1.
Soyuz-FG
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The Soyuz-FG launch vehicle is an improved version of the Soyuz-U, from the R-7 family of rockets, designed and constructed by TsSKB-Progress in Samara. It made its flight on May 20,2001, carrying a Progress M1-6 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Since October 30,2002 the Soyuz-FG has been the vehicle used by the Russian Federal Space Agency to launch Soyuz-TMA. Another version of the Soyuz-FG is the Soyuz-FG/Fregat with Fregat as its 3rd stage, a European-Russian company Starsem owns all rights to launches using this version. As of December 2014 there have been 10 launches of Soyuz-FG/Fregat with commercial payloads and its maiden flight occurred on June 2,2003. The analog control system of this spacecraft significantly limits its capabilities, the Soyuz-FG is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, using launch site LC-1/5 for Soyuz-FG and LC-31/6 for Soyuz-FG/Fregat. Soyuz Soyuz programme Russian Federal Space Agency Starsem McDowell, Jonathan, Russian Federal Space Agency about Soyuz-FG LVs manufacturer TsSKB-Progress about Soyuz-FG
2.
Soyuz-TMA
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The Soyuz-TMA is a recent revision of the Soyuz spacecraft, superseded in 2010 by the Soyuz TMA-M. It is used by the Russian Federal Space Agency for human spaceflight and it is also the first expendable vehicle to feature a glass cockpit. Soyuz-TMA looks identical to the earlier Soyuz-TM spacecraft on the outside and this does not consider orbital module that could be used instead of LEM in Apollo. Soyuz can carry up to three cosmonauts and provide support for them for about 30 person days. The life support system provides an atmosphere at sea level partial pressures. The atmosphere is regenerated through KO2 cylinders, which absorb most of the CO2 and water produced by the crew and regenerates the oxygen, the vehicle is protected during launch by a nose fairing, which is jettisoned after passing through the atmosphere. It has a docking system. The ship can be operated automatically, or by a pilot independently of ground control, the forepart of the spacecraft is the orbital module also known as Habitation section. It houses all the equipment that will not be needed for reentry, such as experiments, commonly, it is used as both eating area and lavatory. At its far end, it contains the docking port. This module also contains a toilet, docking avionics and communications gear, on the latest Soyuz versions, a small window was introduced, providing the crew with a forward view. This separation also lets the orbital module be customized to the mission with less risk to the descent module. The convention of orientation in zero gravity differs from that of the descent module, the reentry module is used for launch and the journey back to Earth. It is covered by a heat-resistant covering to protect it during re-entry and it is slowed initially by the atmosphere, then by a braking parachute, followed by the main parachute which slows the craft for landing. At one meter above the ground, solid-fuel braking engines mounted behind the shield are fired to give a soft landing. One of the requirements for the reentry module was for it to have the highest possible volumetric efficiency. The best shape for this is a sphere, but such a shape can provide no lift, ballistic reentries are hard on the occupants due to high deceleration and cant be steered beyond their initial deorbit burn. That is why it was decided to go with the shape that the Soyuz uses — a hemispherical forward area joined by a barely angled conical section to a classic spherical section heat shield
3.
Baikonur Cosmodrome
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Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport located in southern Kazakhstan. It is the worlds first and largest operational space launch facility, the spaceport is located in the desert steppe of Baikonur, about 200 kilometres east of the Aral Sea and north of the river Syr Darya. It is near the Tyuratam railway station and is about 90 metres above sea level, currently leased by the Kazakh Government to Russia until 2050, the spaceport is managed jointly by the Roscosmos State Corporation and the Russian Aerospace Forces. The shape of the area leased is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres east–west by 85 kilometres north–south, with the cosmodrome at the centre and it was originally built by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s as the base of operations for the Soviet space program. Under the current Russian space program, Baikonur remains a busy spaceport, with commercial, military. All manned Russian spaceflights are launched from Baikonur, both Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, and Vostok 1, the first manned spaceflight, were launched from Baikonur. The launch pad used for missions was renamed Gagarins Start in honor of Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, pilot of Vostok 1. The Soviet government issued the decree for Scientific Research Test Range No.5 on 12 February 1955 and it was actually founded on 2 June 1955, originally a test center for the worlds first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka. NIIP-5 was soon expanded to include facilities for space flights. The site was selected by a led by Gen. Vasily Voznyuk, influenced by Sergey Korolyov, the Chief Designer of the R-7 ICBM. It had to be surrounded by plains, as the control system of the rocket required receiving uninterrupted signals from ground stations hundreds of kilometres away. Additionally, the trajectory had to be away from populated areas. Also, it is an advantage to place a space launch site closer to the equator, taking these constraints into consideration, the commission chose Tyuratam, a village in the heart of the Kazakh Steppe. A supporting town was built around the facility to provide housing, schools and it was raised to city status in 1966 and named Leninsk. The American U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed the Tyuratam missile test range for the first time on 5 August 1957, there are conflicting sources about origins of the name Baikonur. Other sources state that Baikonur was name of the Tyuratam region even before the cosmodrome existed, the main cosmodrome-supporting town Leninsk was renamed to Baikonur on 20 December 1995 by Boris Yeltsin. In 1997, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation changed the path and removed the ejected rocket stages near Nyurbinsky District. Scientific literature collected enough data that confirmed adverse effects of rockets on environment, heptyl, or UDMH, a fuel used in Russian rocket engines, is considered to be highly toxic
4.
Launch vehicle
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In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from Earths surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad, Earth orbital launch vehicles typically have at least two stages, and sometimes as many as four or more. Expendable launch vehicles are designed for one-time use and they usually separate from their payload and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry. In contrast, reusable vehicles are designed to be recovered intact. The Space Shuttle was a part of a vehicle with components used for multiple orbital spaceflights. SpaceX has developed a rocket launching system to successfully bring back a part—the first stage—of their Falcon 9 and launch it again. A fully reusable VTVL design is planned for all parts of the ITS launch vehicle, Launch vehicles are often classified by the amount of mass they can carry into orbit. For example, a Proton rocket can lift 22,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, Launch vehicles are also characterized by their number of stages. Rockets with as many as five stages have been successfully launched, additionally, launch vehicles are very often supplied with boosters supplying high early thrust, normally burning with other engines. Boosters allow the engines to be smaller, reducing the burnout mass of later stages to allow larger payloads. Other frequently reported characteristics of vehicles are the launching nation or space agency. For example, the European Space Agency is responsible for the Ariane V, many launch vehicles are considered part of a historical line of vehicles of same or similar name, e. g. the Atlas V is the latest Atlas rocket. A small-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting up to 2,000 kg of payload into low Earth orbit, a medium-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting 2,000 to 20,000 kg of payload into LEO. A heavy-lift launch vehicle is capable of lifting 20,000 to 50,000 kg of payload into LEO, a super-heavy lift vehicle is capable of lifting more than 50,000 kg of payload into LEO. It refers to its 1,500 kg to LEO Vega launch vehicle as light lift, sounding rockets have long been used for brief, inexpensive unmanned space and microgravity experiments. Current human-rated suborbital launch vehicles include SpaceShipOne and the upcoming SpaceShipTwo, minimizing air drag requires a reasonably high ballistic coefficient, a ratio of length to diameter greater than ten. This generally results in a vehicle that is at least 20 m long. Leaving the atmosphere as early on in the flight as possible provides a velocity loss due to air drag of around 300 m/s, Launch vehicles of sufficient size are capable of launching payloads smaller than their orbital capability, to the Moon or beyond
5.
Energia (corporation)
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Viridian Group plc is a Northern Ireland-based energy business with interests in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Viridian organises its business in two groups, Power NI and Viridian Power & Energy. Viridians strategy is focused on Irish energy markets. Its businesses are organised in two groups, Power NI and Viridian Power & Energy. Power NI supplies nearly 800,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland with electricity, Power NI Power Procurement Business manages the groups power purchase agreements. Power NI was the former supply business of Northern Ireland Electricity, known originally as NIE Supply and then after its separation from the rest of NIE. In 2010 Viridian sold Northern Ireland Electricity, including the NIE name, as a result, NIE Energy was no longer allowed to use the NIE name, and it rebranded as Power NI on 25 July 2011. Viridian Power & Energy generates electricity through Huntstown power plant and Eco Wind Power, while Energia provides gas and electricity to commercial customers. Viridian was formed in 1998 as a company for Northern Ireland Electricity plc. NIE was a utility which was privatised in 1993. Formerly a vertically integrated monopoly, NIEs power stations were demerged, on 6 October 2006 Viridians board agreed the acquisition of the group by ElectricInvest, a company owned by the international investment firm Arcapita. The acquisition, which valued Viridian at £1.62 billion, was completed on 8 December 2006, on 6 July 2010, Viridian agreed to sell Northern Ireland Electricity - including NIE Powerteam, but excluding NIE Energy - to the Electricity Supply Board in the Republic of Ireland. The acquisition was completed in December 2010, Energy policy of the United Kingdom Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom Green electricity in the United Kingdom Electricity sector in Ireland
6.
