Russia has set an anti-record for space launches

I'll add from the same source

ISS crews

At the beginning of autumn, news appeared that the Russian crew of the ISS would be reduced from three people to two. The reason is simple - the money allocated for the federal space program is being cut, one Progress cargo ship had to be removed per year, and without it there will not be enough supplies for three cosmonauts. This decision dealt the heaviest blow to the Russian cosmonaut corps. Already scheduled crews (and joint training begins years before the flight) were shaken up. But the worst thing is that if before you had to wait about 9-10 years for your turn to fly, now this period has increased even more. It is reasonable that, against this background, the selection for cosmonauts, which was expected in 2016, was postponed - newcomers would have to wait an unreasonably long time for their turn.
But every cloud has a silver lining. The existing scheme, when cosmonauts and astronauts took off and landed on one Soyuz, occupying all three seats, made space tourism impossible. With a reduced crew, one seat could be sold for somewhere around $50 million, a tourist could be brought on one Soyuz with a new crew, and a few days later returned to Earth on another Soyuz with the crew having completed their watch. A similar scheme was successfully used in the 2000s. In the spring of 2017, a cargo container will fly in the third seat, because it takes time to switch to a new scheme, and already in August 2017, the first space tourist after a long break may fly.

"Angara"

In 2014, the future of Russian launch vehicles looked clear. The old and poisonous “Dnepr”, “Rokoty” and “Proton” will be removed from the stage, and their place will be taken by the new and environmentally friendly “Angara”. Its universal rocket modules will be baked like pies, quickly and cheaply, and it will launch often in different configurations. But two years later the situation looks much more complicated. Proton desperately refuses to retire; on the contrary, it will have lighter versions. Angara, after its debut flights in 2014, has not yet begun to fly regularly, and competitors are already beginning to appear in the form of the Phoenix/Sunkar project.

One launch of the Angara in a light version is planned for 2017. In 2018 and 2019, there are plans to launch Gonets communications satellites on the light Angara. Geostationary AngoSat, which was planned to be launched on a heavy "Angara", according to latest news moved to Zenit " Sea launch” and will be launched on July 15, 2017. Such rates are quite alarming. “Angara” cannot become the Russian “Delta-IV” - a heavy and expensive rocket for government launches; there is simply no money for this. And a situation in which it will fly only in a light version will actually be the failure of an interesting and promising project from an engineering point of view. At the end of 2016, the future of Angara looks far from cloudless, but there have been various twists and turns in the history of astronautics, and it is too early to completely write it off.

MLM "Science"

Another long and sad story - the multifunctional laboratory module “Science”, which was originally supposed to launch in 2013, is moving out in 2018. In the first half of 2013, during preparation for launch, contamination was discovered in the pipelines of the module, and the MLM had to be returned for revision , where he is still located. Since the money to create the module has long since run out, work on it is included in the budget as a modernization. According to the plan, the ISS will serve until 2024, therefore, if Nauka is launched in 2018, the module will have time to work as part of the station for only six years, which is not enough by today’s standards. In addition, against the background of budget cuts for astronautics, work on “Science” may be stopped for some time, which will further shift the deadlines to the right. I would not be surprised if Nauka eventually becomes the base module of an orbital lunar station in the mid-to-late 2020s, plans for which are currently being discussed.
These are the anonymous poems on the branch.

The problems of CiH are also connected with other sad facts - the Khrunichev Center makes Proton and Angara, and it was from there that the Nauka module with contaminated pipelines arrived at RSC Energia. There is a feeling that in recent years the management at C&H lacks competence and integrity. One can only hope that collaboration The Investigative Committee and Roscosmos, which has been transformed into a state corporation, will be able to restore some order to this enterprise.

