a foreign world right in our own backyard.

The surface of Venus as seen by the Soviet Venera 13 probe, which landed on March 1, 1982. Image via Don P. Mitchell.

While previous landers lasted only minutes, AREE could survive for months. It would be powered by Venusian winds, and the sensor would be needed to help it avoid obstacles like rocks, steep slopes or crevices.

For Venus, the sensor would need to work without electronics. Even modern electronic systems start failing at about 250 degrees Fahrenheit (120 degrees Celsius), and temperatures on Venus’ surface reach a whopping 840 degrees F (448 C). According to Ryon Stewart, challenge coordinator for the NASA Tournament Lab at Johnson Space Center:

This is an exciting opportunity for the public to design a component that could one day end up on another celestial body. NASA recognizes that good ideas can come from anywhere and that prize competitions are a great way to engage the public’s interest and ingenuity and make space exploration possible for everyone.

The first-place prize in the challenge is $15,000. Second place nets $10,000 and third place wins $5,000. The NASA Tournament Lab is hosting the challenge on the heroX crowdsourcing platform and submissions are accepted until May 29, 2020.

Composite image of Venus’ atmosphere from the Japanese probe Akatsuki (Venus Climate Orbiter). Dark patches in the atmosphere are still unexplained, but appear to affect the planet’s albedo and climate. Image via Institute of Space And Astronautical Science/ Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency/ University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An artist’s impression of what a formerly water-rich Venus may have looked like with an ocean a few billion years ago. Image via Daein Ballard.

When faced with navigating one of the most challenging terrestrial environments in the solar system, we need to think outside the box. That is why we need the creativity of makers and garage inventors to help solve this challenge.

Although hostile, Venus is an exciting planet to explore. Evidence suggests that it used to be more Earth-like a few billion years ago, and may even have had oceans. But something happened to cause a runaway greenhouse effect, where the now predominately carbon dioxide atmosphere traps all the heat from the sun and temperatures soar to uninhabitable levels.

Last month, it was also reported that Venus may still have active volcanoes. If so, it would join Earth and Jupiter’s moon Io as a planet or moon with current active hot volcanism in the solar system (as opposed to some of the smaller icy moons and dwarf planets that have cryovolcanoes, volcanoes that spew cold ice, water, ammonia or methane instead of magma).

While starting out with similar characteristics, Venus and Earth ended up taking very different evolutionary paths. Venus was once much more habitable, by earthly standards, perhaps even with an ocean. But something happened to literally turn the planet into a blazing hellhole. Scientists still don’t know exactly what happened, but now, on Venus’ surface, any water is long gone, the atmospheric pressure is crushing and temperatures are hot enough to melt lead.

Jonathan Sauder, principal investigator for the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE). Image via LinkedIn.

Interestingly however, some scientists think that primitive bacteria-like life may still be able to survive on Venus, high up in its atmosphere. In that region, temperatures are much more comfortable and there is water vapor available. Microorganisms are actually one theory to explain the unusual dark patches seen in Venus’ atmosphere, which still haven’t been explained. Similar microbes can also be found in Earth’s atmosphere.

Venus is full of mysteries, and the only way to solve them is to go back again. Other missions are also on the drawing boards, such as new orbiters, gliders or even balloons, but a rover would be able to explore Venus as never before. It’s been a long time since we last touched down on Venus.

By the way, in researching this article, we found a lot of garbled info out there about the Vega 1 and 2 missions to Venus. Reliable information about those two missions can be found via these sources:

Bottom line: NASA has issued a public challenge to help design a sensor for a future Venus rover.

There Are 2 Seats Left for This Trip to the International Space Station

On Thursday, Axiom Space, a company run by a former manager of NASA’s part of the space station, announced that it had signed a contract with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, for what might be the first fully private human spaceflight to orbit.

“I think you’ll see a lot more energy in the market as people come to realize it’s real, and it’s happening,” said Michael Suffredini, the president and chief executive of Axiom.

The spaceflight, Axiom officials said, could take off as soon as the second half of 2021.

SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon capsule for taking NASA astronauts to and from the space station. But just as the company’s development of its Falcon 9 rocket for taking cargo to the space station led to a vibrant business of launching commercial satellites, SpaceX is also looking to expand Crew Dragon passengers beyond just NASA astronauts.

After a successful test in January of an in-flight escape system, the first Crew Dragon flight carrying two NASA astronauts could launch within a couple of months.

For now, NASA wants a new Crew Dragon for each trip carrying its astronauts, even though the capsules are designed for multiple trips to space. That means a Crew Dragon flown for NASA could be used again for a flight of tourists.

Last month, Space Adventures, another company, announced an agreement with SpaceX to fly a Crew Dragon with up to four tourists for a free-flying trip that would last up to five days. That trip would not dock at the space station. Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures, said in an interview that the Crew Dragon would fly autonomously but that the passengers would receive training to be ready for various emergencies.

The Space Adventures trip, which could happen in late 2021 or early 2022, would follow an elliptical path taking the capsule and its passengers two to three times as high as the space station’s orbit.

Anderson did not provide an exact price but said the cost would be $10 million to $20 million less than the $50 million to $60 million usually mentioned for orbital trips.

On the planned Axiom flight, one seat would be occupied by a company-trained astronaut who would serve as the flight commander. The other three seats will be for customers who are to spend 10 days in orbit floating inside the space station. The Axiom astronaut would also oversee the space tourists while they were on the station, making sure that they did not interfere with the six crew members.

Suffredini said that the space station, with as much interior room as a Boeing 747 jetliner, should have enough room for everyone.

He declined to talk about the cost, but in the past, Axiom has confirmed that a seat on the trip will cost $55 million, and it has already signed up one person.

From 2001 to 2009, seven nonprofessional astronauts bought trips to the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. In each of these trips, arranged by Space Adventures, the other two astronauts on the spacecraft were working professionals headed for a tour of duty in orbit. Last year, the United Arab Emirates bought a Soyuz seat to jump-start its space program by sending an astronaut, Hazzaa al-Mansoori, to the space station.

The Axiom mission will be the first orbital flight with people aboard without the direct involvement of a governmental space agency.

NASA has in recent years become more receptive to allowing companies to find new ways to make money on the space station. In June, NASA set up a price list for various commercial activities, including charging companies like Axiom $35,000 a night for each tourist staying at the station for space to sleep and the use of its amenities like air, water, the internet and the toilet. The largest chunk of the $55 million ticket price is for the rocket ride, which Axiom will pay to SpaceX, not NASA.

“NASA has been very forward leaning, and we’re taking advantage of that,” Suffredini said.

From 2005 to 2015, Suffredini worked at NASA as program manager for the International Space Station. A year after retiring, he was one of the founders of Axiom, which claims it can build and operate a private facility at a fraction of the $4 billion that NASA spends annually on the International Space Station.

But the first step in that plan is going to the ISS.

Axiom has been discussing with NASA the possibility of tourist flights for several years. Last month, NASA also selected Axiom to develop a module that would be attached to the ISS in 2024 and used for commercial business activities. When the space station is eventually retired, the Axiom module would be detached and used as a building block for Axiom’s private space station.

If a trip to orbit seems like too much, two other companies, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, may be on track to carry their first customers on short-hop space tourism flights to the edge of space. Virgin earlier priced seats on its space plane at $250,000 but may now charge more. Blue Origin has not announced the cost of a trip aboard its reusable rocket and capsule, New Shepard.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

Space-grown lettuce is safe to eat, says study. Delicious, say astronauts

The astronauts floated around, expressing delight as they tasted something entirely unexpected in space.

“Awesome! Tastes good! I like that! It’s fresh!” they said, between bites of the “Outredgeous” red romaine lettuce.

It was the first time astronauts were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor after growing produce from seeds and harvesting it.

Ice cream was possible in space before fresh vegetables — but in space, lettuce actually tastes like lettuce. The same can’t be said for creamy delights.

In the August 2015 video NASA shared of the experience, US astronauts Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui appear surprised as they munch on the leaves.

Research about the lettuce experiment, which began in 2014, published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science to herald that space lettuce isn’t just tasty, it’s also safe to eat.

The first experiment happened in May 2014, not long after NASA’s first-ever Vegetable Production Systems growth chambers were delivered to the space station. The results from that first harvest were frozen and sent back to Kennedy Space Center for analysis. Initial tests showed the lettuce was safe.

Since then, a multitude of greens have been grown on the space station, and astronauts have been consuming some of the fruits of their space labor on the station ever since.

Researchers analyzed the red romaine lettuce crops from 2014 to 2016 and determined that lettuce grown in space is not only safe for astronauts to eat — it’s also free of disease-causing microbes and as nutritious as lettuce grown on Earth.

“We were delightfully surprised at how much the astronauts enjoyed growing and eating the fresh lettuce!” said Christina Khodadad, study author and researcher at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “The ability to grow food in a sustainable system that is safe for crew consumption will become critical as NASA moves toward longer missions. Salad-type, leafy greens can be grown and consumed fresh with few resources.”

Astronauts rely on pre-packaged meals they rehydrate in space. Dried fruits, nuts, peanut butter, chicken, beef and shrimp cocktail are all on the menu — but no salads can be that processed and survive the trip to zero gravity.

The processed meal packets are also lacking in some vitamins and nutrients, including potassium and vitamin C, B1 and K, which can degrade over time.

Fresh produce seemed like the best answer to that problem, which will need to be addressed as NASA plans for long-term spaceflight missions to the moon and Mars.

Astronauts will have to be “Earth-independent” in the future, according to NASA, and this is a step forward in making that possible.

But first, NASA had to learn how to grow vegetables in space — and make sure they were safe to eat.

Meet Veggie, a space garden

“Veggie” has become the nickname for Vegetable Production Systems, the station’s space garden.

It’s the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, according to NASA. It can hold about six plants, which are grown from sterilized seeds embedded on wicks in “pillows.”

Those pillows contain a calcined clay-based foundation, which is also used on baseball infields, and fertilizer. This ensures that water and nutrients are evenly distributed around the roots. A fan provides even air distribution.

Without the pillow structure, the roots would drown or dry out because water doesn’t flow in space the way it does on Earth — it forms bubbles. Plant pillows and root mats are injected with water and the wick helps deliver water to the seeds.

The seeds are placed so the roots grow down and the leafy tops emerge at the top. The plants emerge from holes in the pillows, responding to special lights above them that emit a magenta pink glow. The plants emit green light and soak up blue and red light, hence the magenta color.

Veggie has allowed astronauts to grow Chinese cabbage, mizuna mustard greens, red Russian kale, three types of lettuce and even zinnia flowers.

These can be picked, sanitized and eaten like a salad. Currently, there’s no way to “cook” them on the station.

“Veggie has shown us we can grow plants in space pretty darn similarly to how we do on Earth,” said Veggie lead scientist Gioia Massa in 2015, speaking after the successful experiment.

The big green test

NASA’s biggest concern about growing produce in space was making sure the greens were safe to eat in an environment impacted by radiation.

Scientists also wanted to see if the plants developed harmful microbes on the surface, which could be transferred to the astronauts if they ate them. Microbiological testing is part of food safety on Earth, but it didn’t yet exist for space plants.