R-7 (rocket family)
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The R-7 family of rockets is a series of rockets, derived from the Soviet R-7 Semyorka, the worlds first ICBM. More R-7 rockets have been launched than any family of large rockets. When Soviet nuclear warheads got lighter, the R-7 turned out to be impractical as a ballistic missile and it was not necessary to launch such heavy payloads in a military application. The rockets remained useful in the Soviet and then Russian space programmes with long term development, the R-7 family consists of both missiles and orbital carrier rockets. Derivatives include the Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz rockets, which as of 2014 have been used for all Soviet, the type has a unique configuration where four break-away liquid-fueled engines surround a central core. The core acts as, in effect, a stage after the other four engines are jettisoned. Later modifications were standardised around the Soyuz design, the Soyuz-U, Soyuz-FG and Soyuz-2 are currently in use. The Soyuz-U and FG are to be retired over the few years. R-7 rockets are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Guiana Space Centre, all the R-7 family rockets are listed here by date of introduction. Most of the early R-7 variants have been retired, active versions are shown in green. The Korolev cross is an effect observed in the smoke plumes of the R-7 series rockets during separation of the four liquid-fueled booster rockets attached to the core stage. As the boosters fall away from the rocket, they pitch over symmetrically due to forces acting on them. The effect is named after Sergey Korolev, who designed the R-7, when the rocket is launched into clear skies, the effect can be seen from the ground at the launch site. 1957 in spaceflight List of R-7 launches Comparison of orbital launchers families Rocket R-7 from S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, a Russian rocket and space contractor
7.
Gagarin's Start
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Gagarins Start is a launch site at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, used for the Soviet space program and now managed by Roscosmos State Corporation. The launchpad for the worlds first human made by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1 in 1961. It is also referred to as NIIP-5 LC1, Baikonur LC1 or GIK-5 LC1. On 17 March 1954 the Council of Ministers ordered several ministries to select a site for a ground to test the R-7 rocket by 1 January 1955. A special reconnaissance commission considered several possible geographic regions and selected Tyuratam in the Kazakh SSR and this selection was approved on 12 February 1955 by the Council of Ministers, with a completion of construction targeted for 1958. Work on the construction of Site No.1 began on 20 July 1955 by military engineers. Day and night more than 60 powerful trucks worked at the site,15,000 cubic metres of earth were excavated and removed per day, during winter explosives were widely utilized. By the end of October 1956 all primary building and installation of infrastructure for R-7 tests was completed. The Installation and Testing Building named Site No.2 was built, by April 1957 all remaining work was completed and the site was ready for launches. The R-7 missile made its voyage from LC-1 on May 15,1957. On 4 October 1957 the pad was used to launch the worlds first artificial satellite, the pad was also used to launch Luna program spacecraft, Mars probe program spacecraft, Venera program spacecraft, many Cosmos satellites and others. From 1957 through 1966 the site hosted ready-to-launch strategic nuclear ICBMs in addition to spacecraft launches, the 500th launch from this site was of Soyuz TMA-18M on 2 September 2015. In 1961, the launch schedule of the Soviet space program resulted in the opening of a sister pad at Baikonur. LC-1 has been the primary facility for manned launches, with occasional Soyuz flights from LC-31/6, LC-1 was damaged several times by booster explosions during the early years. Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 14, the equivalent for the United States first manned spaceflights. «Korolev, Facts and myths» - J. K. Golovanov, M, Nauka,1994, - ISBN 5-02-000822-2, Rockets and people – B. E. Chertok, M, kuznetsk, Voronezh, IPF Voronezh,1997, ISBN 5-89981-117-X, Look back and look ahead. Notes of a military engineer - Rjazhsky A. A.2004, SC. first, rocket and space feat Baikonur - Vladimir Порошков, the Patriot publishers 2007. ISBN 5-7030-0969-3 Unknown Baikonur - edited by B. I, ISBN 5-8155-0051-8 Bank of the Universe - edited by Boltenko A. C
8.
Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31
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Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, is a launch site used by derivatives of the R-7 Semyorka missile. However, Site 1/5 has undergone modifications that allow the manned ISS missions to be launched from it, only few manned missions to the International Space Station are launched from Site 31/6, when Site 1/5 is unavailable. It was first used on 14 January 1961, for an R-7A ICBM test mission and it is currently used for commercial Soyuz-FG/Fregat missions, and Soyuz-2 launches. In the 1970s and early 1980s, several manned missions were launched from the site. «Korolev, Facts and myths» - J. K. Golovanov, M, Nauka,1994, - ISBN 5-02-000822-2, Rockets and people – B. E. Chertok, M, kuznetsk, Voronezh, IPF Voronezh,1997, ISBN 5-89981-117-X, Look back and look ahead. Notes of a military engineer - Rjazhsky A. A.2004, SC. first, rocket and space feat Baikonur - Vladimir Порошков, the Patriot publishers 2007. ISBN 5-7030-0969-3 Unknown Baikonur - edited by B. I
9.
Plesetsk Cosmodrome
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Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk, dates from 1957. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile, it served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7. With the end of the Soviet Union, Baikonur became foreign territory, consequently Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s. It is situated in a region of taiga, or flat terrain with boreal pine forests, the Soyuz rocket, Cosmos-3M, Rockot, Tsyklon, and Angara are launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The heavy Proton and Zenit rockets can only be land-launched from Baikonur, on 11 January 1957 the Soviet government passed the resolution about the foundation of special military object with secret name Angara. This secret object had to be situated in Plesetsk District, Arhangelsk Oblast and it was named after the town of Plesetsk. The first Soviet Combat formation of intercontinental ballistic missiles R-7 of general designer Sergei Korolev had to be located in that place, the official birthday of the proving ground was 15 July 1957. That day Colonel Gregorjev assumed his post as the unit commander. By 15 July 1961, four missile complexes for R-7 ICBMs were at combat status, in the summer of 1963, the leadership of the state is decided on the use of launch facilities in Plesetsk for launching spacecraft. In September 1963 the Council of Ministers of the USSR 3rd ALM, three test management, employees of combat duty, tests of rocket and space complexes, holding and processing of telemetry and trajectory measurements. And from 1964 on the basis of rocket connection started the establishment of research proving ground missiles and space weapons. Such conversion were the geographical location and a significant number of systems already deployed by the end of 1964 were on duty, four launchers R-7A, seven PU P-16U. Since then, the landfill has developed in two directions, rocket and space,17 March 1966 was the space birthday of Plesetsk. That day was the first missile launching of the rocket booster Vostok with space vehicle Cosmos 112, since that time the rocket base Angara has become cosmodrome Plesetsk. Construction started in 1957 and it was declared operational for R-7 rockets in December 1959, the urban-type settlement of Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast had a railway station, essential for the transport of missile components. A new town for the support of the facility was named Mirny, Russian for peaceful. By 1997, more than 1,500 launches to space had made from the site, more than for any other launch facility. Meteor 1-2 satellite launch from Plesetsk on 6 October 1969 was one of the earliest launches observed and photographed from Finland
10.
Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 41
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Site 41, also known as Lesobaza and SK-1, was a launch complex at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. It consisted of a pad, Site 41/1, and was used by R-7 derived rockets between 1959 and 1989. Site 41 was originally built for use by R-7A Semyorka missiles, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an armed missile was placed on Site 41. It would have had a time of 8-12 hours should an order have been given to launch it. No launches were conducted from Site 41 whilst it was operational, in 1963, the complex was converted for use by carrier rockets. The first launch from the complex was a suborbital test of an R-7A Semyorka missile, the first orbital launch from the complex occurred on 17 March 1966, when a Vostok-2 rocket launched Kosmos 112. In total,308 orbital and two launches were conducted from the complex, using R-7A, Vostok-2, Vostok-2M, Voskhod. The last launch to use the complex was of a Soyuz-U with Bion 9 on 15 September 1989, since this launch, the pad has been disassembled
11.
Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 16
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Site 16, also known as SK-2, is a launch complex at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. It consists of a pad, Site 16/2, and has been used by R-7 derived rockets since 1960. Site 16 was originally built for use by R-7A Semyorka missiles, after its retirement from service in 1966, it was cannibalised for parts which were needed to repair Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome following the explosion of a Soyuz-U rocket. Work to rebuild the complex began in 1979, and was completed in 1981, the first launch from Site 16 was conducted by a Molniya-M with an Oko satellite on 19 February 1981. Site 16 has been used for Soyuz-U and Molniya-M launches, and is still in service as of 2012
12.
Plesetsk Cosmodrome Site 43
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Site 43, also known as SK-3 and SK-4, is a launch complex at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. It consists of a two pads, Sites 43/3 and 43/4, and has been used by R-7 derived rockets since the early 1960s, the site was originally built for use by R-7A Semyorka missiles. The first launch to use the complex was an R-7A test on 21 December 1965, the first launch from 43/4 followed on 25 July 1967. After its retirement from service as a base, it was converted for use as a space launch complex. The first orbital launch was of a Voskhod rocket with Kosmos 313 on 3 December 1969, both pads were damaged by explosions in the 1980s. At 16,01 GMT on 18 March 1980,48 were killed when a Vostok-2M exploded during fueling operations at Pad 4, the disaster killed 50 people and injured dozens more, while damaging the pad so severely that it was not used again until 1984. On 18 June 1987, a Soyuz-U rocket exploded at liftoff on Pad 3, both were rebuilt, and are in service as of 2009
13.