Scientific apparatus

The problem continues to be the fact that Russia has not been able to launch a single interplanetary station. Mars-96 in 1996 and Phobos-Grunt in 2011 did not fly further than Earth’s orbit. Unfortunately, this situation will remain unchanged for at least another three years. But at the same time, it cannot be said that Russia does not take any part in the study solar system spacecraft. The fact is that Russian scientific instruments are installed on interplanetary spacecraft of other countries. The best known of these are neutron detectors, which look for hydrogen in the form of water ice on other celestial bodies Oh. Since 2001, the Russian HEND detector has been orbiting Mars on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Water ice in the polar regions of the Moon was found by the LEND detector on the LRO probe, which has been operating since 2009. On the famous Curiosity rover There is a Russian DAN device. And finally, the TGO spacecraft, which arrived at Mars in October 2016, has our FREND neutron detector and ACS spectrometer.

In addition to installing its instruments on foreign spacecraft, Russia enters into cooperation with other space agencies. In 2003, the Mars Express probe set off to Mars on a Russian Soyuz rocket, and is still operating successfully. Here there was minimal cooperation - ESA simply bought launch services. But the ExoMars mission, launched in 2016, is already being carried out in closer cooperation - Russia provides launch services, produces some scientific instruments, will make a landing platform for the 2020 Mars rover, and even receive information through its ground-based antenna complexes.

As for Russian interplanetary stations, the most current plan was probably shown at the Meeting of the RAS Council on Space on November 17, 2016, in the section “Planets and small bodies of the Solar System.”

In 2014, the whole world watched as the Rosetta spacecraft entered orbit around a comet for the first time in history, and then as the Philae descent module was landed on its surface, not without incident. Last year, humanity saw Pluto up close for the first time: the New Horizons spacecraft orbited the former ninth planet and collected invaluable information about it and its satellites. Against the backdrop of these bright events, any space news of 2016, it would seem, would not look very advantageous. But this does not mean that space lovers will be bored this coming year.

Actually, a sensation has already broken out, and what a sensation. The first month had not yet ended when the news broke. The planet has yet to be found starry sky, however, the theoretical justifications for its existence are very strong. So, with some luck, the existence of Planet Nine may be confirmed already this year, and if this happens, you won’t have to complain about a boring year.

Even if we don’t learn anything new about the distant one, there will be enough information from the Kuiper belt. The New Horizons device, having captured 50 gigabits of information in 9 days, will transmit them until the end of 2016 or even a little longer. Scientists hoped to use this data to confirm the existence of water in the form of ice on Pluto, and it seems that their hopes have already come true: data from the video spectrometer LEISA (Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array) showed that.

Now about what is planned for 2016 in the field of space exploration.

SpaceX will resume cargo delivery to the ISS

According to the contract with NASA, the company SpaceX must complete at least 12 international flights space station, delivering the necessary cargo using an unmanned bundle from a launch vehicle Falcon 9 and a cargo ship Dragon. The first six flights were successful, and the launch of the seventh ended with a spectacular explosion on June 28, 2015. Naturally, all subsequent launches were postponed until the causes of the incident were clarified and eliminated.

Launch vehicle Falcon 9 before the first flight to the ISS.

The first Falcon launch to the ISS was postponed several times after the disaster, last time- 13th of January. Originally scheduled for February 7, the eighth delivery under the NASA contract is now scheduled for March 20. This will be the third launch of the updated Falcon 9: On December 21, 2015, navigation satellites were launched into orbit Orbcomm-G2, and in February (the exact date has not yet been set) the SES 9 communications satellite is planned to be launched using a launch vehicle.

First launch for the project ExoMars

The first launch of the program will take place on March 14 "ExoMars"- a joint project of the European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The Proton launch vehicle will send the device on a seven-month journey to the Red Planet "Trace Gus Orbiter" (English, TGO).

TGO will enter Mars orbit and begin searching for sources of methane. The presence of methane on Mars, where it quickly decomposes when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, means that there are sources of this gas on the planet. On Earth, methane is produced mainly by living organisms, but on Mars, methane sources are most likely abiotic in nature. TGO will locate the sources so that the ExoMars Rover will land at one of these locations in 2018.

In addition to methane, Trace Gas Orbiter will try to determine the origin of water vapor and other gases present in the Martian atmosphere. Part of the mission is the descent of the device to the surface of the planet, within the framework of which it will work out new technology entry into the atmosphere, and collected data on its composition.