To provide a control for the experiment, plants were grown using similar conditions on Earth. The temperature, amount of carbon dioxide and humidity recorded on the space station was replicated at Kennedy Space Center.

The plants were grown between 33 and 56 days, with the Earth-based plants on a 24 to 72-hour delay to match conditions.

In some of the experiments between 2014 and 2016, the levels of potassium, sodium, phosphorus, sulphur and zinc were higher in space station plants than they were on Earth. The same was true of phenolics, found in tomatoes and apples, which have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and antiviral properties.

Lettuce on Earth and in space had similar levels of antioxidants.

When the Veggie team studied the roots and leaves of the lettuce grown in space, they also found microbes that formed there similar to those that formed on Earth-grown lettuce. This was unexpected, because the space station has its own unique microbes.

The microbes were not bacteria associated with human pathogens, and they didn’t detect food-borne pathogens E. coli, Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus, which have been associated with some lettuces processed on Earth.

Spores of fungus and mold were also found to be within the normal range that’s acceptable for humans to eat, based on the produce consumed on Earth.

The researchers have determined that the lettuce can “provide a safe supplement to the astronauts’ diet.”

“The International Space Station is serving as a test bed for future long-duration missions, and these types of crop growth tests are helping to expand the suite of candidates that can be effectively grown in microgravity,” said Massa.

“Future tests will study other types of leafy crops as well as small fruits like pepper and tomatoes, to help provide supplemental fresh produce for the astronaut diet.”

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SpaceFlight Insider is a team of individuals working to produce daily content in the form of stories, exclusive interviews, a photographic library, videos, live webcasts and more. In total more than 100 pieces of content are produced each month along with coverage of launches around the world.

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In the last few years, SpaceFlight Insider has created one of the best launch calendars currently in use. Additionally, we have an ever-expanding gallery of photographs and video packages and an array of assets including fleets of remote still and video cameras which collect imagery from the pads themselves during launches.

At present, SpaceFlight Insider is the only comparable media outlet to host live webcasts during launches at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (we hope to expand that to other locations in the near future).

Importantly, the “Insider” in our name is not us, rather it references you. We do our best to bring you as much information about the space industry to make you an insider. For example, if a user has a question, we do our best to get an answer from someone in the industry, be it an astronaut or an engineer working on a spacecraft.

Additionally, we feature multiple small things that improve the experience of our viewers, including a feature on the upper right side of the website that changes the style from dark with white text to a more traditional light with black text.

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Providing these services is a labor of love for the SpaceFlight Insider team. However, regular travel, equipment procurement and maintenance, as well as paying editors, writers and photographers consumes much of what funds we have managed to acquire so far. All of these efforts require a great deal of infrastructure, manpower and coordination to achieve.

We want to create a place where people can turn to for all the information they want regarding space exploration and development. We want to deliver high quality video, audio, imagery and much more to give you an insider’s view of the whole industry. We will go so far as to take your questions directly to those officials within NASA and other space-related organizations.

Two big items we are working on right now include increasing the quality of our SFI Live shows and adding to a new section of our website called, “The Hangar.”

For the live show, we currently broadcast during most launches at Cape Canaveral. However, we want to begin streaming in high quality from the remote areas most launch facilities are located. But since enough mobile data is hard to come by a special device is needed for higher quality. We already have this device, but the cost to use it per month is nearly $1,000.

We also want to purchase equipment to support our live webcasts, including professional camera equipment, a sound mixing board, a pop up tent, and lights, just to name a few. These will also help us with exclusive interviews as well.

Here is an example of one of our high quality shows:

The Hangar is a database of launch vehicles, spacecraft and more. We want to provide you with all the information you could want from the basic all the way down to the details.

We plan on rolling this feature out on our website in phases, but to “finish” it will take a lot of hard work and dedication. We’d like to be able to pay those on our team that work on it.

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We are a news organization that prides ourselves with telling the whole story of space exploration, both the good, the bad as well as the ugly. As journalists, we don’t pick favorites. That doesn’t mean we want anybody to fail – just the opposite. We want to see every space organization succeed, but in order for that to happen, truth and facts need to be reported.

We also do what many other outlets (especially in terms of our live webcasts) have ceased to do in the post-shuttle era, and will continue to do so.

Our team has decades of experience covering the space program and we are focused on providing you with the absolute latest on all things space. If we can’t pay the bills, let alone our staff – which currently consists of mostly volunteers and hard-working space enthusiasts – then we can’t do everything we can to share the thrill of space exploration with the world.

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Richard Mitnick

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Origin Story

The Origin Story for the Blog

I am telling the reader this story in the hope of impelling him or her to find their own story and start a wordpress blog. We all have a story. Find yours.

The oldest post I can find for this blog is “From FermiLab Today: Tevatron is Done” at the End of 2011 (but I am not sure if that is the first post, just the oldest I could find.

But the origin goes back to 1985, Timothy Ferris Creation of the Universe PBS, November 20, 1985, available in different videos on YouTube; The Atom Smashers, PBS Frontline November 25, 2008, centered at Fermilab, not available on Youtube; and The Big Bang Machine, with Sir Brian Cox of U Manchester and the ATLAS project at the LHC at CERN.

In 1993, our idiot Congress pulled the plug on The Superconducting Super Collider, a particle accelerator complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas. Its planned ring circumference was 87.1 kilometers (54.1 mi) with an energy of 20 Tev per proton and was set to be the world’s largest and most energetic. It would have greatly surpassed the current record held by the Large Hadron Collider, which has ring circumference 27 km (17 mi) and energy of 13 TeV per proton.

If this project had been built, most probably the Higgs Boson would have been found there, not in Europe, to which the USA had ceded High Energy Physics.

The project’s director was Roy Schwitters, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Louis Ianniello served as its first Project Director for 15 months. The project was cancelled in 1993 due to budget problems, cited as having no immediate economic value.

Some where I learned that fully 30% of the scientists working at CERN were U.S. citizens. The ATLAS project had 600 people at Brookhaven Lab. The CMS project had 1,000 people at Fermilab. There were many scientists which had “gigs” at both sites.

I started digging around in CERN web sites and found Quantum Diaries, a “blog” from before there were blogs, where different scientists could post articles. I commented on a few and my dismay about the lack of U.S recognition in the press.

Those guys at Quantum Diaries, gave me access to the Greybook, the list of every institution in the world in several tiers processing data for CERN. I collected all of their social media and was off to the races for CERN and other great basic and applied science.

Since then I have expanded the list of sites that I cover from all over the world. I build html templates for each institution I cover and plop their articles, complete with all attributions and graphics into the template and post it to the blog. I am not a scientist and I am not qualified to write anything or answer scientific questions. The only thing I might add is graphics where the origin graphics are weak. I have a monster graphics library. Any science questions are referred back to the writer who is told to seek his answer from the real scientists in the project.

The blog has to date 900 followers on the blog, its Facebook Fan page and Twitter.I get my material from email lists and RSS feeds. I do not use Facebook or Twitter, which are both loaded with garbage in the physical sciences.

That is my Origin Story

richardmitnick 11:33 am on August 7, 2019 Permalink Reply
Tags: “NASA teaming up with commercial companies for return to the Moon”, Spaceflight Insider ( 25 )

From Spaceflight Insider: “NASA teaming up with commercial companies for return to the Moon”

August 5th, 2019
Laurel Kornfeld

NASA has issued a request for proposals for the space agency’s new Artemis Program. Image Credit: NASA

To achieve the goal of returning humans to the Moon by 2024, NASA announced it is teaming up with commercial companies to develop new technologies for landing on and taking off from the lunar surface.

On July 30, the space agency issued a public call for commercial companies to build both small and medium-sized lunar landers and rovers capable of bringing science experiments and power sources to the Moon as part of its new Artemis program. The project seeks to land astronauts, including one or more women, on various regions of the lunar surface, including its South Pole. Nine companies have already signed on to a program known as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

“Our commercial partners are helping us to advance lunar science in an unprecedented way. As we enable broader opportunities for for commercial providers through CLPS, we’re enlarging our capabilities to do novel measurements and technology development scientists have long wanted to do at the Moon,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

In October 2018, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate issued an Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO) seeking private companies to contract with on the many components of future space missions. These include advanced communication, navigation, and avionics; advanced materials for rockets and spacecraft; entry, descent, and landing technologies; in-space manufacturing and assembly of equipment; power systems, including solar cells; propulsion, and other exploration technologies.

Through a public-private collaboration program known as Swamp Works, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is partnering with both SpaceX and Lockheed Martin to make Artemis a reality. With SpaceX, KSC hopes to develop the technology needed to vertically land rockets on the Moon. This could be difficult because of potential interaction between plumes generated by rocket engines and lunar soil, known as regolith.

“Missions to the lunar surface present challenges from rocket engine plume effects as they interact with the regolith surface to eject high-velocity dust particles and rocks,” explained Rob Mueller, senior technologist for advanced projects development at KSC‘s Exploration Research and Technology Programs. “To mitigate the damage to equipment during landings and takeoff, we’ll work on technologies such as launch and landing pads, and blast protection berms or walls to make operations on the Moon sustainable and safe for NASA and all of our partners. These types of risk mitigations become exponentially more important as landers increase in size, and Kennedy‘s Swamp Works is at the forefront of developing new technological solutions for this based on related computer modeling tools and testing.”

NASA hopes that in working together, KSC‘s Swamp Works program and SpaceX can develop technologies capable of landing astronauts on both the Moon and Mars, Mueller emphasized.

KSC‘s partnership with Lockheed Martin seeks to grow plants in space autonomously with the help of robotics. If successful, this could function as a food source for astronauts on future deep space missions. Bryan Onate, chief of KSC‘s Life Sciences and Utilization Office, said the public-private partnership already has a team of engineers, scientists, interns, and other contractors working on the project.

“Exploring beyond low-Earth orbit will require long-duration stays on the Moon and eventually Mars, meaning we are focused on providing plant growth systems that will supplement and sustain the crews’ nutrition and implement autonomous operations as required. So we are excited to be taking part in this collaborative opportunity, which will develop new technology to enable future missions.”

NASA hopes to reduce both the cost and the amount of time needed to develop new technologies for Artemis and for subsequent long-term crewed space missions by working together with commercial spaceflight companies.

“The Artemis program integrates our science and exploration goals, and we are using our commercial partners to help meet those goals with an innovative and cost-effective approach. The ability to land heavier payloads on the lunar surface is a service that NASA has a key interest in. We’re looking forward to innovative proposals and possibly more partners to advance what we’ve already started with CLPS,” emphasized Steve Clarke, NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration in science.

Thirteen commercial companies have been contracted with through the ACO for a total of 19 public-private partnerships.

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SpaceFlight Insider reports on events taking place within the aerospace industry. With our team of writers and photographers, we provide an “insider’s” view of all aspects of space exploration efforts. We go so far as to take their questions directly to those officials within NASA and other space-related organizations. At SpaceFlight Insider, the “insider” is not anyone on our team, but our readers.

Our team has decades of experience covering the space program and we are focused on providing you with the absolute latest on all things space. SpaceFlight Insider is comprised of individuals located in the United States, Europe, South America and Canada. Most of them are volunteers, hard-working space enthusiasts who freely give their time to share the thrill of space exploration with the world.