Guiana Space Centre
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The Guiana Space Centre or, more commonly, Centre Spatial Guyanais is a French and European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana. The European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES, and this was the spaceport used by the ESA to send supplies to the International Space Station using the Automated Transfer Vehicle. The location was selected in 1964 to become the spaceport of France, in 1975, France offered to share Kourou with ESA. Commercial launches are bought also by non-European companies, ESA pays two thirds of the spaceports annual budget and has also financed the upgrades made during the development of the Ariane launchers. Since April 4,2017, the centre has been occupied by 30 labor union leaders in the midst of the 2017 social unrest in French Guiana, Kourou is located approximately 500 kilometres north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°10. The near-equatorial launch location provides an advantage for launches to low-inclination Earth orbits compared to launches from spaceports at higher latitude, the proximity to the equator also makes maneuvering satellites for geosynchronous orbits simpler and less costly. Originally built in the 1960s under the name of CECLES, the ELV pad located at 5. 236°N52. 775°W /5.236, one Europa-II was launched from the site, before the programme was cancelled. The pad was demolished, and subsequently rebuilt as the first launch complex for Ariane rockets, renamed ELA, it was used for Ariane 1 and Ariane 2 and 3 launches until being retired in 1989. It was again refurbished for the Vega with the first launch performed on 13 February 2012, the ELA2 pad, located at 5. 232°N52. 776°W /5.232, -52.776 had been used for Ariane 4 launches until 2003. ELA3 has been active for Ariane 5 launches since 1996 and this facility is located at 5. 239°N52. 768°W /5.239, -52.768 and covers an area of 21 square kilometres. ESA has built ELS at 5. 305°N52. 834°W /5.305, the first Soyuz launch from ELS was postponed several times, but launched on October 21,2011. ELS is located on the territory of Sinnamary commune,27 km from Kourou harbor and it is 10 km north of the site used for the Ariane 5 launches. Russia will use the Guiana Space Centre in addition to Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Guiana location has the significant benefit of greatly increased payload capability, owing to the near equatorial position. A Soyuz rocket with a 1.7 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit performance from Baikonur, the ELS project is being co-funded by Arianespace, ESA, and the European Union, with CNES being the prime contractor. The project has a projected cost of approximately €320 million, where €120 million are allocated for modernizing the Soyuz vehicle, the official opening of the launch site construction occurred on 27 February 2007. Excavation work however, had begun several months beforehand. By October 2010,18 launch contracts had been signed, Arianespace has ordered 24 launchers from Russian industry. On October 21,2011, two Galileo IOV-1 & IOV-2 satellites were launched using a Soyuz-ST rocket, in the first Russian Soyuz vehicle ever launched from Europes Spaceport in French Guiana, astrium assembles each Ariane 5 launcher in the Launcher Integration Building
14.
Ensemble de Lancement Soyouz
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The Ensemble de Lancement Soyouz, is a launch complex at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou/Sinnamary, French Guiana. It is used by Soyuz-ST rockets, modified versions of the Soyuz-2 optimised for launch from Kourou under Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre programme. The first launch to use the complex occurred on 21 October 2011, the sites equatorial latitude allows a greater payload mass to be delivered into geosynchronous transfer orbit compared to existing Soyuz launch facilities at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. ELS is fifteen kilometres north-west of the facilities used by Ariane rockets. It consists of a launch pad, with a horizontal assembly and processing facility, or MIK. As with the Soyuz launch complexes at Baikonur and Plesetsk, the pad is connected to the MIK by means of a gauge railway. The tower shrouds the rocket during integration, but is moved back to a safe prior to launch. ELS also differs in having a fixed mount, rather than one which can be rotated. Earlier rockets in the R-7 family were incapable of rolling, so their launch complexes were built to allow launch azimuth to be adjusted before launch
15.
European Space Agency
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The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states, dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a staff of about 2,000. The main European launch vehicle Ariane 5 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs of launching, after World War II, many European scientists left Western Europe in order to work with the United States. The meeting was attended by representatives from eight countries, including Harrie Massey. The Western European nations decided to have two different agencies, one concerned with developing a system, ELDO, and the precursor of the European Space Agency. The latter was established on 20 March 1964 by an agreement signed on 14 June 1962, from 1968 to 1972, ESRO launched seven research satellites. ESA in its current form was founded with the ESA Convention in 1975, ESA has 10 founding member states, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. These signed the ESA Convention in 1975 and deposited the instruments of ratification by 1980, during this interval the agency functioned in a de facto fashion. ESA launched its first major scientific mission in 1975, Cos-B, ESA joined NASA in the IUE, the worlds first high-orbit telescope, which was launched in 1978 and operated very successfully for 18 years. A number of successful Earth-orbit projects followed, and in 1986 ESA began Giotto, its first deep-space mission, to study the comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup. Hipparcos, a mission, was launched in 1989 and in the 1990s SOHO, Ulysses. Recent scientific missions in co-operation with NASA include the Cassini–Huygens space probe, as the successor of ELDO, ESA has also constructed rockets for scientific and commercial payloads. Ariane 1, launched in 1979, brought mostly commercial payloads into orbit from 1984 onward, the successor launch vehicle of Ariane 5, the Ariane 6 is already in the definition stage and is envisioned to enter service in the 2020s. The beginning of the new millennium saw ESA become, along with agencies like NASA, JAXA, ISRO, CSA and Roscosmos, one of the major participants in scientific space research. Although ESA had relied on co-operation with NASA in previous decades, especially the 1990s, changed circumstances led to decisions to rely more on itself, a 2011 press issue thus stated, Russia is ESAs first partner in its efforts to ensure long-term access to space. ESA maintains its scientific and research projects mainly for astronomy-space missions such as Corot, launched on 27 December 2006 and this is the reason space exploration is an integral part of overall space activities. It has always been so, and it will be more important in the future. ESA describes its work in two overlapping ways, For the general public the various fields of work are described as Activities, Member states participate to varying degrees in the mandatory and optional space programmes
16.
Vostochny Cosmodrome
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The Vostochny Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport under construction on the 51st parallel north in the Amur Oblast, in the Russian Far East. When completed in 2018, it is intended to reduce Russias dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the first launch took place on 28 April 2016 at 02,01 UTC. Russian president Vladimir Putin made several statements emphasizing the importance of the new cosmodrome, in August 2010, he said The creation of a new space center. Is one of modern Russias biggest and most ambitious projects, in January 2011, he ordered the government to complete the paperwork as soon as possible so that construction can start on schedule. The general designer of the cosmodrome is Ipromashprom, the main contractor is the Federal Agency for Special Construction. Construction of the began in January 2011 and, as of 2011, was expected to be completed in 2018. During a visit to the site in July 2011, the appointed chief of Roskosmos, Vladimir Popovkin. Naginsky also promised the completion of the makeshift housing for construction workers at the site by 1 October 2011. In the event, however, Roskosmos announced in November 2014 a postponement, over 100 construction workers went on strike to protest about unpaid wages in March and April 2015. Following corruption allegations and findings by the Russian Prosecutor Generals Office that a number of laws have been violated during the construction. Taking personal control of the cosmodromes construction, however, later this information was disproved by the cosmodromes operation centre and the rocket was set into the facility. The planned total area is 551.5 km2, being a region approximately 30 km in diameter centred on 51. 884395°N128. 333932°E /51.884395,128.333932, the nearby train station is Ledyanaya and the nearest city is Tsiolkovsky. The cosmodromes latitude, 51° north, means that rockets will be able to carry almost the same amount of payload as they can when launched from Baikonur at 46°N. The sites location in the Russian far eastern region allows for transport of materials to the site. It was expanded as part of the plan of modernization of the supporting infrastructure, the new cosmodrome is to enable Russia to launch most missions from its own land, and to reduce Russias dependency on the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Currently, Baikonur is the launch site operated by Russia with the capability to launch crewed missions to ISS or elsewhere. The Russian government pays a rent of $115 million to Kazakhstan for its usage. Satellites bound for orbit and high inclination orbits can be currently launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia
17.
Soyuz (spacecraft)
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Soyuz is a series of spacecraft designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s that remains in service today. The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraft and was built as part of the Soviet manned lunar programs. The Soyuz spacecraft is launched on a Soyuz rocket, the most frequently used, the Soyuz rocket design is based on the Vostok launcher, which in turn was based on the 8K74 or R-7A Semyorka, a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile. All Soyuz spacecraft are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the first Soyuz flight was unmanned and started on November 28,1966. The first Soyuz mission with a crew, Soyuz 1, launched on 23 April 1967 but ended with a due to a parachute failure. Soyuz 3, launched on October 26,1968, became the programs first successful manned mission, the only other flight to suffer a fatal accident, Soyuz 11, killed its crew of three when the cabin depressurized prematurely just before reentry. These were the humans to date to have died above the Kármán line. Despite these early incidents, Soyuz is widely considered the worlds safest, most cost-effective human spaceflight vehicle, Soyuz spacecraft were used to carry cosmonauts to and from Salyut and later Mir Soviet space stations, and are now used for transport to and from the International Space Station. At least one Soyuz spacecraft is docked to ISS at all times for use as a craft in the event of an emergency. The spacecraft is intended to be replaced by the six-person Federation spacecraft, the orbital and service modules are single-use and are destroyed upon re-entry in the atmosphere. The orbital and reentry portions are habitable living space, Soyuz can carry up to three crew members and provide life support for about 30 person days. The life support system provides an atmosphere at sea level partial pressures. The atmosphere is regenerated through KO2 cylinders, which absorb most of the CO2 and water produced by the crew and regenerates the oxygen, the vehicle is protected during launch by a payload fairing, which is jettisoned along with the SAS at 2-1/2 minutes into launch. It has a docking system. The ship can be operated automatically, or by a pilot independently of ground control, inspired by the Mercury LES, Soviet designers began work on a similar system in 1962. This included developing a complex sensing system to monitor various launch vehicle parameters, the SAS could also be manually activated from the ground, but unlike American spacecraft, there was no way for the cosmonauts to trigger it themselves. Four folding stabilizers were added to improve stability during descent. Two test runs of the SAS were carried out in 1966-67, the basic design of the SAS has remained almost unchanged in 50 years of use and all Soyuz launches carry it
18.