The device will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Sending astronauts to the ISS

In 2016, four flights are planned to deliver crew to the International Space Station. On March 18, a Soyuz rocket will launch the manned spacecraft of the same name. spaceship, which will include cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, as well as astronaut Jeffrey Nels Williams.

The remaining launches are scheduled for June 21, September 23 and November 16, all of which will be carried out from Baikonur.

First launch

A test launch of a giant rocket is due to take place in April. . The 68-meter monster, which is, in some ways, three Falcon 9s put together, is equipped with 27 engines Merlin 1D and is capable of launching 53 tons into a low reference orbit.

Unlike Falcon 9, a large launch pad is intended for Falcon Heavy - LC-39A, part of the one designed at one time specifically for the Saturn V launch complex LC-39. It is located at Cape Canaveral just north of the other sites.

Possible end of the mission Dawn

Dawn has been orbiting Ceres since March 2015, exploring its famous bright spots and other interesting features of the dwarf planet. December Dawn has completed its descent into its final orbit and is now taking measurements and photographs of the surface from an altitude of just 375 kilometers.

The end of the mission is scheduled for June, when Dawn will exhaust the fuel supply for the engines maintaining the spatial position of the device. However, representatives of the project team claim that it is possible to extend the probe’s operating time for some more time.

Dawn known for being the first spacecraft to orbit two celestial bodies at once outside earth system. From July 2011 to September 2012, it orbited Vesta, the second most massive object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter after Ceres.

Juno will enter Jupiter orbit

Almost five years after launch, the Juno spacecraft, launched on August 5, 2011, will enter Jupiter orbit.

Juno will draw up accurate maps of the magnetic and gravitational fields of the largest planet in the solar system, study the atmosphere and photograph the surface. The goal of the mission is to obtain detailed information about the composition of Jupiter. In particular, we may find out the answer to the question of whether there is a solid core inside the gas giant.

It is curious that Juno became the first apparatus exploring Jupiter that is equipped not with radioisotope thermoelectric generators, but solar panels. Despite the fact that the device will receive 25 times less sunlight, than in Earth orbit, this will be enough to ensure work - thanks to advances in technology over recent decades.

Start of "Osiris"

September 3 rocket Atlas 5 will launch OSIRIS-REx- NASA spacecraft to explore the asteroid Bennu. An asteroid with a diameter of half a kilometer, discovered in 1999, is considered by specialists from the North American Space Agency as the most dangerous space object for the Earth. Currently, the probability is estimated at a palpable 0.025%. However, there is still time until the second half of the 21st century, when this can happen.

OSIRIS-REx will reach Bennu in 2018, take a sample of its constituent substance and send it to Earth. Samples will arrive to us in 2023.

End of the Rosetta mission

Following the Philae module, Rosetta itself will descend to the surface of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This should happen on September 30th, and this date will be the end.

Until September 30, the Rosetta orbital module, descending in a spiral, will continue collecting data and photographing the comet.

Getting started with the satellite system Galileo

Representatives of the European Space Agency report that the European global positioning system Galileo will go into operation this year. In October, four more satellites will be launched into orbit, making a total of 16, which is already enough to begin providing services.

System Galileo, which, unlike the American GPS, is controlled not by the military, but by civilian structures, will have 30 orbital satellites, six of which are spare.

The launch of satellites 13-16 will be carried out by an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.

Griffon, January 19, 13:12

AP/TASS

Griffon, January 19, 13:12

No longer a “cab driver”. How Russia is losing ground in space

In 2016, China overtook Russia in the number of rocket launches into space. For the first time in the history of the Russian Federation it was in third place

Launch of the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-03 manned spacecraft at the Baikonur Cosmodrome AP/TASS

Russia has lost its leadership in the number of missile launches to the United States and China

Russian launch vehicles fail more often than Soviet ones

Every 17th rocket launch in Russia ends in an accident

The past year was an anti-record year for Russia in terms of the number of launch vehicles into space. The country launched only 17 devices. Specialists note, which in itself does not indicate that Russia is lagging behind other space powers, but does indicate a decrease in confidence in domestic launch vehicles due to incident with Proton.