Spaceflight Named to Fast Company’s Annual List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2020

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SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Spaceflight, Inc. has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2020. The list honors the businesses making the most profound impact on both industry and culture, showcasing a variety of ways to thrive in today’s fast-changing world. This year’s MIC list features 434 businesses from 39 countries.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200310005023/en/

Spaceflight Named to Fast Company’s Annual List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2020 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Spaceflight was recognized by Fast Company for its comprehensive launch services offering, winning praise for its record-breaking dedicated rideshare mission, SSO-A.

“Being named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies acknowledges Spaceflight’s ability to develop and execute creative and inventive approaches to making space more accessible,” said Curt Blake, CEO and president of Spaceflight. “Our first dedicated rideshare mission, SSO-A, was incredibly complex and required our team to seek novel solutions to successfully launch 64 satellites from one vehicle. It was an important milestone for the industry and for Spaceflight, demonstrating the viability of rideshare missions. We remain committed to making space more accessible, executing more missions in 2019 than any other year. We’re poised for another year of growth, working with new launch vehicles and expanding our service offering to make launch more affordable, reliable and flexible.”

SSO-A was Spaceflight’s first-ever dedicated rideshare mission, a launch that sent the largest number of satellites from a U.S.-based launch vehicle to space. SSO-A was an important milestone for Spaceflight, as it gave a significant number of customers access to space in a cost-effective way. Without the option of rideshare, many of these organizations would not have had the funds to purchase a ticket to orbit.

The mission launched 64 satellites from 34 organizations from 17 different countries. This diverse manifest included satellites from Earth observation companies, nonprofit organizations, universities, and even a middle school. To effectively launch the payloads, Spaceflight engineered and constructed a payload stack that safely carried the satellites to space. Additionally, to avoid potential collisions on orbit, Spaceflight developed a sequence that deployed the satellites over the course of five hours.

Spaceflight’s success continued through 2019. The company executed nine missions, the most rideshare launches it had performed in one year, launching more than 50 satellites. One of those 50 satellites was the first privately funded lunar lander, which was launched on the first-ever rideshare mission to Geostationary transfer orbit. In total, Spaceflight has launched nearly 300 satellites across 29 different launches. In 2020, Spaceflight plans to execute more than 10 missions, across five different launch vehicles, including two new launch vehicles.

Spaceflight’s parent company, Spaceflight Industries, recently announced it has signed an agreement to sell Spaceflight’s rideshare business to Japan’s Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Yamasa Co., Ltd. Upon regulatory approval, Spaceflight will continue to operate as an independent U.S.-based company, with a 50/50 joint venture ownership stake by Mitsui & Co. and Yamasa.

Fast Company’s editors and writers sought out the most groundbreaking businesses on the planet and across myriad industries. They also judged nominations received through their application process. The World’s Most Innovative Companies is Fast Company’s signature franchise and one of its most highly anticipated editorial efforts of the year. It provides both a snapshot and a road map for the future of innovation across the most dynamic sectors of the economy.

“At a time of increasing global volatility, this year’s list showcases the resilience and optimism of businesses across the world. These companies are applying creativity to solve challenges within their industries and far beyond,” said Fast Company senior editor Amy Farley, who oversaw the issue with deputy editor David Lidsky.

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Tech companies have come under fair and overdue criticism over the last year. But we could get a reminder of tech’s benefits in the coming weeks.

Tech Could Shine as Virus Worries Mount

Tech companies have come under fair and overdue criticism over the last year. But we could get a reminder of tech’s benefits in the coming weeks.

Investor who took Virgin Galactic public raising nearly $1 billion in two new IPOs

Chamath Palihapitiya, who used a previous blank-check initial public offering to place Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. on the public markets, has filed for two more such funds that seek to raise $900 million in total. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday afternoon show an attempt to raise $300 million for Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. II and $600 million for Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. III. The first Social Capital Hedosophia blank-check IPO raised $600 million in 2017 and sat dormant for more than 20 months before announcing a deal with Virgin Galactic. The space-travel company began trading in October and has more than doubled in price since, closing Friday at $24.60 for a market capitalization of $4.8 billion.

Prudent investors should look at these four stock charts as coronavirus spreads

Tesla Stock Is Getting Hammered. It Isn’t Capitulation.

Highflying stocks such as Tesla and Virgin Galactic are being sold off in the coronavirus-related stock market selloff. But the worst performing stocks in the market are getting hit just as hard.

What’s next for the stock market? Here are the potential headlines a month from now

Cody Willard outlines short and long opportunities.

Virgin Galactic Stock Falls Back to Earth After Downgrades

Wall Street is weighing after Virgin Galactic reported its first quarter as a publicly traded company. Two downgraded the stock. Another says investors would be wise to hang on.

Virgin Galactic’s stock plunges 21% after analyst downgrades, but pared earlier loss of as much as 33.5%

Virgin Galactic Stock Falls Back to Earth After Downgrades

Wall Street is weighing after Virgin Galactic reported its first quarter as a publicly traded company. Two downgraded the stock. Another says investors would be wise to hang on.

Virgin Galactic gets another downgrade as Morgan Stanley waits ‘for fundamentals to catch up’

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.’s meteoric run looks poised to hit a snag Thursday after a second downgrade of the high-flying spaceflight stock. The stock is down 20% in premarket trading Thursday after Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Sharpe cut his rating on the shares to equal weight from overweight, writing that he is “waiting for [Virgin Galactic’s] fundamentals to catch up” to the big expectations around the company’s potential. “In our opinion, the stock is nearly fully discounting a highly successful space tourism business at scale, a moderately successful space tourism business with early credit for the hypersonic opportunity, or a combination of both,” Sharpe wrote. He joins Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingran, who also downgraded the stock Thursday on valuation concerns. Shares have risen nearly 300% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has lost about 1% in that span.

Virgin Galactic stock craters after Credit Suisse downgrade

Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. are off 17% in premarket trading Thursday after Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform. “While SPCE remains a compelling story from the perspectives of near-term catalysts toward first revenue flight, its leading market position, strong incremental margin potential, and the scarcity value of the investment opportunity (all points outlined in our initiation), we find ourselves no longer able to recommend SPCE shares after a

185% [year-to-date] run (through Feb. 25) and commensurate expansion in the stock’s multiple,” he wrote. He sees limited opportunity for upside to his estimates given the “relatively more limited scalability of the business model.” He upped his price target to $25 from $15 in conjunction with the downgrade. Virgin Galactic shares are up 293% over the past three months, as the S&P 500 has lost about 1%.

Spaceflight insider

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Spaceflight Insider

SpaceX successfully launches CRS-20, recovers their 50th Falcon 9 Booster

Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes Cold Static Test of Second Stage for OmegA Rocket

SpaceX successfully launches fourth batch of Starlink satellites

Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort’s successful completion clears way for crewed flights

Boeing’s Starliner capsule begins much-delayed first flight: UPDATE

Northrop Grumman’s NG 12 paints the sky in honor of an American legend

Delta IV Medium ends 17-Year run with 100% success

CRS-18 Falcon and Dragon brave storms to begin 18th ISS flight

Night time is the right time for SpaceX STP-2 mission

Anomaly occurs during OmegA first stage static fire test

Boeing CST-100 Starliner Testing Deficiencies Identified

Michael McCabe March 9th Cape Canaveral, FL – Details are emerging about exactly what and how testing was performed prior to Boeing launching their Starliner test capsule on December 20, 2019, a flight which resulted in a mixed outcome instead of what was supposed to be a resounding and highly anticipated success.

Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes Cold Static Test of Second Stage for OmegA Rocket

Patrick Attwell February 28th PROMONTORY, Utah – Feb. 28, 2020 – Northrop Grumman has successfully completed a cold static test of the second stage of its OmegA rocket in Promontory, Utah, completing the full-duration (approx. 140 seconds) firing on the afternoon of February 27.

New Horizons parallax project seeks public participation

Laurel Kornfeld February 21st NASA’s New Horizons mission is seeking public participation in a project aimed at imaging the two closest stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, from Earth on April 22 and 23, the same day the spacecraft will photograph them from almost five billion miles (eight billion km) away.

Pluto’s heart feature controls its winds

Laurel Kornfeld February 20th Pluto’s iconic heart feature, named Tombaugh Regio, functions as a “beating heart” that controls the small planet’s winds and might even play a role in shaping its surface features.

Arrokoth data sheds light on planet formation

Laurel Kornfeld February 19th Data returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft taken during its January 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth, also known as 2014 MU 69, located four billion miles from Earth, supports the theory that planet formation in the solar system occurred in a gentle rather than violent process.

ULA successfully launches Solar Probe aboard Atlas V

Theresa Cross February 10th CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched a NASA probe its way to our Sun. At 11:03 p.m. EDT, February 9, the rocket left Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Pluto’s hazy atmosphere is similar to that of Titan

Laurel Kornfeld February 2nd Pluto is often compared to Neptune’s largest moon Triton, but its hazy atmosphere is actually more akin to that of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, which is sometimes viewed as an analog of early Earth.

Artemis I Orion spacecraft advancing through tests at Plum Brook Station

Michael Cole January 31st SANDUSKY, OHIO — Testing is fully underway on the Orion spacecraft for the upcoming Artemis I test flight mission at NASA’s Plum Brook Station testing facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The Orion crew capsule, integrated with its European Service Module, is currently inside the facility’s Space Environments Complex undergoing thermal vacuum tests in the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world.

SpaceX successfully launches fourth batch of Starlink satellites

Theresa Cross January 29th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX launched their fourth batch of approximately 60 satellites for the Starlink broadband network at 9:06am EDT, January 29, after carefully “evaluating extreme weather in the recovery area,” according to SpaceX.

NASA broadcast celebrates Spitzer telescope’s accomplishments

Laurel Kornfeld January 24th In a live broadcast on Wednesday, January 22, NASA celebrated 16 years of incredible accomplishments by the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of its four “Great Observatories” in space.

Spitzer telescope to be decommissioned after 16 years

Laurel Kornfeld January 20th NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which has studied the universe in infrared light since its launch in August of 2003, will be decommissioned on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

Gallery: SpaceX’s Dragon clears safety check paving way for crewed missions

Michael McCabe January 19th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Images from the Jan. 19 test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft which successfully demonstrated the vehicle’s ability to pull astronauts away from the rocket in the event of an accident on its way to orbit.

Boeing CST-100 Starliner Testing Deficiencies Identified

Michael McCabe March 9th Cape Canaveral, FL – Details are emerging about exactly what and how testing was performed prior to Boeing launching their Starliner test capsule on December 20, 2019, a flight which resulted in a mixed outcome instead of what was supposed to be a resounding and highly anticipated success.

Northrop Grumman Successfully Completes Cold Static Test of Second Stage for OmegA Rocket

Patrick Attwell February 28th PROMONTORY, Utah – Feb. 28, 2020 – Northrop Grumman has successfully completed a cold static test of the second stage of its OmegA rocket in Promontory, Utah, completing the full-duration (approx. 140 seconds) firing on the afternoon of February 27.