Progress (spacecraft)
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The Progress is a Russian expendable cargo spacecraft. Its purpose is to deliver supplies needed to sustain human presence in orbit, while it does not carry a crew it can be boarded by astronauts when docked with a space station, hence it being classified as manned by its manufacturer. Progress is derived from the manned Soyuz spacecraft and launches on the same vehicle, Progress has supported space stations as early as Salyut 6 and as recently as the International Space Station. Each year there are three and four Progress flights to the ISS. A Progress remains docked until shortly before being replaced with a new one or a Soyuz, then it is filled with waste, disconnected, and de-orbited, at which point it burns up in the atmosphere. Due to the variation in Progress vehicles flown to the ISS, Progress was developed because of the need for a constant source of supplies to make long duration space missions possible. It was determined that cosmonauts needed an inflow of consumables, plus there was a need for maintenance items, such payloads were impractical to launch with passengers in the restricted space of a Soyuz. As of December 1,2016 there have been 155 Progress flights with three failures, all three failures have occurred since 2011. Progress is of much the size and shape as Soyuz. It consists of three modules, A pressurized forward module and this carries the supplies for the crew such as scientific equipment, clothes, prepackaged and fresh food, and letters from home. The docking drogue is similar to that of the Soyuz but features ducting for the UDMH fuel, the reentry module of the Soyuz was replaced with an unpressurized propellant and refueling compartment with ducting along the outside of the spacecraft. This meant that if a leak occurred, the gas would not enter the stations atmosphere. The fuel is carried in two tanks, the propulsion module, at the rear of the spacecraft, remained unchanged and contains the orientation engines used for the automatic docking. It may be used to boost the orbit of the station once docked, reduction in mass was possible because the Progress was designed to be unmanned and disposable. This means that there is no need for life support systems. A small amount of weight is saved due to the lack of rescue crews system. The spacecraft also has no ability to split into separate modules, after undocking, the spacecraft performs a retrofire and burns up in the atmosphere. There were many variations between the different flights, but the major upgrades are reflected in the change of name
19.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
20.
GRAU index
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The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of Armament and Munition of the Russian Armed Forces, the organization dates back to 1862 when it was established under the name Главное артиллерийское управление. The R from rockets was added to the title in 1960, in particular, the GRAU is responsible for assigning GRAU indices to Russian army munitions and equipment. As of March 2014, the current Chief of the GRAU is Lieutenant General Nikolay Parshin, GRAU indices are of the form <number> <letter> <number>, with the optional suffix <letter> <number>. A specially assigned codename may follow the index, for example, «2 S19 Msta-S», the 2S19 Msta self-propelled howitzer. Several common misconceptions surround the scope and originating body of these indices, the GRAU designation is not an industrial designation, nor is it assigned by the design bureau. In addition to its GRAU designation, a piece of equipment could have a design name, an industrial name. The first part of a GRAU index is a number indicating which of the main categories of equipment a given item belongs to. The second part, a Cyrillic character, indicates the subcategory, the third part, a number, indicates the specific model. The optional suffix can be used to differentiate variants of the same model. ru and it has been released under the GFDL by the copyright holder. Dictionary of GRAU designations at aviation. ru Lennox, Duncan
21.
Expendable launch system
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An expendable launch system is a launch system that uses an expendable launch vehicle to carry a payload into space. The vehicles used in launch systems are designed to be used only once. The vehicle typically consists of several stages, discarded one by one as the vehicle gains altitude. The ELV design differs from that of reusable systems, where the vehicle is launched and recovered more than once. Reuse might seem to make systems like the Space Shuttle more cost effective than ELVs, most satellites are currently launched using expendable launchers, they are perceived as having a low risk of mission failure, a short time to launch and a relatively low cost. Many orbital expendable launchers are derivatives of 1950s-era ballistic missiles, as such, cost was not a major consideration in their design. The largest of these is the Titan IV, the second costliest per-flight launch vehicle in history, on the other hand, a reusable launcher requires stronger parts and additional parts, thus decreasing payload capacity. The Space Shuttle was a national asset, used with great. Only five orbiters were built, and the loss of two cause great concern and a hiatus in Shuttle flights. Expendable launch failures usually caused a much shorter pause, each of which impacted only that model of launcher, for these reasons the Space Shuttle did not reduce the costs of constructing and launching payloads into orbit and did not replace expendable satellite launchers. On March 26,1980, the European Space Agency and the Centre National dEtudes Spatiales created Arianespace, Arianespace produces, operates and markets the Ariane launcher family. By 1995 Arianespace lofted its 100th satellite and by 1997 the Ariane rocket had its 100th launch, arianespaces 23 shareholders represent scientific, technical, financial and political entities from 10 different European countries. The major shareholder is the CNES, with 34. 68% of capital, at the start, NASA subsidized satellite launches, intending to eventually price Shuttle service for the commercial market at long-run marginal cost. On October 30,1984, United States President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Act and this enabled an American industry of private operators of expendable launch systems. Prior to the signing of this law, all commercial satellite launches in the United States were limited to NASAs Space Shuttle, on November 5,1990, United States President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Launch Services Purchase Act. The Russian government sold part of its stake in RSC Energia to private investors in 1994, Energia together with Khrunichev constituted most of the Russian manned space program. In 1997, the Russian government sold off enough of its share to lose the majority position, in 1996 the United States government selected Lockheed Martin and Boeing to each develop Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles to compete for launch contracts and provide assured access to space. The governments acquisition strategy relied on the commercial viability of both vehicles to lower unit costs
22.
Samara
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Samara, known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev, is the sixth largest city in Russia and the administrative center of Samara Oblast. It is situated in the part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga. The Volga acts as the western boundary, across the river are the Zhiguli Mountains. The northern boundary is formed by the Sokolyi Hills and by the steppes in the south, the land within the city boundaries covers 46,597 hectares. The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast contains a population of three million. Formerly a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial and it has a continental climate characterised by hot summers and cold winters. Samaras riverfront is considered one of the recreation places both for local citizens and tourists. After the Soviet novelist Vasily Aksyonov visited Samara, he remarked, I am not sure where in the West one can find such a long, ahmad ibn Fadlan visited the area that is now Samara around the year 921 AD while on his journey up the Volga. The Volga port of Samara appears on Italian maps of the 14th century, before 1586, the Samara Bend was a pirate nest. Lookouts would spot a boat and quickly cross to the other side of the peninsula where the pirates would organize an attack. Officially, Samara started with a built in 1586 at the confluence of the Volga. This fortress was a frontier post protecting the then easternmost boundaries of Russia from forays of nomads, a local customs office was established in 1600. As more and more pulled into Samaras port, the town turned into a center for diplomatic and economic links between Russia and the East. Samara also opened its gates to peasant war rebels headed by Stepan Razin and Yemelyan Pugachyov, welcoming them with traditional bread, the town was visited by Peter the Great and later Tsars. In 1780, Samara was turned into a town of Simbirsk Governorate overseen by the local Governor-General, and Uyezd and Zemstvo Courts of Justice. On January 1,1851, Samara became the center of Samara Governorate with a population of 20,000. This gave a stimulus to the development of the economic, political and cultural life of the community, in 1877, during the Russian-Turkish War, a mission from the Samara city government Duma led by Pyotr V. The quick growth of Samaras economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was determined by the scope of the bread trade and flour milling business
23.
Space Shuttle
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The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System, taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development, the first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, the Shuttle fleets total mission time was 1322 days,19 hours,21 minutes and 23 seconds. Shuttle components included the Orbiter Vehicle, a pair of solid rocket boosters. The Shuttle was launched vertically, like a rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the OVs three main engines, which were fueled from the ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, and the ET was jettisoned just before orbit insertion, at the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to de-orbit and re-enter the atmosphere. The orbiter then glided as a spaceplane to a landing, usually at the Shuttle Landing Facility of KSC or Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base. After landing at Edwards, the orbiter was back to the KSC on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The first orbiter, Enterprise, was built in 1976 for use in Approach, four fully operational orbiters were initially built, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Of these, two were lost in accidents, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, with a total of fourteen astronauts killed. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger, the Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantiss final flight on July 21,2011. Nixons post-Apollo NASA budgeting withdrew support of all components except the Shuttle. The vehicle consisted of a spaceplane for orbit and re-entry, fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The system was retired from service in 2011 after 135 missions, the program ended after Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21,2011. Major missions included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, the first orbiter vehicle, named Enterprise, was built for the initial Approach and Landing Tests phase and lacked engines, heat shielding, and other equipment necessary for orbital flight. A total of five operational orbiters were built, and of these and it was used for orbital space missions by NASA, the US Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, Japan, and Germany. The United States funded Shuttle development and operations except for the Spacelab modules used on D1, sL-J was partially funded by Japan
24.
