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Russian Launch and Mission Thread


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6 hours ago, RCgothic said:

Apparently Russian state media is giving their space program a grilling:

 

 

 

There's state media and there's state media.  MK is owned by its chief editor Pavel Gusev, and is much further removed from the Kremlin monetary trough than, say, VGTRK even though he's well-embedded politically. Because of that, it is often (at least selectively) more critical and seems to target a more displeased - if a more tabloidal - audience. Articles with the same tone appearing in, say, Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru (Potanin and Mamut... might change now that Sberbank has bought Rambler&Co) or the more business-oriented Kommersant (of Ilia Safronov fame) were hardly notable.

However, you may have noticed the mention of Shoigu in the article already. Pavel Gusev is the Chairman of the Public Council of the Ministry of Defense. And the article starts by sniping about military procurement...

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The issue is that vernier thrusters on the Soyuz boosters and in the de-orbit engines of the Soyuz-MS spacecraft use a special grade of highly refined hydrogen peroxide. Production of this hydrogen peroxide in Russia, however, depends on deliveries of chemicals produced by a German company called Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH. These deliveries are subject to limitation by international sanctions against the Russian Federation.

It would seem that Eric's knowledge about RD-107/RD-108 and probably by extension the V-2 is somewhat short of Wikipedia standards.

The original HTP supplier went bankrupt March last year: https://ria.ru/20200307/1568276729.html

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Meanwhile, the average monthly wages for technical specialists who build the country's rockets and spacecraft range from $500 to $1,000 a month.

I'll have to dig through my archives, but Angara's designer has long since claimed the low pay a canard - at least $1500 for the actual doers, at market exchange rate. You can about double that in PPP. Or, to put it more bluntly, it's about the average Moscow wage or 6 times minimum wage; heck, I don't quite earn 2k gross after 5 years. Considering these people are more likely to have studied on a scholarship than your average blue-collar (not that student lending is much of a thing in Russia), and a lot of them are likely to get company housing, that sounds comfy by the standards of Russia's maligned blue-collar class.

That's said, we're still talking about severe corporate bloat: Roscosmos central management earns five times that, and Rogozin earns twice as much  (at market rates, again) as the head of NASA. https://www.mk.ru/politics/2019/08/14/zarplaty-sotrudnikov-roskosmosa-porazhayut-voobrazhenie-kosmonavtam-takie-dengi-ne-snilis.html

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If nothing changes, if there is no political will to introduce strict order using maximally radical methods, space will remain Russian only in our memories.

Oh, what a familiar and annoying mindset. Just tighten the screws! Bang on the table! Shoot a few scapegoats!

Spoiler

stalin.jpg

Roscosmos was built to introduce strict order instead of the feudal system of individual KBs. Rogozin was brought in to introduce strict order after the public failures of Popovkin.

Stepping on the same rake won't bring change. Heck, two, three years ago there already more FSB spooks than rocket scientists. Five years ago Rogozin began to dismiss key KB officials at the first sign of failure. Has anything at all improved?

Edited by DDE
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On 12/17/2021 at 8:41 PM, DDE said:

article

After reading the original article, I felt that it looked very much like a hit piece. Lists a bunch of problems, doesn’t tell what to do, not even a suggestion, but implies that it’s all the director’s fault. Mentions that the national security is at risk, as if knowing that the director's boss values security a lot… while skipping other things like the fact that work on Sarmat ICBM (built by Roscosmos company) is going very well. States that the construction work at Vostochniy is lagging behind schedule, but “forgets” that it was even further behind schedule when the director was appointed… I don’t want to defend anyone here, but things like these become easy to spot after reading a lot of Russian press :)

I wonder if the original author (and possible client?..) expected his article to be translated and published on Ars Technica for the whole world to see.

Edited by sh1pman
Wrong emoji… duh
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How many missions did “they” (design bureau or government) plan to fly for the L3 program before either cancelling it or moving forward with the L3M and DLB?

Or did they not get that far in planning?

The 1964 decision, prior to the L3 adopting a double launch flight profile, had two “reserve” N1s after the first crewed landing, but I am wondering if anything further was planned after that.

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OKB-1 was planning to build N-1 and stay in space (as they had been already pushed out of the military).

Based on how many LK they have spent in LEO, probably depends on how much money their plant would get.

What were the strategic plans, probably nobody can say, as well as the actual aim beyond the flag planting.

As even the lunar probes since E-6 were transferred from Korolev's to Lavochkin's bureau (fighter planes, tactic missiles, long-range cruise missile), probably their further plans but N-1 were playing no role.

Edited by kerbiloid
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https://www-interfax-ru.translate.goog/russia/812525?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ru

One of ISS crews will stay at the landing point for about two days to imitate the landing on another celestial body.

Instead of the rescue team, they (another they) will drop a special equipment for the crew, kinda the crew just had landed and unboxed.

(Probably that's why Anna Kikina)

***

Earlier they stated that it's being planned to perform a radiosilence experiment on ISS.
The ISS will have no connection to the Earth, to cause the communication pauses, kinda they are behind the Moon or have a 20 minute delay at the Mars.

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