Artemis I Orion spacecraft advancing through tests at Plum Brook Station

Michael Cole January 31st SANDUSKY, OHIO — Testing is fully underway on the Orion spacecraft for the upcoming Artemis I test flight mission at NASA’s Plum Brook Station testing facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The Orion crew capsule, integrated with its European Service Module, is currently inside the facility’s Space Environments Complex undergoing thermal vacuum tests in the largest thermal vacuum chamber in the world.

SpaceX successfully launches fourth batch of Starlink satellites

Theresa Cross January 29th CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX launched their fourth batch of approximately 60 satellites for the Starlink broadband network at 9:06am EDT, January 29, after carefully “evaluating extreme weather in the recovery area,” according to SpaceX.

Crew Dragon In-Flight Abort’s successful completion clears way for crewed flights

Theresa Cross January 19th SpaceX successfully completed yet another milestone under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to send astronauts to the International Space Station – the In Flight Abort Test.

SuperDraco engines set to be tested during SpaceX in-flight abort

Theresa Cross January 19th KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — With the in-flight Crew Dragon abort test set to launch in less than an hour, let’s take a look into the incredibly powerful and spacecraft specific SuperDraco engine.

SpaceX, NASA monitoring weather ahead of in-flight abort test.

Sean Costello January 19th CAPE CANAVERAL. Fla. — As the sun rises and the shorelines of the Space Coast communities fill with eager spectators, SpaceX and NASA engineers have their attention focused on the early Sunday morning weather systems.

SpaceX poised to take large step toward human space flight

Cullen Desforges January 17th SpaceX is ready to check off another box on the list of requirements that need to be completed before the company can send crewed missions to the International Space Station.

NASA graduates its newest class of Astronauts

Sean Costello January 10th As NASA prepares to send astronauts to destinations far beyond Earth, a new breed of space flyers has joined the elite cadre of the agency’s astronaut corps.

New Year, new headquarters for Blue Origin

Laurel Kornfeld January 9th With Blue Origin opening its new headquarters, 2020 appears to be a year of further expansion for NewSpace.

SpaceX starts 2020 with Starlink launch

Patrick Attwell January 6th SpaceX’s Starlink constellation just got a major boost.

What’s in a name? Mars 2020 wouldn’t know, it doesn’t have one – yet

James Rice December 30th NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is on the verge of traveling to the Red Planet and beginning its search for evidence of Martian life. But it’s missing something very important.

Launch of Shijian 20 lights up Chinese skies and exploration ambitions

SpaceFlight Insider December 28th China has big plans for its space program. But before it can achieve them, it needed to make sure a key launch vehicle was up to the task. A recent mission suggests that it is.

Russia launches final Rockot with trio of communications satellites

SpaceFlight Insider December 27th Russia launched its final mission on the nation’s 2019 manifest when it sent three communications satellites to orbit on Friday, Dec. 27. The flight marked the close of a vehicle designed for violence.

Boeing Blunder! Starliner timing failure prevents ISS rendezvous

SpaceFlight Insider December 20th “Unplanned but stable.” That’s how Boeing referred to the first flight of its Starliner “space taxi.” In layman’s terms, the spacecraft was placed in the wrong orbit and won’t be going to the International Space Station.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule begins much-delayed first flight: UPDATE

Cullen Desforges December 20th CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – After almost a year of continued delays, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has finally launched. It is the culmination of years of development, but there’s still a ways to go before astronauts will be soaring aloft in the vehicle.

New Horizons parallax project seeks public participation

February 21st
NASA’s New Horizons mission is seeking public participation in a project aimed at imaging the two closest stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, from Earth on April 22 and 23, the same day the spacecraft will photograph them from almost five billion miles (eight billion km) away.

Pluto’s heart feature controls its winds

February 20th
Pluto’s iconic heart feature, named Tombaugh Regio, functions as a “beating heart” that controls the small planet’s winds and might even play a role in shaping its surface features.

Arrokoth data sheds light on planet formation

February 19th
Data returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft taken during its January 2019 flyby of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth, also known as 2014 MU 69, located four billion miles from Earth, supports the theory that planet formation in the solar system occurred in a gentle rather than violent process.

ULA successfully launches Solar Probe aboard Atlas V

February 10th
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched a NASA probe its way to our Sun. At 11:03 p.m. EDT, February 9, the rocket left Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Pluto’s hazy atmosphere is similar to that of Titan

February 2nd
Pluto is often compared to Neptune’s largest moon Triton, but its hazy atmosphere is actually more akin to that of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, which is sometimes viewed as an analog of early Earth.

NASA broadcast celebrates Spitzer telescope’s accomplishments

January 24th
In a live broadcast on Wednesday, January 22, NASA celebrated 16 years of incredible accomplishments by the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of its four “Great Observatories” in space.

Spitzer telescope to be decommissioned after 16 years

January 20th
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which has studied the universe in infrared light since its launch in August of 2003, will be decommissioned on Thursday, January 30, 2020.

Gallery: SpaceX’s Dragon clears safety check paving way for crewed missions

No in-flight abort for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft today

January 18th
SpaceX has been forced to stand down from today’s attempt to test out a critical element of the company’s crew-rated spacecraft.

Boeing releases video from recent OFT mission

January 16th
Boeing has released video from its failed attempt to send its “Starliner” spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Processing of Starlink 2 booster underway, following return to Port Canaveral

January 11th
SpaceX’s B1049.4 returned to Port Canaveral January 9, 2020 after the completion of its fourth flown mission delivering the third set of Starlink satellites into low-Earth-orbit (LEO). This is Spacex’s first launch supported by the newly-created U.S. Space Force and its forty-eighth successful booster recovery.

CRS-19 Dragon wet and waiting for next mission

January 7th
After spending nearly a month berthed to the International Space Station, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule left the Station and splashed down marking the successful completion of its mission.

OPINION: 2019 – Numbers and Names

January 1st
Well that happened. 2019 was a roller-coaster of ups and downs that will have far-reaching consequences for future space exploration efforts.

SpaceX prepares for first of many Starlink launches in 2020

December 31st
2020 looks to be a big year for space. The next twelve months could see the U.S. regain a long-lost capability and another rover should be sent on its way to the Red Planet. SpaceX is planning to kick off 2020 with the launch of the next batch of Starlink satellites.

NASA Mars 2020 rover passes driving test

December 27th
Remember how stressful it was taking your first driver’s test? Now imagine driving a car that’s worth $2.5 billion.

Spaceflight insider

RussianSpaceWeb.com news and updates

Get instant alerts about new features and updates on RussianSpaceWeb.com via Twitter. Currently, a 1-year subscription to more than 100 articles within the Insider Content section can be obtained via PayPal or a credit card payment of $50. After completion of the transaction, we will send you personalized access information:

2020 March 3: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 110): RD-862

2020 February 27: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 109): Manufacturing PTK Orel

2020 February 17: New page: Angosat-2

2020 February 11: Update: PTK Orel test flight manifest

2020 February 5: Update: Soyuz MS-13 landing

2020 January 23: New page: Meridian-M2 (19L)

2020 January 13: Update: N1 No. 3L launch: Rollout photo-collage

2020 January 8: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 102): ExoMars project in 2020

2020 January 6: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 101): MLM Nauka module in 2020

2020 January 1-2: Updates: The US-A/-P project: info, imagery

2019 December 28: Update: 2019 year-end results

2019 December 26: New page: Gonets-M Group 15

2019 December 23: Update: Elektro-L3 launch info

2019 December 10: New page: GLONASS-M-59; update: Cis-lunar Gateway (2019 maximum configuration)

2019 December 5: New page: Progress MS-13

2019 November 26: Update: Kosmos-2542: Info, imagery

2019 November 21: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 97): PTK Orel ground test program

2019 November 15: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 95): ISS operations in 2020

2019 November 5: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 92): ESPRIT module in 2019

2019 November 4: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 91): RD-180MV engine

2019 October 30: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 90): Angara project in 2019

2019 October 24: Updates (INSIDER CONTENT): MLM Nauka module in 2019 (info, imagery); The 2020 ISS flight manifest (multiple updates)