International Space Station
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The International Space Station is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the ISS is now the largest man-made body in space, the ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays, and other components. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, the ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields. The station is suited for the testing of systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon. The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft and it completes 15.54 orbits per day. The ISS is the space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz. The station has continuously occupied for 16 years and 156 days since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000. This is the longest continuous presence in low Earth orbit. It has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists from 17 different nations, Soyuz has very limited downmass capability. The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies, NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, the ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station is divided two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment and the United States Orbital Segment, which is shared by many nations. As of January 2014, the American portion of ISS is being funded until 2024, Roscosmos has endorsed the continued operation of ISS through 2024 but has proposed using elements of the Russian Orbital Segment to construct a new Russian space station called OPSEK. On 28 March 2015, Russian sources announced that Roscosmos and NASA had agreed to collaborate on the development of a replacement for the current ISS. NASA later issued a statement expressing thanks for Russias interest in future co-operation in space exploration. According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and Rosaviakosmos, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory, observatory and factory in low Earth orbit. It was also planned to provide transportation, maintenance, and act as a base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given roles of serving commercial, diplomatic. The ISS provides a platform to conduct scientific research, the ISS simplifies individual experiments by eliminating the need for separate rocket launches and research staff
25.
Soyuz programme
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It was the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok and Voskhod programme. The programme consists of the Soyuz spacecraft and the Soyuz rocket and is now the responsibility of the Russian Federal Space Agency, since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, all human spaceflights to and from the International Space Station have been carried out using Soyuz. The launch vehicles used in the Soyuz expendable launch system are manufactured at the Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center in Samara, there were 11 Soyuz launches in 2001 and 9 in 2002. The Spaceport’s new Soyuz launch site has been handling Soyuz launches since 21 October 2011, as of July 2014,8 Soyuz launches had been made from French Guiana, all successful. The basic Soyuz spacecraft design was the basis for many projects and this and the initial civilian designs were done under the Soviet Chief Designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who did not live to see the craft take flight. Several military derivatives took precedence in the Soviet design process, though they never came to pass, finally, the Progress series of unmanned cargo ships for the Salyut and Mir space laboratories used the automatic navigation and docking mechanism of Soyuz. While not a derivative, the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft follows the basic template originally pioneered by Soyuz. See List of Soviet manned space missions and List of Russian manned space missions Shenzhou, a Chinese spacecraft influenced by Soyuz Space Shuttle Buran Space accidents and incidents
26.
Arianespace
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Arianespace SA is a French multinational company founded in 1980 as the worlds first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the production, operation, and marketing of the Ariane programme, the main launch vehicles offered by the company are the Ariane 5, the Soyuz-2 as a medium-lift alternative, and the Vega as a lighter one. As of 2008, more than 240 commercial launches have occurred since May 22,1984, Arianespace states that the total number of launch contracts signed since Ariane launches commenced operations in 1984 is 285. Arianespace uses the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana as a launch site and it has its headquarters in Courcouronnes, Essonne, France, near Évry. On 21 October 2011 Arianespace launched the first Soyuz rocket ever from outside former Soviet territory, the payload was two Galileo navigation satellites. Arianespace primary shareholders are its suppliers, in the nations of the European Union. In 2004, Arianespace held more than 50 percent of the market for boosting satellites to geostationary transfer orbit. According to an Arianespace managing director, Its quite clear theres a significant challenge coming from SpaceX. Therefore things have to change … and the whole European industry is being restructured, consolidated, rationalised and streamlined, in early 2014, Arianespace requested additional subsidies from European governments to face the competition from SpaceX and unfavorable changes in the Euro-Dollar exchange rate. Overall Arianespace signed 11 contracts in 2014 until September, with two additional being in a stage of negotiations. Currently Arianespace operates 3 launch vehicles, including two versions of Ariane 5, Additionally Arianespace offers optional back-up launch service on H-IIA through Launch Services Alliance, new Ariane 6 vehicle is in development. It would be wise in league of Ariane 5 and has tentatively its first test flight in 2020 as of 2016. The Arianes Cup is a competition organized on behalf of the Industrials participating in the Ariane programme. Europa rocket NewSpace Comparable Launch Provider Company United Launch Alliance International Launch Services Space Exploration Technologies Antrix Corporation
27.
Liquid oxygen
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Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is one of the physical forms of elemental oxygen. Liquid oxygen has a blue color and is strongly paramagnetic. Liquid oxygen has a density of 1.141 g/cm3 and is cryogenic with a point of 54.36 K. Because of its nature, liquid oxygen can cause the materials it touches to become extremely brittle. Liquid oxygen is also a powerful oxidizing agent, organic materials will burn rapidly and energetically in liquid oxygen. Further, if soaked in liquid oxygen, some such as coal briquettes, carbon black, etc. can detonate unpredictably from sources of ignition such as flames. Petrochemicals, including asphalt, often exhibit this behavior, the tetraoxygen molecule was first predicted in 1924 by Gilbert N. Lewis, who proposed it to explain why liquid oxygen defied Curies law. Modern computer simulations indicate that there are no stable O4 molecules in liquid oxygen, O2 molecules do tend to associate in pairs with antiparallel spins. Conversely, liquid nitrogen or liquid air can be oxygen-enriched by letting it stand in air, atmospheric oxygen dissolves in it. In commerce, liquid oxygen is classified as a gas and is widely used for industrial and medical purposes. Liquid oxygen is obtained from the oxygen found naturally in air by fractional distillation in an air separation plant. Liquid oxygen is a cryogenic liquid oxidizer propellant for spacecraft rocket applications, usually in combination with liquid hydrogen. Liquid oxygen is useful in this role because it creates a specific impulse. It was used in the very first rocket applications like the V2 missile and Redstone, R-7 Semyorka, Atlas boosters, many modern rockets use liquid oxygen, including the main engines on the now-retired Space Shuttle. U. S. Army has long recognized the importance of liquid oxygen. In 1985 it started a program of building its own facilities at all major consumption bases. By 1845, Michael Faraday had managed to liquefy most gases then known to exist, six gases, however, resisted every attempt at liquefaction and were known at the time as permanent gases. They were oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, in 1877, Louis Paul Cailletet in France and Raoul Pictet in Switzerland succeeded in producing the first droplets of liquid air
28.
Soyuz-U2
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The Soyuz-U2 was a Soviet, later Russian, carrier rocket. It was derived from the Soyuz-U, and a member of the R-7 family of rockets and it featured increased performance compared with the baseline Soyuz-U, due to the use of syntin propellant, as opposed to RP-1 paraffin, used on the Soyuz-U. The increased payload of the Soyuz-U2 allowed heavier spacecraft to be launched, while lighter spacecraft could be placed in higher orbits, compared to those launched by Soyuz-U rockets. In 1996, it was announced that the Soyuz-U2 had been retired, the final flight, Soyuz TM-22, occurred on 3 September 1995 from Gagarins Start in Baikonur. It also supplied the stations with Progress cargo spacecraft, Progress 20 to Salyut 7, Progress 25 to 42 to Mir, followed by the new generation Progress M-1 to M-18, other missions included the Gamma telescope and three Orlets reconnaissance satellites. In total, Soyuz-U2 was launched 72 times and experienced no failures over its operational lifetime
29.
Syntin
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Syntin is a hydrocarbon with the molecular formula C10H16 used as a rocket fuel. It is a mixture of cis and trans isomers and it has a density of 0.851 g/mL, and a boiling point of 158 °C. Due to the presence of three strained cyclopropane rings, the molecule has high enthalpy of formation, ΔfH°=133 kJ/mol. Thus, it has advantages over the traditional fuels, such as RP-1, due to higher density, lower viscosity. Syntin was used in the Soviet Union and later Russia in 1980s-1990s as fuel for the Soyuz-U2 rocket and it was first synthesized in USSR in the 1960s and brought to mass production in the 1970s. It was prepared in a synthetic process from common hydrocarbon sources, After dissolution of the USSR. Syntin is a molecule with two stereocenters at the cyclopropane ring. Thus, the four stereoisomers may exist, In practice. Dicyclopentadiene A. P. Mesheheryakov, V. G. Glukhovtsev, A. D. Petrov, “Synthesis of 1-methyl-1, 2-dicyclopropylcyclopropane”, Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR,1960,130, 779-81. T. Edwards, “Liquid Fuels and Propellants for Aerospace Propulsion, 1903-2003”, Journal of Propulsion and Power,2003,19, V. Azov, D. Vorontsov, The last battle of hydrocarbons
30.
