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Russian Launch and Mission Thread


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1 hour ago, DDE said:

At this point it's a Catch 22. Roscosmos is corrupt through and through, but they can't get anything done if they keep cleaning house.

From my experience, there are state-run institutions where you can’t get anything done WITHOUT breaking some laws. Lawful people eventually get weeded out. Maybe this is (or was) the case in Roscosmos.

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Rogozin announced the inability of the United States to implement the lunar program without the Russian Federation.
"I think that the future conquest of the moon will not be able to be nationalized by some country, they will not do without us," 
He is confident that cooperation in space between Russia and the United States will continue in any case.
"We will come to the aid of the Americans. I think that the Americans will not refuse to help us," he said.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.interfax.ru/world/734138

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So I'm wondering something in all these comments from Roscosmos and Rogozin. I might be missing some undertones here, and I know I'm not getting all the details. So I have to ask some things here, knowing there's a lot to speculate about.

So is Roscosmos saying to the world that they are still on equal standing to NASA, have the capacity to play an equally major role in Artemis or at least Lunar Gateway, and that they are unincluded or underutilized? Or is Roscosmos saying to the Russian government that they have the capability of being a proud, equal partner to NASA's effort (if, you know, someone signs some checks?)

Note I'm not asking what Roscosmos can do, but what they are trying to say here.

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4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

"We will come to the aid of the Americans. I think that the Americans will not refuse to help us..."

Because obviously, we're doing a terrible job ourselves. :lol: /s

2 hours ago, 55delta said:

So is Roscosmos saying to the world that they are still on equal standing to NASA, have the capacity to play an equally major role in Artemis or at least Lunar Gateway, and that they are unincluded or underutilized? Or is Roscosmos saying to the Russian government that they have the capability of being a proud, equal partner to NASA's effort (if, you know, someone signs some checks?)

I highly suspect it is the latter. It sounds much more reasonable to me. Whatever the reason, I look forward to seeing Russia become the next nation to land on the Moon. I guess that besides the USA and PRC, they/you are the only ones who might be able to in the near future.

Edited by SOXBLOX
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On 10/26/2020 at 2:07 AM, 55delta said:

So I'm wondering something in all these comments from Roscosmos and Rogozin. I might be missing some undertones here, and I know I'm not getting all the details. So I have to ask some things here, knowing there's a lot to speculate about.

So is Roscosmos saying to the world that they are still on equal standing to NASA, have the capacity to play an equally major role in Artemis or at least Lunar Gateway, and that they are unincluded or underutilized? Or is Roscosmos saying to the Russian government that they have the capability of being a proud, equal partner to NASA's effort (if, you know, someone signs some checks?)

Note I'm not asking what Roscosmos can do, but what they are trying to say here.

You're getting the right hunch.

The last thirty years of international politics is Russia - first under Yeltsin, then under Putin - demanding to still be treated as an equal to the United States. The particular tone of the discussions changes (Yeltsin's discussions with Clinton show a very thuggish attitude... when he quite seriously asked for the US to leave all of Europe in the Russian sphere of influence), but the basic points remain the same. And Rogozin is nowhere near the dimwit he sounds like, he seems to be quite keenly aware of these politics, and even personally invested into them.

As to your particular question, it's both. Roscosmos has a Lunar program. They pinky-promise Luna-25 will fly next year and that the superheavy will show up by the end of the decade, but they need to keep making noise to ensure they get the money - right now it's a serious problem, the Ministry of Finance isn't disbursing payments for procurement contracts on time. They also view Artemis/Gateway as an American ego-boosting exercise, hence why the US should foot the bill for all the other participants.

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So it is dual-purpose PR, which makes sense when you have to make the most of what little coverage you can get.

On 10/26/2020 at 10:45 PM, DDE said:

They also view Artemis/Gateway as an American ego-boosting exercise, hence why the US should foot the bill for all the other participants.

It's a bold strategy...but I imagine it's unlikely. I won't speculate if any specific part of the US government is trying for an ego-boost, or if you should trust if that specific part of the US government to would pay out on contracts. This is the wrong forum for that. Not to say that the US hasn't paid Roscosmos for services in the past. But I can't see the US senate paying for services outside the country when they've always preferred to talk about space as a benefit to the local economy. They only turn to international partners for the stuff they can't (or won't) do themselves. The only way I can the US paying out for a Russian lunar program is if Rososmos showed up tomorrow (almost literally at this point) with fully-functional vehicles and infrastructure.

So who would bet that Luna-25 would be ready ahead of any US proposals? Has Roscosmos been hiding an almost complete lunar spacecraft from the world, just in case the US wants to return to the moon?  I would dismiss the idea outright, but I can see Roscosmos keeping a lunar program under wraps because of a lack of support from the Russian government.