2019 October 22: New page (INSIDER CONTENT No. 88): I-Hab module in 2019

2019 October 19: Update: Angara pad in Vostochny

2019 October 3: Updates: Soyuz MS-12, Soyuz landing (info, imagery)

2019 October 2: Update: Soyuz MS-12, landing details

2019 September 24: New page: Soyuz MS-15

2019 September 12: Updates: (INSIDER CONTENT): PPE in 2019, HALO modules (visualizations)

2019 September 10: Update: Soyuz MS-14

2019 September 9: Update: Soyuz MS series

2019 August 31: Update: Soyuz MS-14 (robot operations)

2019 August 30: Update (INSIDER CONTENT): Cis-lunar Gateway project (info, imagery); New page: Geo-IK-2-3

2019 August 27: Updates: RD-861K (Tsyklon-4’s third stage test firing); Russia in the 2010s (TEM tug visual)

2019 August 26: Updates: Soyuz MS-13 (redocking); Angara pad in Vostochny in 2019 (construction progress)

2019 August 21: New page: Soyuz MS-14

2019 August 15: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 81): Robot Fedor

2019 August 8: New page: Zond-7; update: 19K project (visual)

2019 August 7: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 79): RBKA satellite

2019 August 5: New page: Blagovest-14L

2019 July 30: New page: Meridian (8)

2019 July 28: Update: 19K complex – new visualizations

2019 July 23: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 76): Luna-29 mission in 2019

2019 July 20: New page: Soyuz MS-13

2019 July 17: New page: 19K vehicle for the L3 project

2019 July 4: New page: Meteor M2-2; New pages/Meteor family content split: Meteor-M series, Meteor-M1

2019 July 3: Update: N1 No. 5L launch

2019 June 24: Update: Yamal-601 orbit arrival

2019 June 22: Updates: Angara production; Angara-5V

2019 June 21: New page: Launch of Spektr-RG (scrubbed)

2019 June 18: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 71): Revival of Spektr-RG

2019 June 17: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 70): Original Spektr-RG

2019 June 14: Update: Vladimir Chelomei

2019 June 10: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 69): RD-8 engine

2019 June 3: Update: Angara pad in Vostochny

2019 May 30: New page: Yamal-601

2019 May 28: New page: VKD-46 spacewalk aboard ISS

2019 May 26: New page: GLONASS-M58 mission

2019 May 23: New page: 21K tanker

2019 May 9: New page: ART-XC telescope for Spektr-RG

2019 May 6: Update: TKS spacecraft

2019 April 25: Update: (INSIDER CONTENT): PTK Federatsiya project in 2019 (production details)

2019 April 16: Updates: LK lander; LVPK

2019 March 31: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 61): MLM in 2019

2019 March 18: New page: Soyuz rocket family in 2019

2019 March 14: New page: Soyuz MS-12

2019 Feb. 19: Update: (INSIDER CONTENT) Spektr-RG in 2019 (launch dates selection details)

2019 Feb. 5: Updates (info, imagery): Spektr-RG in 2018, Spektr-RG in 2017

2019 Jan. 31: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 52) Soyuz-7 launcher

2019 Jan. 28: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 51) Ryvok concept

2019 Jan. 24: New page: Angara pad in Vostochny in 2019

2019 Jan. 21: New page: Soyuz-4, Soyuz-5 home page

2019 Jan. 20: New page: 7K-L1 No. 13L

2019 Jan. 18: New page: Soyuz-5 landing

2019 Jan. 17: New page: Soyuz-4 landing

2018 Dec. 30: Update: 2018 in space

2018 Dec. 19: Update: Soyuz MS-09 landing

2018 Dec. 14: New page: (INSIDER CONTENT No. 46) KSLV-2

2018 Dec. 5: Update: Proton operations in 2019

2018 Dec. 2: New page: Soyuz MS-11

2018 Nov. 20: New page: Launch of Zarya FGB module; Update (info, imagery): Zarya FGB module

2018 Nov. 16: New page: Progress MS-10

2018 Nov. 13: New page: Zond-6 mission

2018 Nov. 6: New page: Soyuz ST-B launch with MetOp-C

2018 Nov. 3: New page: GLONASS M-57 mission

2018 Oct. 26 – Nov. 5: New section: Soyuz-2, -3 mission

2018 Oct. 24: New page: Fourth launch of Lotos-S1

2018 Oct. 16: New page: Proton operations in 2019

2018 Oct. 10: New page: Soyuz MS-10

2018 Oct. 5: New page: Elektro-L3 satellite; Updates, content split: Elektro-L series, Elektro L1

2018 Sept. 17: New page: Zond-5 mission

2018 Sept. 12: New page: A hole aboard Soyuz MS-09

2018 Sept. 7: Update: ESPRIT module for the cis-lunar station (info, imagery)

2018 Aug. 17: New pages: GIRD-09 rocket, GIRD-09 engine

2018 Aug. 3: New page: Origins of space flight

2018 July 31 – Aug. 1: Updates: Proton operations in 2018

2018 July 30: Update: (INSIDER CONTENT) PTK Federatsiya development in 2018: Parachute tests, project status

2018 July 14: New page: 7K-L1 No. 8L

2018 July 9: New page: Progress MS-09

2018 June 17: New page: Soyuz rocket missions in 2018

2018 June 16: New page: GLONASS-M No. 56

2018 June 5: New page: Soyuz MS-09

2018 June 5: Update: Baikal booster: Info on super-light launcher plans, imagery

2018 May 15: Updates: Launch of Sputnik-3; History of the Object-D project; Previews of Object D virtual model, info

2018 May 3: Update: Hab module for cis-lunar station: 2018 developments

2018 May 2: New page: RD-815 engine (INSIDER CONTENT No. 12); Update: ESPRIT module: 2018 developments

2018 May 1: New page: INSIDER CONTENT landing page and subscription info

2018 April 27: New page: Airlock status in 2018 (INSIDER CONTENT No. 10)

2018 April 25: New page: Rockot launch with Sentinel-3B

2018 April 23: New page: 7K-L1 No. 7L

2018 April 18: New pages: Blagovest-12L, Blagovest series (page split, updates): Blagovest-11L

2018 April 16: Update: Power and Propulsion Element, PPE, for near-lunar station: info, imagery on industrial studies

2018 April 4: New page: NEM-2 tourist module (INSIDER CONTENT No. 7)

2018 March 29: New page: EMKA (Kosmos-2525)

2018 March 21: New page: Soyuz MS-08

2018 March 12: Update: Investigation into the Soyuz-1 landing accident: historic map of the landing area

2018 March 5: New page: Zond-4 (7K-L1 No. 6L)

2018 March 2: New page: Sarmat ICBM

2018 Feb. 21: Update: Sea Launch in 2018

2018 Feb. 14: New page: RD-171MV (INSIDER CONTENT No. 1)

2018 Feb. 8: Update: Columbus module: Early concept visuals, Bartolomeo project info

2018 Feb. 5: New page: MLM Nauka module in 2018

2018 Feb. 2: Update: Soyuz MS-06: Russian EVA-44 info imagery

2018 Jan. 31: New page: Kanopus-V-3, Kanopus-V-4

2018 Jan. 30: New page: Spektr-RG project in 2018

2018 Jan. 29: New page: Proton operations in 2018

2018 Jan. 28: Update: Progress GVK: info, imagery

2018 Jan. 23: New page: Block E for the N1/L3 complex

2018 Jan. 16: New page: Luna-Resurs in 2017

2018 Jan. 10: New page: RD-810 engine

2018 Jan. 3: Update: ExoMars-2020 project in 2017 (July-December activties)

2018 Jan. 2: New page: Sea Launch in 2018

2017 Dec. 25: Update: Angosat-1 satellite – info, imagery

2017 Dec. 24: New page: Zenit launch with Angosat-1

2017 Dec. 19: Update: Spektr-RG mission in 2017 – info, imagery

2017 Dec. 16: New page: Soyuz MS-07

2017 Dec. 1: New page: Lotos-S1 No. 803

2017 Nov. 27: New pages: Meteor-M2-1, Baumanets

2017 Nov. 3: Update: Sputnik-2: info, imagery

2017 Oct. 27: New page: RD-861K engine

2017 Oct. 25: Update: Prichal Node Module – info, imagery

2017 Oct. 21: New page: VKZ probe

2017 Oct. 20: Update: ESPRIT module for the cis-lunar station – imagery

2017 Oct. 12: New page: Sentinel-5P

2017 Oct. 4: Update: Sputnik section; R-5, R-7, RT-2 – info, imagery

2017 Oct. 2: New page: NEM-1 module status in 2017

2017 Sept. 23: Update: MLM module status in 2017 – developments in September

2017 Sept. 21: New page: GLONASS-M-52

2017 Sept. 11: New page: Proton mission with Amazonas-5

2017 Sept. 10: New page: Soyuz MS-06 mission

2017 Sept. 5: New page: RD-250 engine

2017 Aug. 16: New page: Blagovest No. 11L

2017 Aug. 7: New page: Soyuz-5/PTK launch vehicle

2017 Aug. 2: Update: MLM tanks; Washing machine ready for operation

2017 Aug. 1: New page: Angara-5M

2017 July 28: New page: Soyuz-FG launch vehicle

2017 July 27: New page: Soyuz MS-05

2017 July 24: Update: Energia-5V: RD-0150, RD-171MV, RD-191V engine designs, info

2017 July 13: New page: Kanopus-V-IK

2017 July 6: Update: Habitation module of the cis-lunar station: the project status

2017 July 5: Update: Obzor-R satellite: first photos, 2017 project status

2017 June 29: Update: Power and Propulsion Bus for the cis-lunar station: latest design graphic, info

2017 June 23: New page: Napryazhenie military satellite

2017 June 21: New page: Tank system of the MLM module

2017 June 15: New page: MLM Nauka project status in 2014

2017 June 13: New page: Progress MS-06

2017 May 19: New page: Spektr-RG project in 2017

2017 May 17: New page: SES-15

2017 May 15: New page: Russian Orbital Station, ROS

2017 May 4: New page: 5M project

2017 May 3: Update: NEM module: info, imagery

2017 April 24: Update: Soyuz-1 mission

2017 April 20: New page: Soyuz rocket missions in 2017

2017 April 18: New page: MLM/Nauka module in 2013

2017 April 13: New page: Canso launch site

2017 April 11: Update: Cis-lunar station: Latest design info-graphic

2017 April 8: New page: 7K-L1 No. 3P

2017 April 5: New page: RD-870

2017 March 17: New page: Soyuz MS-04

2017 March 16: New page: Tsyklon-4M (Cyclone-4M)

2017 March 14: Updates: Proton-Medium; 2017 design revision info, imagery; Kosmos-146: A US intelligence estimate info

2017 March 1: New page: Spektr-R mission in 2017; Update (info, imagery): Launch of Spektr-R

2017 Feb. 28: Update: Origin of Spektr series

2017 Feb. 21: New page: Progress MS-05

2017 Feb. 13: New page: Origin of the cis-lunar project

2017 Feb. 7: New page: Soyuz 7K-OK No. 4 (Kosmos-140)

2017 Jan. 26: New page: Energia-5V/VR concepts

2017 Jan. 25: New page: Proton operations in 2017

2017 Jan. 2: Update: Spektr-RG: ART-XC telescope delivery, info, imagery

2016 Dec. 30: New page: PTK development in 2016

2016 Dec. 22: Update: Soyuz 7K-OK No. 1 launch accident: Rare historical images

2016 Dec. 21: New page: Luna-13

2016 Dec. 11: Update: Progress MS-04: Failure investigation details

2016 Dec. 5: Update: Spektr-RG: Developments in 2016

2016 Nov. 30: New page: Progress MS-04

2016 Nov. 16: New page: Soyuz MS-03

2016 Oct. 24: New page: Angosat mission

2016 Oct. 23: New page: Cygnus OA-5 mission

2016 Oct. 14: New page: ExoMars-2016 arrival at Mars

2016 Oct. 6: New page: Proton-M-Plus

2016 Sept. 27-30: Updates: Sea Launch; MLM module

2016 Sept. 22: New page: Soyuz MS-02

2016 Sept. 21: New page: Proton-Medium

2016 Sept. 13: Update: Proton-Light, Medium variants introduced: info, imagery

2016 Sept. 12: New page: Sunkar rocket proposal

2016 Aug. 10: New pages and updates: Inflatable systems in space:

2016 Aug. 9: Update: info, imagery: Luna-24

2016 Aug. 6: Update: info, imagery: Vostok-2 mission

2016 July 13: New page: Production of the Angara rocket

2016 July 6-8: New section: Soyuz MS

2016 July 4: New page: Soyuz MS-01

2016 June 23: New page: Proton-Light

2016 June 8: New pages: Proton-M, Intelsat-31

2016 June 3: New page: Geo-IK-2 No. 12

2016 May 10: New page: Drop zones for Vostochny

2016 April 27: New page: Vostochny home page

2016 April 27: New page: First launch from Vostochny

2016 April 22: New page: Sentinel-1B

2016 April 14: New page: Vostochny development in 2016