Library of Congress
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The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, the Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. it also maintains the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, which houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world and its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Two-thirds of the books it acquires each year are in other than English. The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for years in the temporary national capitals of New York. John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was two dollars per day and was required to also serve as the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s, most of the original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. To restore its collection in 1815, the bought from former president Thomas Jefferson his entire personal collection of 6,487 books. After a period of growth, another fire struck the Library in its Capitol chambers in 1851, again destroying a large amount of the collection. The Library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works to have two copies deposited of books, maps, illustrations and diagrams printed in the United States. It also began to build its collections of British and other European works and it included several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials may check out books, the Library promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book, and Poet Laureate. James Madison is credited with the idea for creating a congressional library, part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress. And for fitting up an apartment for containing them. Books were ordered from London and the collection, consisting of 740 books and 3 maps, was housed in the new Capitol, as president, Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The new law also extended to the president and vice president the ability to borrow books and these volumes had been left in the Senate wing of the Capitol. One of the only congressional volumes to have survived was a government account book of receipts and it was taken as a souvenir by a British Commander whose family later returned it to the United States government in 1940. Within a month, former president Jefferson offered to sell his library as a replacement
31.
Soyuz (rocket)
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The Soyuz was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed in the 1960s by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No.1 in Kuybyshev, Soviet Union. It was commissioned to launch Soyuz spacecraft as part of the Soviet human spaceflight program, first with 8 unmanned test flights, the original Soyuz also propelled four test flights of the improved Soyuz 7K-T capsule between 1972 and 1974. In total it flew 30 successful missions over 10 years and suffered two failures, the Soyuz 11A511 type, a member of the R-7 family of rockets. Derived from the Voskhod 11A57 type, It was a rocket, with four liquid-fuelled strap-on boosters clustered around the first stage. The new, uprated core stage and strap-ons became standard for all R-7 derived launch vehicles to replace the older variants in use on the 8A92, 11A57. The Molniya 8K78M booster also adopted the RD-110 during 1965, other direct variants were Soyuz-L for low Earth orbit tests of the LK lunar lander and Soyuz-M built for a quickly abandoned military spacecraft and used for reconnaissance satellites instead. They stated that Soyuz 19 would be using the newer 11A5511U booster model so that the Soyuz 18-1 malfunction had no bearing on it, Soyuz rockets were assembled horizontally in the MIK Building at the launch site. The rocket was rolled out, and erected on the launch pad
32.
Soyuz-U
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The Soyuz-U launch vehicle was an improved version of the original Soyuz rocket. Soyuz-U was part of the R-7 family of rockets based on the R-7 Semyorka missile, members of this rocket family were designed by the TsSKB design bureau and constructed at the Progress Factory in Samara, Russia. The first Soyuz-U flight took place on 18 May 1973, carrying as its payload Kosmos 559, the final flight of a Soyuz-U rocket took place on February 22,2017, carrying Progress MS-05 to the International Space Station. Soyuz-U was in use continuously for almost 44 years, the longest lifetime of an orbital rocket worldwide, Production of R-7 derived launch vehicles peaked in the late 1970s-early 1980s at 55–60 a year. Soyuz-U held the record of highest launch rate in a year in 1979 with 47 flights. Over its operational lifetime, the Soyuz-U variant flew a total of 786 missions, Soyuz-U has also been one of the most reliable launchers, with a success rate of 97. 3%. The earlier Soyuz 11A511 was the first attempt at creating a standardized R-7 core in place of the variations that had been used up to 1966. Starting that year, the 11A511 Blok I and strap-on boosters were added to the Voskhod, Vostok-2, two versions of Soyuz-U were fitted with an additional upper stage, Soyuz-U/Ikar with the Ikar third stage, produced by the Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center, TsSKB-Progress. Ikar is used to deliver various payloads with masses of 750 kg to 3920 kg to heights 250 km to 1400 km. The performance of the Ikar upper stage is lower than that of the Fregat upper stage and this version was launched 6 times in 1999, carrying four GlobalStar satellites on each mission. Soyuz-U/Fregat with the Fregat third stage, developed and produced by Lavochkin Association in Khimki and this version only flew 4 times in 2000, the Fregat upper stage was subsequently flown regularly atop Soyuz-FG and Soyuz-2 boosters. An older variant of Soyuz-U, the Soyuz-U2 launcher, first flown in 1982, had the hardware as the basic Soyuz-U. Instead of standard RP-1, it used an energy, synthetic version, Syntin. This variant, mainly used to crew and cargo to the Mir space station, last flew in 1995. Soyuz-U was the platform for the development of the Soyuz-FG variant. Since 2013, both Soyuz-U and Soyuz-FG are gradually being replaced by the modernized Soyuz-2 launch vehicle, the first use of a Soyuz-U to launch a crewed mission took place 2 December 1974, when the Soyuz 16 crew was launched in preparation for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Soyuz 19, which as part of the ASTP docked with the last Apollo spacecraft ever flown, was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket. On 6 July 1976 a Soyuz-U launched Soyuz 21, which took a crew of two to the Salyut 5 space station, many subsequent space station crews were launched on Soyuz-U launchers
33.
R-7a rocket
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The R-7A Semyorka, GRAU index 8K74, was an early Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile derived from the earlier R-7 Semyorka. It was the member of the R-7 family of rockets to be deployed as an operational missile. The R-7A first flew on 23 December 1959, entered service on 31 December of the same year and it was declared fully operational on 12 September 1960 and was retired from service in 1968. Twenty eight test launches were conducted with three failures, most test launches occurred from Sites 1/5 and 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The main operational base for R-7A missiles was Plesetsk Cosmodrome, where four launch pads were used at Sites 41/1, 16/2, 43/3, Baikonur Site 31/6 was also used for operational missiles. Another base near Krasnoyarsk was proposed, but later cancelled, the R-7A was designed to carry a nuclear warhead, however, there was only one occasion where a live warhead was loaded onto a missile, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the missile had been armed, it was rolled out to Site 41/1 at Plesetsk, in the event of nuclear war, other missiles would have been armed as required, in accordance with the Soviet policy of storing missiles and warheads separately
34.
Intercontinental ballistic missile
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An intercontinental ballistic missile is a guided ballistic missile with a minimum range of 5,500 kilometres primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery. Similarly, conventional, chemical, and biological weapons can also be delivered with varying effectiveness, most modern designs support multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, allowing a single missile to carry several warheads, each of which can strike a different target. Early ICBMs had limited precision that allowed them to be used only against the largest targets such as cities and they were seen as a safe basing option, one that would keep the deterrent force close to home where it would be difficult to attack. Attacks against military targets, if desired, still demanded the use of a more precise manned bomber, the result is that the power of a nuclear explosion to rupture hardened structures is greatly decreased by the distance from the impact point of the nuclear weapon. So a near-direct hit is generally necessary, as only diminishing returns are gained by increasing bomb yield, second- and third-generation designs dramatically improved accuracy to the point where even the smallest point targets can be successfully attacked. Short and medium-range ballistic missiles are known collectively as theatre ballistic missiles, the ICBM A9/A10 rocket initially was intended to be guided by radio, but was changed to be a piloted craft after the failure of Operation Elster. The second stage of the A9/A10 rocket was tested a few times in January and February 1945, the progenitor of the A9/A10 was the German V-2 rocket, also designed by von Braun and widely used at the end of World War II to bomb British and Belgian cities. All of these rockets used liquid propellants, in the immediate post-war era, the US and USSR both started rocket research programs based on the German wartime designs, especially the V-2. In the US, each branch of the military started its own programs, in the USSR, rocket research was centrally organized, although several teams worked on different designs. Early designs from both countries were short-range missiles, like the V-2, but improvements quickly followed, in the USSR early development was focused on missiles able to attack European targets. This changed in 1953 when Sergei Korolyov was directed to development of a true ICBM able to deliver newly developed hydrogen bombs. Given steady funding throughout, the R-7 developed with some speed, the first launch took place on 15 May 1957 and led to an unintended crash 400 km from the site. The first successful test followed on 21 August 1957, the R-7 flew over 6,000 km, the first strategic-missile unit became operational on 9 February 1959 at Plesetsk in north-west Russia. It was the same R-7 launch vehicle that placed the first artificial satellite in space, Sputnik, the first human spaceflight in history was accomplished on a derivative of R-7, Vostok, on 12 April 1961, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The U. S. initiated ICBM research in 1946 with the RTV-A-2 Hiroc project and this was a three-stage effort with the ICBM development not starting until the third stage. However, funding was cut after only three successful launches in 1948 of the second stage design, used to test variations on the V-2 design. With overwhelming air superiority and truly intercontinental bombers, the newly forming US Air Force did not take the problem of ICBM development seriously. Things changed in 1953 with the Soviet testing of their first thermonuclear weapon, the Atlas A first flew on 11 June 1957, the flight lasted only about 24 seconds before the rocket blew up
35.
Molniya (rocket)
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The Molniya, GRAU Index 8K78, was a modification of the well-known R-7 Semyorka rocket and had four stages. The 8K78 resulted from a program by the Korolev Bureau to develop a booster for launching planetary probes. A larger third stage was added along with a stage that was designed to fire in-orbit to send the payload out of LEO. The basic R-7 core was also strengthened and given more powerful engines. Molniya was a minor revision adapted for launch of some Luna series space probes, molniya-M Soyuz launch vehicle Voskhod rocket Venera 4V-2
36.