Edited by 55delta
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8 hours ago, 55delta said:

So who would bet that Luna-25 would be ready ahead of any US proposals? Has Roscosmos been hiding an almost complete lunar spacecraft from the world, just in case the US wants to return to the moon?

I think you got the wrong impression what Luna-25 is:

021cfd4a9ba3c4a192a7b676aef7d1ae.JPG

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6 hours ago, DDE said:

I think you got the wrong impression what Luna-25 is:

Right, I forgot about the Soviet Luna program and it's modern extension. You can ignore my silly talk of 'a crewed lunar lander being unused because no one would launch it.' 

Just looking up Luna-25's mission. A landing near the lunar south pole could provide some useful data ahead of Artemis III (assuming Artemis III goes to plan.) Any guesses if the current buzz about space will convince Russia to launch it, if only to say they're doing something? Or is it penciled into the schedule because there's nothing else in the pipe to delay it?

 

Edited by 55delta
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3 minutes ago, 55delta said:

Any guesses if the current buzz about space will convince Russia to launch it, if only to say they're doing something? Or is it penciled into the schedule because there's nothing else in the pipe to delay it?

Given the amount of prior delays? I don't think it's intentional.

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On 10/29/2020 at 5:49 AM, DDE said:

Given the amount of prior delays? I don't think it's intentional.

I'll re-phrase. I don't think it's intentional either. I just get the impression that Luna-25 has always been a low-priority during the 2000s and 2010s. Does the discussions of crewed moon landings change Luna-25's priority? Or has its priority stayed the same, but there's nothing else at this moment, of a higher priority to further delay it?

Edited by 55delta
Improved the grammer
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The all-Russian actress casting is started for the movie "Challenge", to be filmed on ISS next year, by Roscosmos together with the First Channel.

The candidate should be able to play her role on ground, then train, fly to ISS, and play the role in zero-G.

The requirements are: Russian citizenship, age = 25..45 yr, height = 150..180 cm, mass = 50..75 kg, basic English.

The candidate should film a videoselfie with a monologue.
A month later the chosen ones (up to 30) will be invited for live casting.
Two winners will be selected as main and backup actresses.

After medical commission the chosen ones will pass a three-month training course in the Cosmonaut School.

Onboard the actress will play as both  actress and researcher.
This will be also a test of possibility of a limited training courses for a doctor, an engineer, or an astrophysicist for space crews.

The filming should start in late 2021 (together with KSP-2 release, lol).

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.interfax.ru/culture/735411

https://www.1tv.ru/shows/kosmos/polet-v-kosmos-kasting

 

The director of the movie is Klim Shipenko (Salyut-7, etc.)
Filmography:
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.kino-teatr.ru/kino/director/ros/26016/works/

Spoiler

Just a pure guessing.
The filmography demostrates the director's stable preferences in the main actress look.
So, I'd not be surprised if it will be S. Khodchenkova or L. Aksionova, but would be surprised if the actress looked rather different.
Maybe M.Sivatskaya. All three look sporty.

P.S.
Anyway, much better than Tom Cruise.

 

KSP should add new personality value: Charm.

P.S.
It's that case when I'm sincerely cheering for the coming event. Just don't let Cruise be the first.

Edited by kerbiloid
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1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

I would suggest to launch another one at once, with cameramen.  To fly around and film the separation from outside, with heroine face in the window.
No need to reach the LEO, it can be suborbital.

"Remember, you only get one take, so make it good." In all seriousness, more HD Soyuz stuff would be absolutely wonderful to see.

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Roscosmos requested 1.5 trln RUR (~20 bln USD) for the Sphere commsat system, analog of Starlink and OneWeb.

It exceeds total funding of federal space programs from 2016 to 2025.

The project was announced in 2018 and planned for 2024..2028.
It should consist of 542 (another version - 640) sats and require 150 rockets.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://ria.ru/20201106/sfera-1583296336.html

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Roscosmos cuts by 15..20% management salaries, which "have been inflated in the past years", 
reduces the (management) staff by 100 persons,
reduces the ORKK (United Rocket&Space Corporation) staff from 100 down to 15 persons.

In June the Rocket&Space Center Progress (in Samara) has reduced 397 persons (including free vacancies).

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.interfax.ru/russia/737183

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The maiden flight of the reusable winged rocket stage "Крыло-СВ" / Krylo-SV / Wing-SV is planned on the beginning of 2023.

In February they've started building a flying prototype of the rocket.

The rocket will be 6 m in length and 0.8 m in  diameter, 6 Mach fast.
The flying prototype is scaled 1:3.

The test site is Kapustin Yar, towards the Caspian Sea.

Isaev's bureau (part of Khrunichev's Center, part of Roscosmos) has started development of cryoengine for it.
The engine may be named  Вихрь / Vikhr / Whirl.

After the second stage with payload separates, the winged rocket will return to the KSC runway by wings and turbojet.

By design, it should be able to fly 10 times.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.interfax.ru/russia/737466

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