ROSCOSMOS news - Russian space program in general

[Roger E. Moore]

Russia launches UK telecom satellites into space. A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East on Friday carrying 36 UK telecommunications and internet satellites, the Roscosmos space agency said. The launch was the first and only one to take place from the cosmodrome this year, Roscosmos told AFP. The rocket took off at 1226 GMT, Roscosmos said, carrying satellites made by the British-based company OneWeb. Originally planned for April, the launch was delayed after OneWeb collapsed and was forced to declare bankruptcy.

https://phys.org/news/2020-12-russia...tes-space.html

[publiusr]

R-7 is going to outlive me.

[Roger E. Moore]

Russia’s space chief cannot seem to get “gentle” SpaceX out of his mind.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020...t-of-his-mind/

[Nicolas]

While I can only be impressed by those workers having to do their job in those conditions, the obvious rebuttal of course is that SpaceX's boosters return home on their own like a well trained dog.

[Garrison]

Russia’s space chief cannot seem to get “gentle” SpaceX out of his mind.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020...t-of-his-mind/

Well when you've just lost a major source of income to crew Dragon and there's a chance that next year more rockets will launch from New Zealand than Russia its understandable Rogozin would probably want to invest in some chest thumping propaganda as well. Same with all these grand plans for new rockets and new space stations, he knows full well there's no money to pay for any of it.

[Van Rijn]

While I can only be impressed by those workers having to do their job in those conditions, the obvious rebuttal of course is that SpaceX's boosters return home on their own like a well trained dog.

It pretty much said that in the article: these people are doing an admirable job, and Russia is showing reasonable care (the region the boosters are dropping on is very lightly populated, nonetheless the drop area is well constrained and good effort is made to see to it nobody would be in the area) but nonetheless the Falcon 9 process is simply better. As for the “gentle” conditions for Starship tests, someone in comments said (paraphrasing) “Russia in the winter? Hah! Doesn’t he realize that Starship is being designed for Mars in the winter?” I had a good laugh.

[Nicolas]

Nice one.

And indeed, Russia is not reckless about the stages falling back on land, they've got procedures in place.

[Roger E. Moore]

Russia plans more Proton-M launches in 2021.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/R..._Says_999.html

[Roger E. Moore]

Roscosmos Head reveals likely cause of crack in ISS module hull. While the crack has already been located and patched up by the space station's crew, a more permanent solution is expected once special repair equipment reaches the ISS in February. The crack discovered in the hull of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) in October might have been caused by a micrometeorite impact, head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said. During an interview on Rossiya 24 TV channel, he suggested that the damage may also be "technological" in nature, though he did not elaborate on this. The Roscosmos chief also said the story about the crack has been blown out of proportion by scaremongers - and he added that he believes Russia has no shortage of them. The ISS's Russian segment - the Zvezda module - has been leaking air since September 2019.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/R..._hull_999.html

[selvaarchi]

"Russia to Launch Partially Reusable Rockets by 2026"

https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/r...ckets-by-2026/

In October, Roscosmos unveiled plans for the Amur rocket, a two-stage vessel with a reusable first stage. This stage will perform up to 100 vertical-powered landings with a design that looks extremely similar to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, although the landings will take place on land rather than on floating platforms as SpaceX prefers, most likely due to the rough conditions of Russia’s Sea of Okhotsk.

The Amur is named after its intended place of launch: a cosmodrome in the Amur region (in the south-eastern corner of Russia nearest to North Korea and Japan).

Although it looks extremely similar in design to the Falcon 9, there are some key differences between the two rockets, as pointed out by Space.com:

[Garrison]

"Russia to Launch Partially Reusable Rockets by 2026"

https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/r...ckets-by-2026/

To which the same question applies as it does to so many of Russia's space ambitions, where's the money coming from? They seem to be struggling with current programs so how can they fund new ones?

[Roger E. Moore]

NASA may limit its presence in Russia over shrinking cooperation on ISS.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/N...n_ISS_999.html

[Roger E. Moore]

Glavkosmos aims to fly two commercial astronauts to the ISS in 2022 aboard a Soyuz capsule. Glavkosmos, the commercial arm of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has announced its intent to enter the space tourism market, selling a minimum of four Soyuz seats to commercial astronauts through 2023.

https://spacenews.com/glavkosmos-to-...oyuz-missions/

[Roger E. Moore]

New design for Russian super-heavy methane-powered launch vehicle completed.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/N...leted_999.html

[selvaarchi]

"Russian Moon and Mars Projects Discussed"

https://www.leonarddavid.com/russian...cts-discussed/

At Russia’s S.A. Lavochkin, a media briefing featured updates on two main planetary projects now underway at the company: The Luna-25 lunar lander mission and the ExoMars-2022 project.

On March 17, 2021, Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of the Roscosmos State Corporation, held a meeting with journalists at S.A. Lavochkin.

[publiusr]

I am happy about the new paint for R-7. It will actually look angelic-as opposed to looking like one of the iron towers of the city of Dis erupting out of the underworld