Molniya orbit
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A Molniya orbit is a type of highly elliptical orbit with an inclination of 63.4 degrees, an argument of perigee of −90 degrees and an orbital period of one half of a sidereal day. Molniya orbits are named after a series of Soviet/Russian Molniya communications satellites which have been using this type of orbit since the mid-1960s.4 degrees north, to get a continuous high elevation coverage of the Northern Hemisphere, at least three Molniya spacecraft are needed. The reason that the inclination should have the value 63. 4° is that then the argument of perigee is not perturbed by the J2 term of the field of the Earth. Much of the area of the former Soviet Union, and Russia in particular, is located at high latitudes, to broadcast to these latitudes from a geostationary orbit would require considerable power due to the low elevation angles. A satellite in a Molniya orbit is better suited to communications in these regions because it looks directly down on them, an additional advantage is that considerably less launch energy is needed to place a spacecraft into a Molniya orbit than into a geostationary orbit. It is necessary to have at least three spacecraft if permanent high elevation coverage is needed for an area like the whole of Russia where some parts are as far south as 45° N. If three spacecraft are used, each spacecraft is active for periods of eight hours per orbit centered at apogee as illustrated in figure 9. The Earth completes half a rotation in 12 hours, so the apogees of successive Molniya orbits will alternate between one half of the hemisphere and the other half. For example if the apogee longitudes are 90° E and 90° W, said next spacecraft has the visibility displayed in figure 3 and the switch-over can take place. Note that the two spacecraft at the time of switch-over are separated about 1500 km, so that the stations only have to move the antennas a few degrees to acquire the new spacecraft. To avoid this expenditure of fuel, the Molniya orbit uses an inclination of 63. 4° and that this is the case follows from equation of the article Orbital perturbation analysis as the factor then is zero. The reason why the orbital period shall be half a day is that the geometry relative to the ground stations should repeat every 24 hours. In fact, the precise ideal orbital period resulting in a ground track repeating every 24 hours is not precisely half a sidereal day, but rather half a synodic day. For a Molniya orbit, the inclination is selected such that Δ ω as given by the formula above is zero but Δ Ω, as given by the other equation, will be −0. 0742° per orbit. The rotational period of the Earth relative to the node will therefore be only 86,129 seconds,35 seconds less than the day which is 86,164 seconds. The primary use of the Molniya orbit was for the satellite series of the same name. After two launch failures in 1964, the first successful satellite to use this orbit was Molniya 1-01 launched on April 23,1965. The early Molniya-1 satellites were used for military communications starting in 1968
37.
Fregat
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Fregat is an upper stage developed by NPO Lavochkin in the 1990s, which is used in some Soyuz and Zenit rockets. Its liquid propellant engine uses UDMH and N2O4, Fregat upper stage is designed for injecting large payloads into a low, medium-height or high geosynchronous orbit. Fregat is an upper stage, in addition to orbital insertion. Fregat stages are used as the fourth stage of some Soyuz launch vehicles. The stage can be restarted up to 25 times, NPO Lavochkin has built many interplanetary probes, the main part of the stage is six intersecting spheres placed on a single plane, four of which contain propellants. The remaining two contain the control equipment, the main engine is placed between the spheres, so Fregat is a tightly-packed stage with a diameter much larger than its height. The Arianespace-operated flight of a Fregat MT ended in failure on 22 August 2014 after the vehicle deposited two EU/ESA Galileo navigation satellites into the wrong orbit, the lift off at 1227 GMT from the Sinnamary launch site near Kourou, French Guiana, appeared to go well. However, a failure was only apparent later when, after the firing of the Fregat MT upper stage had taken place. The Independent Inquiry Board formed to analyze the causes of the announced its definitive conclusions on October 7,2014 following a meeting at Arianespace headquarters in Évry. The failure occurred during the flight of the Fregat fourth stage and it occurred about 35 minutes after liftoff, at the beginning of the ballistic phase preceding the second ignition of this stage. This orientation error was the result of the loss of inertial reference for the stage and this failure was due to a temporary interruption of the joint hydrazine propellant supply to these thrusters. The interruption in the flow was caused by freezing of the hydrazine, the freezing resulted from the proximity of hydrazine and cold helium feed lines, these lines being connected by the same support structure, which acted as a thermal bridge. Ambiguities in the design allowed the installation of this type of thermal bridge between the two lines. In fact, such bridges have also seen on other Fregat stages now under production at NPO Lavochkin. The design ambiguity is the result of not taking account the relevant thermal transfers during the thermal analyses of the stage system design. The root cause of the failure of flight VS09 is therefore a shortcoming in the system thermal analysis performed during stage design, fregat-M/Fregat-MT tanks have ball-shaped additions on the tops of the tanks. These additions increase the capability of the propellant from 5,350 kilograms to 6,640 kilograms. A version called Fregat-SB can be used with Zenit-2SB rocket and this version is a variation of Fregat-M with a block of drop-off tanks which makes increased payload capability possible
38.
Phobos program
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The Phobos program was an unmanned space mission consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. Phobos 1 was launched on 7 July 1988, and Phobos 2 on 12 July 1988, Phobos 1 suffered a terminal failure en route to Mars. Phobos 2 attained Mars orbit, but contact was lost before the final phase, Phobos 1 and 2 were of a new spacecraft design, succeeding the type used in the Venera planetary missions of 1975–1985, last used during the Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions to Comet Halley. They each had a mass of 2600 kg, the program featured cooperation from 14 other nations, including Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, France, West Germany, and the United States. The main section of the spacecraft consisted of a pressurized toroidal electronics section, below these were mounted four spherical tanks containing hydrazine for attitude control and, after the main propulsion module was to be jettisoned, orbit adjustment. A total of 28 thrusters were mounted on the tanks, with additional thrusters mounted on the spacecraft body. Attitude was maintained through the use of a control system, with pointing maintained with Sun. Phobos 1 operated nominally until an expected communications session on September 2,1988 failed to occur, the failure of controllers to regain contact with the spacecraft was traced to an error in the software uploaded on August 29/August 30, which had deactivated the attitude thrusters. By losing its lock on the Sun, the spacecraft could no longer properly orient its solar arrays, software instructions to turn off the probes attitude control, normally a fatal operation, were part of a routine used when testing the spacecraft on the ground. Normally this routine would be removed before launch, however, the software was coded in PROMs, and so removing the test code would have required removing and replacing the entire computer. Because of time pressure from the launch, engineers decided to leave the command sequence in. However, an error in constructing an upload sequence resulted in the command executing. Phobos 2 was launched on July 12,1988, and entered orbit on January 29,1989, Phobos 2 operated nominally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases on January 29,1989, gathering data on the Sun, the interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos. Phobos 2 investigated Marss surface and atmosphere and returned 37 images of Phobos with a resolution of up to 40 meters, Phobos probes carried several instruments, solar x-ray and ultraviolet telescopes, a neutron spectrometer and the Grunt radar experiment designed to study the surface relief of Phobos. These observations made it possible to retrieve the first mineralogical maps of the planet and its satellite, ISM was developed at IAS and DESPA with support from CNES. List of instruments, VSK TV imaging system PROP-F hopping lander, Z. Sagdeev & A. V. Zakharov. Brief history of the Phobos mission
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Roscosmos
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The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is the governmental body responsible for the space science program of Russia and general aerospace research. The Corporation was established on the basis of the now-defunct Federal Space Agency on December 28,2015, Roscosmos was previously known as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. The headquarters of Roscosmos are located in Moscow, while the main Mission Control space center is located in the city of Korolev. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center is in Star City, the Launch facilities used are Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and Vostochny Cosmodrome being built in the Russian Far East in Amur Oblast. The current Director since January 2015 is Igor Komarov, in 2015 the Russian government merged Roscosmos with the United Rocket and Space Corporation, the re-nationalized Russian space industry, to create the Roscosmos State Corporation. The Soviet space program did not have central executive agencies, instead, its organizational architecture was multi-centered, it was the design bureaus and the council of designers that had the most say, not the political leadership. The creation of a central agency after the separation of Russia from the Soviet Union was therefore a new development, Russian Space Agency was formed on February 25,1992, by a decree of President Yeltsin. Yuri Koptev, who had worked with designing Mars landers at NPO Lavochkin. In the early years, the agency suffered from lack of authority as the design bureaus fought to protect their own spheres of operation. For example, the decision to keep Mir in operation beyond 1999 was not taken by the agency, instead, another example is that the decision to develop the new Angara rocket was rather a function of Khrunichevs ability to attract resources than a conscious long-term decision by the agency. The 1990s saw serious financial problems because of decreased cash flow and this resulted in Roscosmos leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism. In March 2004, director Yuri Koptev was replaced by Anatoly Perminov, the Russian economy boomed throughout 2005 from high prices for exports, such as oil and gas, the outlook for future funding in 2006 appeared more favorable. The budget for 2006 was as high as 25 billion rubles, under the current 10-year budget approved, the budget of the Space Agency shall increase 5–10% per year, providing the space agency with a constant influx of money. In addition to the budget, Roscosmos plans to have over 130 billion rubles flowing into its budget by other means, such as industry investments and it is around the time US-based The Planetary Society entered a partnership with Roscosmos. In 2011, the government spent 115 billion rubles in the space programs. The proposed project core budget for 2013 to be around 128.3 billion rubles, the budget for the whole space program is,169.8 billion rubles. By 2015, the amount of the budget can be increased to 199.2 billion rubles, priorities of the Russian space program include the new Angara rocket family and development of new communications, navigation and remote Earth sensing spacecraft. The GLONASS global navigation system has for many years been one of the top priorities and has been given its own budget line in the federal space budget
40.