2016 April 12: Update: Gagarin’s flight aboard Vostok

2016 April 4: New page: Luna-10

2016 March 29: New page: Progress MS-02

2016 March 24: Update: Bars-M: info, imagery; New page: Soyuz rocket missions in 2016

2016 March 18: New page: Soyuz TMA-20M

2016 March 14: New pages: ExoMars home page, ExoMars mission

2016 March 11: New page: Briz-M upper stage

2016 March 3: New page: Proton launch with ExoMars-2016

2016 Feb. 26: New page: Schiaparelli (EDM) Mars lander

2016 Feb. 16: New page: Sentinel-3A

2016 Feb. 6: New page: GLONASS-51

2016 Feb. 4: New page: Luna-9

2016 Feb. 2: Update: Spektr-RG; 2015, 2016 mission status, imagery

2016 Jan. 25: Update: Spektr-UF; 2015 mission status

2016 Jan. 21: Update: Angara-5P; info, imagery

2016 Jan. 15: Update: PTK project in 2015; info, imagery

2016 Jan. 11: Update: Soyuz-5 (Feniks) project; info, imagery

2016 Jan. 8: New page: Proton operations in 2016

2015 Dec. 29: Update: 2015 in space: Highlights of the year

2015 Dec. 28: Update: Vostochny development in 2015: End-of-year activities

2015 Dec. 21: New page: Ekspress-AMU1

2015 Dec. 21: New page: Progress-MS

2015 Dec. 14: New page: Soyuz TMA-19M mission

2015 Dec. 12-13: Update: Garpun military communications satellite: info, imagery on Garpun 12L launch

2015 Dec. 11: New page: Elektro-L2 weather satellite

2015 Dec. 4: New page: Kanopus-ST satellite

2015 Nov. 19: New page: Nord project

2015 Nov. 16: New section: EKS satellite system

2015 Nov. 8: New page: MOB1-KVTK space tug

2015 Oct. 9: New page: Luna-Glob project in 2015

2015 Oct. 5: New page: PTK project in 2015

2015 Sept. 29: New page: Progress M-29M

2015 Sept. 24: Update: Rodnik satellites: Ninth mission info, hardware visualizations, launch profile graphic

2015 Sept. 23: New page: Block DM-03 space tug

2015 Sept. 7: New page: Soyuz-2 rockets for Vostochny

2015 Aug. 31: New page: Mission of Soyuz TMA-18M

2015 Aug. 24: New page: Soyuz launch control room

2015 July 21: New page: R-6 missile

2015 July 20: New page: Soyuz TMA-17M

2015 July 8: Update: Kosmos-2504: project info

2015 July 2: New page: Progress M-28M

2015 June 29: New page: Proton’s RD-0210 engine

2015 June 23-24: Update: Persona, Kobalt-M: ground track maps, launch videos, photos, hardware visualizations, info

2015 June 22: New page: Ground control in Vostochny

2015 June 18: Update: N1 Moon Rocket: imagery

2015 June 14: New page: Angara-5/KVTK launch vehicle

2015 June 6: Update: Lotos-S/Liana/Pion-NKS: info

2015 June 5: Update: Kobalt-M, Kosmos-2505 launch info, imagery

2015 June 4: New page: RD-0212; update: Proton home page: info, imagery

2015 May 15: New page: RD-181

2015 May 15: New page: Proton launch with MexSat-1

2015 May 10: New page: URM-2V booster for the Angara-5V rocket

2015 April 27: New page: Progress M-27M

2015 April 18: New page: Kosmos-2504

2015 April 13: Update: Angara-5V info, imagery

2015 April 4: Update: KompSat-3A info, imagery, launch video

2015 March 25: New page: Dnepr launch with KompSat-3A

2015 March 22: New page: Angara-5V

2015 March 18: New page: Ekspress-AM7

2015 March 3: New page: Roskosmos

2015 Feb. 29: New pages: Yantar-1KFT Kometa, Bars, Bars-M military cartography satellites

2015 Feb. 18: New page: Vostochny airport

2015 Feb. 17: New page: Soyuz rocket missions in 2015

2015 Feb. 16: New page: Progress M-26M

2015 Feb. 5: New page: Vostochny development in 2015

2015 Jan. 20: New page: RD-191 engine

2015 Jan. 12: Update: NEM module info, imagery, visualizations

2015 Jan. 5: Update: High-Latitude Orbital Station, VShOS (station assembly renderings; Soyuz landing info)

2015 Jan. 4: Update: Vostochny development in 2014 (year-end status update)

2014 Dec. 28: New page: Resurs-P2

2014 Dec. 27: New page: Astra-2G

2014 Dec. 15: New page: Super-heavy launcher

2014 Dec. 12: New page: Yamal-401

2014 Dec. 10: New page: Energia-5KV

2014 Dec. 4: New page: Proton missions in 2015

2014 Nov. 30: New page: GLONASS-K No. 12 launch; Update: info, imagery: GLONASS-K series

2014 Nov. 21: New page: Mission of Soyuz TMA-15M

2014 Nov. 3: Update: OKA-T free-flying orbital laboratory: info on Kremlin reaction; tech specs for OKA-T-MKS; early info on OKA-T-2, budget and more; imagery: evolution of OKA-T design

2014 Oct. 30: New page: Kosmos-2499

2014 Oct. 29: New page: Meridian-7

2014 Oct. 28: New page: Progress M-25M

2014 Oct. 26: New page: Kondor-E radar satellite; Update, info, imagery: Strela launcher

2014 Oct. 12: New section: Voskhod mission

2014 Sept. 26: New page: Olymp satellite

2014 Sept. 25: New page: How Soyuz is published

2014 Sept. 23: New page: Soyuz TMA-14M mission

2014 Sept. 8: New page: Residential area in Vostochny

2014 Sept. 4: New page: Energia-M launch vehicle

2014 Aug. 29: New page: Space exploration in 2025

2014 July 31: Update: Vostochny development in 2014: Soyuz pad construction status, info, images

2014 July 29: New page: ExoMars mission status in 2014

2014 July 28: New page: RD-0120 engine

2014 July 24: Update: First flight of the Angara-5 rocket (A computer-generated cross section of the Angara-5/Briz-M configuration)

2014 July 18: New page: Foton-M4 mission

2014 July 17: Update: Inflatable module (info, images)

2014 July 15: New page: Angara-5

2014 July 7: New page: Meteor-M No. 2

2014 July 3: New page: The second launch of the N1 rocket

2014 June 30: New page: LK/LK-1 project

2014 June 26: Update: Angara home page

2014 June 17: New pages: URM-1 and URM-2 rocket modules of the Angara family

2014 May 28: New page: Soyuz TMA-13M (Expedition 40/41)

2014 May 19: New page: VR-3 rocket

2014 April 20: Update: Spektr-RG — project status report for 2013, 2014, history, technical details, info

2014 April 18: Update: NIP-16 in Yevpatoria — a photo-essay from the location

2014 April 15: New page: Egyptsat-2

2014 April 8: New page: Second stage of the Soyuz rocket

2014 April 7: New page: First stage of the Soyuz rocket

2014 April 6: New page, Angara-1: Angara-1 to inaugurate new rocket family

2014 April 2: New page, Sentinel-1A: Soyuz launches European radarsat

2014 April 2: New section: 3MV project:

2014 March 25: New page: Soyuz TMA-12M (Expedition 39/40)

2014 March 24: New page, NIP-16 ground station: Crimean space connection

2014 March 4: New page: ExoMars to pave the way for soil sample return (Expedition-M project)

2014 Feb. 21: New page: First launch of the N1 rocket

2014 Feb. 20: New page: Proton missions in 2014

2014 Feb. 16: New page: Hot breath of Kholod

2014 Feb. 5: New page: Proton launch with Turksat-4A satellite

2014 Feb. 5: New pages: Mission of Progress M-22M; Soyuz rocket missions in 2014

2014 Feb. 3: New page, NEM-1: Russia works on a new-generation space module

2014 Jan. 29: New page, Vehicle 212: Cruise missile is born in the midst of “Great terror”

2014 Jan. 27: New page, Vostochny: Construction in Vostochny to enter critical phase in 2014

2014 Jan. 20: New page, Vostochny: Vostochny turns from clay to stone in 2013

2014 Jan. 14: Update: info, imagery: Persona reconnaissance satellite

2014 Jan. 8: Update, Soyuz-2-3 launch vehicle: Triumph of Soyuz-2-1v opens door to future launchers

2014 Jan. 2: New page, Luna 1: USSR launches the first artificial planet

2013 Dec. 31: Update (Laplas-P mission): Russia funds a proposal to land on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede

2013 Dec. 26: New page: Proton launches Ekspress-AM5 communications satellite

2013 Dec. 21: New page: Soyuz-2-1v to fly its maiden mission

2013 Dec. 19: New page: Russia plans star-mapping satellite

2013 Dec. 18: New section: Visual history of astronomical tools

2013 Dec. 8: New page: Proton launches Inmarsat-5 F1 satellite

2013 Nov. 22: New page: Rockot successfully launches Swarm satellites

2013 Nov. 17: New page: Strizh rescue suit for Buran pilots

2013 Nov. 3: New page: Anapa asteroid-orbiting mission

2013 Oct. 29: New page: Arktika satellite network

2013 Oct. 19: New page: Proton mission to launch Sirius FM-6 satellite

2013 Oct. 17: New page: Space developments in 2023

2013 Oct. 14: New page: Kaskad launcher family proposal

2013 Oct. 9: New page: Mayak launcher

2013 Oct. 3: New page: Angara-5P;

2013 Oct. 1: New page: Russian manned space program strategy in 2010s;

2013 Sept. 29: Updated and expanded: A virtual guide to the Proton rocket (Home page);

2013 Sept. 27: New page: A Proton mission to launch Astra-2E satellite;

2013 Sept. 23: New page: Soyuz TMA-10M mission;

2013 Sept. 19: New page: MAKS 2013 air and space show photo archive;

2013 Sept. 9: New page: Orlan MKS spacesuit;

2013 Sept. 4: New page: Cheget cosmonaut chair;

2013 Aug. 31: New page: Zenit launch with AMOS-4 satellite: info, imagery;

2013 Aug. 30: Update: PTK NP’s landing gear: Info, imagery;

2013 Aug. 29: Update: Descent module of PTK NP spacecraft: Info, imagery on the toilet system;

2013 Aug. 28: Update: PTK NP development in 2013: Info, imagery from MAKS-2013 air and space show;

2013 Aug. 21: Update: ExoMars 2018: info, imagery;

2013 Aug. 15: New page: Inflatable space structures;

2013 July 30: New page: Super-heavy launchers proposed by TsSKB Progress;

2013 July 27: New page: Progress M-20M mission;

2013 July 11: New page: Mars-69 missions;

2013 July 8: New pages, content split: Proton launch facilities in Baikonur:

2013 July 1: Content split, new page: GLONASS network section home; GLONASS satellite missions;

2013 June 25: Update: Obzor-R: info, imagery;

2013 June 24: Update: PTK NP development in 2013, Descent Module of PTK NP: info, imagery from Le Bourget;

2013 June 23: Update: Soyuz-5 rocket: info, imagery;

2013 June 21: New page: A Soyuz mission to launch O3b satellites;

2013 June 16: New page: Soyuz-5 rocket;

2013 June 12: New section: Missions of Vostok-5 and Vostok-6;

2013 June 2: New page: A Proton mission delivering SES-6 satellite;

2013 May 30: New page: Treadmill system on the Service Module of the ISS;

2013 May 28: New page: Soyuz TMA-09M;

2013 May 18: New page: Landing of Bion M No. 1 spacecraft;

2013 May 15: Update: PTK NP landing gear: imagery; Update: PTK NP development in 2013: info, imagery;

2013 May 15: New page: Sputnik-3 launch;

2013 May 13: New page: Plans for military uses of the N1 Moon rocket;

2013 May 5: New page: PTK NP spacecraft development in 2013;

2013 April 25: New page: Landing gear of PTK-NP spacecraft;

2013 April 23: New page: Bion-M No. 1 mission;

2013 April 22: New page: Vozvrat-MKA;

2013 April 18: New page: Bion project home page;

2013 April 15: New page: Proton mission to launch Anik G1 satellite;

2013 April 11: New page: Mars-3’s likely landing site;

2013 April 10: New page: Angara launch facility in Vostochny;

2013 April 7: New page: Luna-Glob mission status in 2013;

2013 March 28: New page: Soyuz TMA-08M;

2013 March 26: New page: Proton mission to launch SatMex-8 satellite;

2013 March 20: New page: Book review: Russia’s Future in Space, The Untold Story;

2013 March 10: New page: Mars sample return;

2013 March 6: Update: Crew module of the PTK NP spacecraft; (A series of renderings showing evolution of the crew module design from 2010 till today);