Ministry of Defence (Russia)
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The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation exercises administrative and operational leadership of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In this capacity, the minister exercises day-to-day administrative and operational authority over the armed forces, the General Staff, the executive body of the Ministry of Defence, implements the defence ministers operational instructions and orders. The main ministry building, built in the 1980s, is located on Arbatskaya Square, other buildings of the ministry are located throughout the city of Moscow. The current Russian minister of Defence is Sergey Shoygu, the historical tradition of military command is considerably different in Russia. The tsars were educated as officers, and they wore military uniforms. Josef Stalin in his years in power frequently wore a military uniform. Likewise, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was named Marshal of the Soviet Union, by tradition dating back to the tsars, the Minister of Defense was a uniformed officer, with military background or without. The State Duma also seats a large number of deputies who are active-duty military officers—another tradition that began in the Russian imperial era and these combinations of military and civilian authority ensure that military concerns are considered at the highest levels of the Russian government. In May 1992, President of Russia Boris Yeltsin appointed General of the Army Pavel Grachev to the post of Minister of Defence. At least partly for that reason, Yeltsin retained his defence minister despite intense criticism of Grachevs management of the First Chechen War, finally, Yeltsins victory in the first round of the 1996 Russian presidential election spurred Yeltsin to dismiss Grachev. Putin called the changes in Russias security structures coinciding with Ivanovs appointment as defence minister a step toward demilitarizing public life. Putin also stressed Ivanovs responsibility for overseeing military reform as defence minister, what Putin did not emphasise was Ivanovs long service within the KGB and FSB and his then rank of General-Lieutenant within the FSB. Such military and security agency associated men are known as siloviki, as of 2002 there were four living Marshals of the Soviet Union. Such men are automatically Advisors to the Defence Minister, the Marshals alive at that time were Viktor Kulikov, Vasily Petrov, Sergei Sokolov, a former Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, and Dmitri Yazov. Serdyukov was a former Tax Minister with little siloviki or military associations beyond his two military service. The executive body of the Ministry of Defence is the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and it is commanded by the Chief of General Staff. U. S. expert William Odom said in 1998 that the Soviet General Staff without the MoD is conceivable, Russian General Staff officers exercise command authority in their own right. In 1996 the General Staff included fifteen main directorates and an number of operating agencies
41.
Cluster II (spacecraft)
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Cluster II is a space mission of the European Space Agency, with NASA participation, to study the Earths magnetosphere over the course of nearly two solar cycles. The mission is composed of four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation, in February 2011, Cluster II celebrated 10 years of successful scientific operations in space. The mission has been extended until December 2018, China National Space Administration/ESA Double Star mission operated alongside Cluster II from 2004 to 2007. The four identical Cluster II satellites study the impact of the Suns activity on the Earths space environment by flying in formation around Earth, the spacecraft are cylindrical and are spinning at 15 rotations per minute. After launch, their solar cells provided 224 watts power for instruments, the four spacecraft maneuver into various tetrahedral formations to study the magnetospheric structure and boundaries. The inter-spacecraft distances can be altered and has varied from around 4 to 10,000 km, the propellant for the transfer to the operational orbit, and the maneuvers to vary inter-spacecraft separation distances made up approximately half of the spacecrafts launch weight. The highly elliptical orbits of the spacecraft reached a perigee of around 4 RE. Each orbit took approximately 57 hours to complete, gravitational effects impose a long term cycle of change in the perigee distance, which saw the perigees reduce to a few 100 km in 2011 before beginning to rise again. The orbit plane has rotated away from 90 degrees inclination, orbit modifications by ESOC have altered the orbital period to 54 hours. All these changes have allowed Cluster to visit a much wider set of important magnetospheric regions than was possible for the initial 2-year mission, the European Space Operations Centre acquires telemetry and distributes to the online data centers the science data from the spacecraft. The Cluster Science Archive is the ESA long term archive of the Cluster, since 1 November 2014, it is the sole public access point to the Cluster mission scientific data and supporting datasets. The Double Star data are available via this archive. The Cluster Science Archive is located all the other ESA science archives at the European Space Astronomy Center, located near Madrid. From February 2006 to October 2014, the Cluster data could be accessed via the Cluster Active Archive, Three weeks later on August 9,2000 another Soyuz-Fregat rocket lifted the remaining two spacecraft into similar orbits. Spacecraft 1, Rumba, is known as the Phoenix spacecraft. After commissioning of the payload, the first scientific measurements were made on February 1,2001, the European Space Agency ran a competition to name the satellites across all of the ESA member states. Ray Cotton, from the United Kingdom, won the competition with the names Rumba, Tango, Salsa, rays town of residence, Bristol, was awarded with scale models of the satellites in recognition of the winning entry, as well as the citys connection with the satellites. However, after years of being stored away, they were finally given a home at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
42.
Globalstar
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Globalstar is a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for satellite phone and low-speed data communications, somewhat similar to the Iridium satellite constellation and Orbcomm satellite systems. The Globalstar second-generation constellation will consist of 24 Low Earth Orbiting satellites, the Globalstar project was launched in 1991 as a joint venture of Loral Corporation and Qualcomm. At that time, the predicted the system would launch in 1998. Globalstar received its US spectrum allocation from the FCC in January 1995, in February 2000, it launched the last of 52 satellites—48 satellites and four in-orbit spares. Another eight unlaunched satellites were maintained as ground spares, in October 1999, the system began friendly user trials with 44 of 48 planned satellites. In December 1999, the system began limited commercial service for 200 users with the full 48 satellites, in February 2000, it began full commercial service with its 48 satellites and 4 spares in North America, Europe and Brazil. On February 15,2002, the predecessor company Globalstar and three of its subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, in 2004, restructuring of the old Globalstar was completed. Thermo Capital Partners, became the principal owner, Globalstar LLC was formed as a Delaware limited liability company in November 2003, and was converted into Globalstar, Inc. on March 17,2006. In 2007, Globalstar launched eight additional first-generation spare satellites into space to compensate for the premature failure of their in-orbit satellites. Between 2010 and 2013, Globalstar launched 24 second-generation satellites in an effort to restore their system to full service. Between 2010 and 2011, Globalstar moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Covington, Louisiana in part to take advantage of the tax breaks. Globalstar is a provider of mobile satellite voice and data services, Globalstar offers these services to commercial and recreational users in more than 120 countries around the world. The Companys products include mobile and fixed satellite telephones, simplex and duplex satellite data modems, in late 2007, Globalstar subsidiary SPOT LLC launched a handheld satellite messaging and tracking personal safety device known as the SPOT Satellite Messenger. Many land based and maritime industries make use of the various Globalstar products and services from areas beyond the reach of cellular. Globalstar data solutions are used for a variety of asset and personal tracking, data monitoring and Supervisory Control, a network of ground gateway stations provides connectivity from the 40 satellites to the public switched telephone network and Internet. A satellite must have a Gateway station in view to provide service to any users it may see, twenty Four Globalstar Gateways are located around the world, including 7 in North America. Globalstar Gateways are the largest cellular base stations in the world with a capacity for over 10,000 concurrent phone calls over a coverage area that is roughly 50% of the size of the USA. Globalstar supports CDMA technology such as the receiver and soft handoffs
43.
Mars Express
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Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency. The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency, Express originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built. Mars Express consists of two parts, the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2, a designed to perform exobiology. Due to the science return and the highly flexible mission profile, Mars Express has been granted six mission extensions. Some of the instruments on the orbiter, including the systems and some spectrometers. The design of Mars Express is based on ESAs Rosetta mission, on which a sum was spent on development. The same design was used for the Venus Express mission in order to increase reliability and reduce development cost. Because of these redesigns and repurposings, the total cost of the project was about $345 million- less than half of comparable U. S. missions. The Mars Express mission is dedicated to the study of the interior, subsurface, surface and atmosphere. Mars exploration is crucial for an understanding of the Earth from the perspective of comparative planetology. The spacecraft originally carried seven instruments, a small lander, a lander relay. All of the instruments take measurements of the surface, atmosphere and interplanetary media, from the spacecraft in polar orbit. The total initial Mars Express budget excluding the lander was €150 million, the prime contractor for the construction of Mars Express Orbiter was EADS Astrium Satellites. In the years preceding the launch of a spacecraft numerous teams of experts distributed over the companies and organisations prepared the space. Each of these teams focussed on the area of its responsibility, the spacecraft was launched on June 2,2003 at 23,45 local time from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, using a Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket. The Mars Express and Fregat booster were initially put into a 200 km Earth parking orbit, the Fregat and Mars Express separated at approximately 19,17 UT. The solar panels were deployed and a trajectory correction manoeuvre was performed on June 4 to aim Mars Express towards Mars. The Mars Express was the first Russian-launched probe to make it out of LEO since the Soviet Union fell
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