2013 Feb. 20: Update: PTK NP spacecraft development in 2012 (Info on the PTK NP emergency escape trajectory, flight test program, etc); Descent module, VA of the PTK NP spacecraft (Info);

2013 Feb. 18: New page: Crew module of the PTK NP spacecraft;

2013 Feb. 11: New page: Soyuz rocket launches in 2013;

2013 Feb. 4: New page: RD-170/171 engine;

2013 Jan. 31: New pages, virtual model, imagery, content split: Zenit launch vehicle;

2013 Jan. 30: Update: South-Korean Launch Vehicle, KSLV-1: A virtual model of the rocket, photos, info;

2013 Jan. 29: New page: Laser tracking facilities;

2013 Jan. 27: New page: Laplas mission to Jupiter and its moons;

2013 Jan. 23: New page: Bion biological research satellite;

2013 Jan. 20: New page: DALS instrument package from the L3 project;

2013 Jan. 18: New page: Hypersonic vehicles;

2013 Jan. 16: New page: Proton missions in 2013;

2013 Jan. 15: New page: Rodnik military communications satellite;

2013 Jan. 13: New page: Processing area in Vostochny;

2013 Jan. 9: New page: Yenisei-5 launch vehicle;

2013 Jan. 7: New page: Spektr-M orbital observatory; Update: PTK NP spacecraft development in 2012: info, imagery;

2013 Jan. 2: Content split, new pages and updates: Soyuz-2-1v home page;

2012 Dec. 26: New page: Spektr-UF;

2012 Dec. 18: New pages: Obzor-O; Obzor-R, Soyuz TMA-07M;

2012 Dec. 17: Updates: Araks and Persona projects (info, imagery);

2012 Dec. 14: New page: Proton launch with Yamal-402 satellite;

2012 Dec. 4: Update: PTK NP spacecraft development in 2012 (interactive graphic; artist renderings, info);

2012 Nov. 30: Update: Sodruzhestvo launch vehicle (interactive graphic of manned lunar version; artist renderings);

2012 Nov. 29: New page: Intergelio-Zond mission;

2012 Nov. 26: New pages: Persona; Resurs-P;

2012 Nov. 13: New pages: Plesetsk launch sites for Soyuz rockets;

2012 Nov. 10: New pages: Luna-Resurs lander;

2012 Nov. 7: Update: Karat (MKA-FKI) platform and new pages on its derivatives:

2012 Nov. 3: Update: Laika’s launch on Sputnik-2: Info, imagery;

2012 Oct. 29: New page: Soyuz launch complex in Vostochny;

2012 Oct. 22: New pages: Cuban missile crisis; Soyuz TMA-06M;

2012 Oct. 15: New page: Space flight to Langrangian points;

2012 Oct. 3: Update: Origin of the Sputnik project, Object-D (Sputnik-3) project; Design of a simplest satellite (Sputnik-1); Preparing for launch; Launch of Sputnik-1; Aftermath of Sputnik: Info, imagery;

2012 Sept. 30: Update: Status of the PTK NP project during 2012: Artist rendering of the PTK spacecraft and the Earth departure stage in lunar orbit;

2012 Sept. 24: New page: Status of the PTK NP project during 2012; Update: MLM (FGB-2) module: info, rendering, photography;

2012 Sept. 17: New page: MetOp weather-forecasting satellites;

2012 Aug. 15: New page: SKA radar satellite ;

2012 Aug. 11: New page: Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 dual mission ;

2012 Aug. 10: New page: Ekspress-1000N;

2012 Aug. 7: New page: Ekspress-MD2;

2012 Aug. 5: New page: ExoMars 2018;

2012 July 20: New page: Kanopus-V; Karat; Update: BelKA;

2012 July 14: New page: Soyuz TMA-05M; Update: Phobos-Grunt-2; Lunar plans in 2012;

2012 July 8: New page: Briz upper stage;

2012 May 14: New page: Docking systems;

2012 April 23: New page: Mission to Apophis;

2012 April 9: New page: Mercury-P;

2012 April 6: New page: Mars-NET;

2012 April 5: New page: Phobos-Grunt-2;

2012 April 4: New page: Plans for unmanned missions to the Moon as of 2012;

2012 Feb. 14: New page: Proton missions in 2012;

2012 Feb. 12: New page: Vega launch vehicle;

2012 Jan. 15: New page: Mars-96;

2011 Dec. 28: New page: Globalstar-2 missions;

2011 Dec. 24: New page: Meridian No. 5 launch failure;

2011 Dec. 23: New page: RD-0124 engine;

2011 Dec. 21: New page: Kosmos-482 (Venera-72 No. 671);

2011 Dec. 20: New page: Soyuz TMA-03M;

2011 Dec. 14: New page: Boris Chertok;

2011 Dec. 11: New page: Luch relay satellites;

2011 Dec. 10: New page: Phobos-Grunt reentry; Luch-5A relay satellite;

2011 Nov. 27: New page: Russian space industry in 2010s;

2011 Nov. 22: New page: ExoMars 2016, Zenit’s second stage;

2011 Nov. 8: New page: Launch of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft;

2011 Nov. 7: New page: Phobos (Fobos) mission;

2011 Nov. 7: New page: Origin of the Phobos-Grunt mission;

2011 Oct. 30: Update: Naryad killer satellite system: info, imagery;

2011 Oct. 20: New page: Galileo satellite;

2011 Sept. 21: New page: Garpun military data relay satellite;

2011 Sept. 20: New page: Ekspress-AM4 communications satellite;

2011 Aug. 28: New page: RD-0110 engine; Stage III of the Soyuz rocket;

2011 Aug. 25: New page: Progress M-12M launch failure;

2011 Aug. 22: New page: MAKS-2011 photo report;

2011 Aug. 12: New page: Sich-2 satellite;

2011 Aug. 6: New page: Gherman Titov’s mission onboard Vostok-2;

2011 July 22: New page: Spektr-R orbital mission;

2011 July 7: New page: Rheinbote missile;

2011 June 30: New page: PTK NP project development during 2011;

2011 June 21: New page: Paris Air and Space Show in Le Bourget;

2011 June 13: New page: Phobos-Grunt development during 2011;

2011 June 13: Update: Luna-Resurs; Luna-Resurs landing; Luna-Glob: info, imagery on the latest architecture and flight scenarios;

2011 June 8: New page: Spektr-R home page;

2011 June 7: New page: Soyuz TMA-02M;

2011 May 20: New page: Proton operations in 2011;

2011 May 7: New page: Design of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft;

2011 May 6: Update: RT-1 ballistic missile: info, imagery;

2011 April 26-27: New page: Excalibur-Almaz;

2011 April 18: New page: Russian space industry in 2000s;

2011 April 13: Update: Block D space tug: info, photography, artist rendering; Origin of the Vostok spacecraft: info, imagery;

2011 April 11: New page: The Vostok launch vehicle;

2011 April 10: Update and restructuring: Gagarin’s flight onboard Vostok;

2011 April 4: New page: Soyuz TMA-21;

2011 March 11: Update: Soyuz habitation module, RT-1 ballistic missile: info, imagery;

2011 March 10: Update: LK lunar lander: info, imagery;

2011 Feb. 25: New page: GLONASS-K;

2011 Feb. 1: New page: Geo-IK-2, Musson (Geo-IK) and Sfera geodetic satellites;

2011 Jan. 19: New page: Elektro-L weather satellite; Navigator spacecraft bus; Update: Fregat upper stage;

2010 Dec. 21: Update: Luna-Glob mission scenario: details, imagery;

2010 Dec. 15: New page: Venera-7;

2010 Dec. 13: New page: Soyuz TMA-20;

2010 Nov. 19: New page: Luna-Resurs landing;

2010 Nov. 17: New page: Phobos-Grunt mission scenario;

2010 Nov. 12: Update: Habitation module of the Soyuz spacecraft: info, imagery;

2010 Nov. 7: Update: PTK NP development in 2010: imagery – rendering of the expendable cargo-delivery vehicle;

2010 Nov. 2: New page: PTK-Z spacecraft;

2010 Oct. 25: Updated: Rus-M technical project, Vostochny facilities; info, imagery;

2010 Oct. 17: Updated: Landing system of the PTK NP spacecraft, OPSEK, PTK NP mods: info, visualization imagery;

2010 Oct. 11: Updated: Luna-Glob/Luna-Resurs: Mission status/science payload info; an image of the latest design for orbiters;

2010 Oct. 6: New page: Soyuz TMA-M series; Soyuz TMA-01M mission;

2010 Oct. 1: New page: Molniya rocket;

2010 Sept. 8: New page: Gonets/Strela;

2010 Sept. 6: Updated: Unmanned missions to the Moon: info;

2010 Aug. 12: New page: Luna-Glob;

2010 July 21-22: Update: PTK NP development in 2010: info, imagery;

2010 July 21: New page: Space at Farnborough 2010;

2010 July 7: Update: Soyuz-1 launcher: info, imagery;

2010 June 22: New page: Luna-24;

2010 June 21: New page: Spektr-RG;

2010 June 18: New page: NK-33 engine;

2010 June 15: New page: Soyuz TMA-19;

2010 May 26: Update: Phobos-Grunt preparation: soil sampler info, hardware images;

2010 May 14: New page: MIM1 Rassvet module of the ISS;

2010 May 2: New page: Space exploration in 2016;

2010 April 27: New page: Parus;

2010 April 16: New page: Kobalt-M;

2010 April 2: New page: Soyuz TMA-18;

2010 March 10: Update: Phobos-Grunt preparation: soil sampler replacement, test prototype images;

2010 Feb. 28: Update: IS, Naryad anti-satellite systems: info, imagery;

2010 Jan. 26: New page: PTK NP project during 2010;

2010 Jan. 20: New page: Node Module for the ISS;

2010 Jan. 12: New page: Progress-Centaur combination for cargo supply to the lunar orbit;

2010 Jan. 4-5: Update: Space exploration in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013: info, imagery;

2010 Jan. 1: New page: Space exploration in 2015;

2009 Dec. 25: Update: Space exploration in 2009;

2009 Dec. 20: New page: Soyuz TMA-17; update: Enterprise/MIM-1: US post-arrival images;

2009 Dec. 18: New page: NITs RKP space center, a.k.a. Zagorsk, Sergiev Posad, Peresvet;

2009 Dec. 15-17: Update: GLONASS network: info, imagery;

2009 Nov. 9: Update: ISS docking compartment/Mini-research module: interactive graphic, info, photos;

2009 Oct. 30: Update: Site 254 in Baikonur: info, photos;

2009 Oct. 24: Update: Phobos-Grunt preparation: mission status, test prototype image;

2009 Oct. 7: New page: Venera-D;

2009 Sept. 28: Update: Site-250/Baiterek complex: info, imagery;

2009 Sept. 10: New page: Soyuz-1 rocket;

2009 Sept. 6: Update: Rus-M rocket: an artist rendering of the Rus-M launch with the PTK NP spacecraft;

2009 Sept. 2: Update: PPTS spacecraft: artwork reflecting data from MAKS-2009 – thermal protection tiles, laser-guided rendezvous system, aerodynamic flaps, rotating solar arrays, reconfigured sensors, antennas, propulsion and attitude control systems, an external umbilical from crew module to service module, reshaped forward thruster gondola on the crew module;

2009 Aug. 26: Update: Rus-M rocket: artist rendering of the Rus-M family based on official info from MAKS-2009; Phobos-Grunt: info, MAKS-2009 scale models imagery of the spacecraft, Chinese microsatellite;

2009 Aug. 25: Update: Angara rocket: Korean launch vehicle, KSLV, info;

2009 Aug. 24: Update: Rus-M rocket: info, photos from MAKS-2009;

2009 Aug. 21: Update: PPTS spacecraft: info, photos from MAKS-2009;

2009 Aug. 20: New page: MAKS-2009 highlights;

2009 July 20: Update: LK lunar lander: virtual model of the spacecraft;

2009 July 3: New page: OPSEK: Russian-European plans to succeed the ISS: info, imagery, animation;

2009 June 26: Update: ARD: info, imagery on Phase A work;

2009 June 24: Update: Angara rocket: info, imagery;

2009 June 23: Update: Fregat upper stage: S5.92 engine info, imagery; Rus-M: development info;

2009 June 22: Update: Phobos-Grunt: propulsion system, scale model info, imagery; PPTS: RKK Energia chief comments on the development budget; RD-0146: 1 to 5 model photo;

Angara-7: info, imagery from Le Bourget 2009;

2009 June 18: Update: Le Bourget 2009: Mars rover demo video; photos from the show;

2009 June 15: New page: Le Bourget 2009: Show highlights;

2009 June 4: Update: Launch vehicle for PPTS project: info based on the official tender documentation;

2009 May 25: Update: Phobos-Grunt mission details on pre-launch processing, based on Georgy Poleshyuk interview to the Russian media;

2009 May 13: New page: RD-0146: History of the project, technical estimates, imagery;

2009 May 5: New page: Development of the landing system for the PPTS spacecraft: info, animation and imagery of the possible PPTS emergency landing profile;

2009 April 28: Update: Russia’s next-generation spacecraft within PPTS project: Animation of the spacecraft touchdown;

2009 April 11: Update: Launch vehicle for PPTS project: info, photo, artist rendering;

2009 March 20: Update: Launch vehicle for PPTS project: Artist rendering of the launch vehicle proposed by RKK Energia, Angara-5P photo, info;

2009 March 19: Update: Launch vehicle for PPTS project: Artist rendering of the launch vehicle family based on RD-180 engine;

2009 March 17: New page: Launch vehicle for PPTS project;

2009 Feb. 22: Update: Soyuz, Vega launch pads in French Guiana. Construction, upgrades status;

2009 Feb. 12: Update: Military spacecraft: Artist rendering of the Strela-2M communications satellite;

2009 Feb. 8: Update: Phobos-Grunt mission composite of TV frames showing hardware assembly; official statement maintaining 2009 launch date;

2009 Feb. 1: Update: Russian plans for new space station; Star City transfer from Air Force to Roskosmos;

2009 Jan. 28: New page: Koronas-Foton project;

2009 Jan. 26: Update: Launch schedule for 2009;

2009 Jan. 9: Update: Russian space program in 2000-2010: Tender for the next-generation rocket for manned space flight;

2008 Dec. 30: Update: 2008 — Top 10 space achievements of the year;

2008 Nov. 24: Update: ARD: Artist rendering of the Advanced Reentry Vehicle;

2008 Nov. 15: New page: Spiral development: info, artwork, photography;

2008 Oct. 14: New page: Soyuz TMA-13 mission (The 18th long-duration expedition to the ISS);

2008 Oct. 9: Update: History of ACTS project: Artist renderings of launch-vehicles proposed for the next-generation spacecraft;

2008 Oct. 7: New page: Kummersdorf: info, on-location photos, historic imagery, cartography, artwork;

2008 Oct. 4: Update: The Hs-293 cruise missile, Blizna test site: photos, info;

2008 Sept. 8: New page: N1_ru – the first Russian language test page;

2008 Aug. 25: Update: History of ACTS project: Flight profile animation, still imagery: Launch; Technical information on the spacecraft; characteristics and project requirements;

2008 Aug. 20: Update: History of ACTS project: Flight profile animation: Deorbiting maneuver;

2008 Aug. 20: New page: Future missions: 2012, 2013, 2014;

2008 Aug. 14: Update: History of ACTS project: Flight profile animation: Orbit insertion;

2008 Aug. 11: Update: History of ACTS project: Artist renderings of the July 2008 configuration of the ACTS spacecraft and its flight phases;

2008 July 29: Update: ACTS project: New abstract page, artist rendering of the ACTS spacecraft interior;

2008 July 18: Update: ACTS project: Artist rendering of the ACTS spacecraft based on the configuration revealed at the Farnborough Air Show;

2008 July 15: Update: Early rocketry: info, imagery;

2008 July 10: Update: Soyuz TMA-12 mission: EVA info, info-graphic;

2008 June 23: New page: Preparing Phobos-Grunt for launch; Update: Phobos-Grunt project: Mass breakdown of the Phobos-Grunt mission;

2008 June 18: New page: Phobos-Grunt project: info, imagery on the final architecture of the mission;

2008 June 15: Update: Russian space program in the first decade of the 21st century: info, imagery on Russia’s science and planetary missions;

2008 June 8: New page: ILA-2008: Photo-reportage from the Berlin air and space show;

2008 June 4: Update: ACTS project: information, artist renderings on the latest version of the ACTS spacecraft;

2008 May 29: Update: European manned spacecraft: information, photography from the ILA-2008 show in Berlin;

2008 April 28: Update: Soyuz TMA-11 mission: account of landing incident, artist renderings;

2008 April 7: New page: Soyuz TMA-12 mission;

2008 March 17: Updated: ATV: History of the program;

2008 March 16: New page: Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator, ARD; Update: ATV: Video, photos of the launch;

2008 March 6-9: Update: Kourou launch site; ATV spacecraft: initial imagery from the trip to French Guiana;

2008 March 4: New page: ATV: History of the program;

2008 Feb. 19: New page: Lunar Orbital Station, LOS: Visualization of a conceptual design;

2008 Feb. 7: New page: Columbus laboratory module: European segment of the ISS;

2008 Feb. 2: Update: Soyuz/ACTS project: news; artist rendering of the ACTS crew module and the Soyuz spacecraft to scale;

2008 Jan. 24: Update: Soyuz/ACTS project: news/historical information; Svobodny/Vostochny: news/historical information;

2008 Jan. 5: Update: Soyuz/ACTS project: artist renderings of a prospective design of the Russian lunar lander;

2008 Jan. 3: New page: Russian space program: A decade review (2000-2010): History, imagery;

2007 Nov. 27: Update: Svobodny/Vostochny: Map of launch trajectories and first stage drop zones

2007 Nov. 26: New page: Soyuz ACRV: History, imagery

2007 Nov. 20: Update: Origin of the Soyuz/ACTS project: info-graphic of Soyuz, ATV and Soyuz/ACRV vehicles to scale

2007 Nov. 17: New page: Sea Launch: a sea-based launch site

2007 Nov. 2: New page: Sputnik-2: The 50th anniversary of Laika’s launch: history, photos, illustrations, animation of the mission

2007 Oct. 7: Update: Site 112 in Baikonur: imagery

2007 Sept. 29: Update: Sputnik design: imagery, technical information

2007 Sept. 24: New page: Biography of Mikhail Tikhonravov, a pioneer of the Soviet rocketry and space program

Update: Ground control (Sputnik tracking info):

2007 Sept. 6: Update: The Hs-293 cruise missile: Hardware photos; historic imagery

2007 Aug. 2: Update: Svobodny: info on the closure of the facility; plans for the new launch site in the Far East

2007 June 21: Update: Soyuz/ACTS project: animation, still imagery of the docking between Soyuz ACTS spacecraft and the KVRB space tug

2007 May 28: Update: Soyuz ACTS: artist renderings of the Soyuz/Fregat combination, description of additional lunar mission scenarios

2007 May 14: Update: The R-7 rocket: artist renderings, historic imagery, information

2007 April 24: Update: video of the 8th Dnepr launch

2007 March 2: New page: ACTS development history

2007 Feb. 7: Update: Artist rendering of the Progress M2 spacecraft

2007 Feb. 1: New page: The Zenit-3SL rocket failure on the Sea Launch platform

2007 Jan. 17: New page: 2007 in space: Trends and developments, 2008, 2009, 2010

2007 Jan. 12: Update: Korolev: biography, historic and contemporary imagery

2006 Nov. 4: Update: Soyuz/ACTS project: mission scenario info, artist renderings, animation of circumlunar flight

2006 Sept. 26: Update: Soyuz/ACTS project: artist rendering of the early European-Russian cooperation concept

2006 July 27: New page: BelKA remote-sensing satellite

2006 July 11: Update: Dombarovskiy ICBM and space launch site: cartography, imagery, historic data

2006 June 15: New page: Resurs-DK remote-sensing satellite

2006 June 12: Update: Follow-on to the TKS spacecraft: proposals to the government tender on the Kliper project

2006 May 27: New page: Compass science satellite

2006 May 25: New page: Soyuz-2-3 launch vehicle

2006 March 30: New page: ISS mission chronology (a complete list of past and future ISS missions

2006 March 29: New page: The Soyuz TMA-8 mission

2006 March 26: Update: Kliper in 2006: animation and still imagery of the Kliper docking with the Parom orbital tug

2006 Feb. 19: New page: Mir chronology (year by year)

2006 Feb. 18: Updated and expanded: Kliper, (abstract page)

2006 Jan. 2: Update: Parom orbital tug – information and imagery on the cargo carrier

2005 Oct. 10: Update: Soyuz-3 launch vehicle – Artist rendering of the Soyuz-3 launch, carrying the Kliper spacecraft

2005 Oct. 1: New page: Soyuz TMA-7 mission

2005 Sept. 18: Update: Kliper spacecraft – 3D imagery of separation of the launch vehicle adapter and propulsion module

2005 Sept. 2: Update: Kliper spacecraft – 3D animation of the spacecraft orbital insertion

2005 Sept. 1: Update: Kliper spacecraft – 3D animation of the spacecraft segmentation

2005 Aug. 30: Update: Kliper spacecraft – infographic of the spacecraft segmentation

2005 July 24: New page: Kourou launch site

2005 June 23: Update: Kliper spacecraft – Photos of the latest version mockup in Le Bourget

2005 June 9: Update: Kliper spacecraft – 3D animation and rendering of orbital insertion