“Some customers have abandoned the use of Proton, and as a result, the number of commercial launches of this launch vehicle has sharply decreased. If I’m not mistaken, in the previous year there were eight, the year before that there were 12, in 2016 there were only four,” stated Academician of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after. K.E. Tsiolkovsky Alexander Zheleznyakov. He noted that there is nothing wrong with the fact that Russia is ceasing to be a space carrier and called Russia’s lack of an interplanetary station and a small number of scientific satellites a “big problem.” By the way, in 2016, out of 17 launches, only one was produced for launching such satellites into orbit.

Lag in space

However, “space transportation” is the only segment of the space services sector where Russia until 2016 maintained leadership. In 2014, about 40% of Russian missiles flew only with foreign satellites or astronauts. Izvoz accounts for 4% of the total volume of the international space services market, which is estimated at $300 billion. In other sectors of this market - communication services, production of space instruments - Russia lagging behind .

The existence of problems was recognized by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the Russian space industry, and stated about the country’s “insurmountable gap” with the United States in space. The situation may be aggravated by the loss of positions in the “space transport”. In 2018, Russia may finally be supplanted from the position of “cab driver number one” by the United States, which are going begin manned flights to the ISS on their own vehicles. NASA already signed a contract with Boeing and SpaceX in 2014 to develop spacecraft suitable for this purpose.

How long have we flown?

In 2016, for the first time in its history, Russia was in third place among space powers in terms of the number of rocket launches. While the United States has been ahead of Russia in some years before, this is a historic success for China. Two decades earlier, Russia launched 11 times more rockets into space than China (1995), and during Soviet times the superiority was almost a hundredfold., Roscosmos

Data on the number of abnormal incidents during Russian rocket launches indicate that it is not only Proton that has problems (specialists with it tie up failures in the field of “space transportation”), which over the past four years three times got into accidents. One accident each occurred with the Soyuz 2.1a and Soyuz-U rockets.

In the period from 2006 to 2016, Russia demonstrated the worst accident rate among the countries of the “big three” (the data on the graph for the United States is similar, but this is due to rounding to tenths: for the United States, the percentage is several hundredths less). Every seventeenth Russian rocket launch ends in an accident.

Leader in Security space flights unconditionally is China. Only 3 out of 158 launches ended in accidents or any abnormal situations. It is noteworthy that the accident rate in the USSR for a similar period of time (from 1981 to 1991) was lower than in today’s Russia (2006-2016) by two percent and is even higher than the US indicators over the last ten years.

The most unsuccessful year for Russia was 2011, when every eighth launch ended in an accident. The trend of “not a year without an accident” looks especially alarming: since 2004, every year in Russia at least one abnormal incident occurs during rocket launches. At the same time, the number of launches over the last four years has decreased (110 versus 119 for 2009-2012), and the number of accidents (7) has remained the same.

Vasily Makagonov

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Photo: globallookpress.com

For the Russian rocket and space industry, 2016 was a year of anti-record in terms of the number of space launches. For the first time in recent decades, Russia carried out less than 20 space launches in a year, losing leadership to the United States and China.

In total, 17 space launches were carried out from the Baikonur cosmodrome leased from Kazakhstan, the military cosmodrome Plesetsk (Arkhangelsk region) and the new Vostochny cosmodrome (Amur region) in 2016, one of which (the Soyuz-U rocket on December 1) was an emergency.

Even taking into account the launch of the Proton-M rocket scheduled for December 28 American satellite EchoStar 21 communications Russia will no longer be able to catch up with the number of launches of its competitors - the USA (21 completed launches) and China (20) by the end of the year. Having moved from first place to third for the first time, Russia is still ahead of the European Union (10), India (7), Japan (3) and Israel (1). In total, 88 space launches were carried out in the world in 2016.

Industry leader

In previous years, Russian space launches accounted for 30% to 40% of the world's total launch services. Russia was the leader in launches. Thus, in 2015, Russia accounted for 26 launches (USA - 20, China - 19, EU - 11). In 2014, Russia carried out 32 launches (one emergency), the USA - 23, China - 16, EU - 11.

During the Soviet era, the country was a leader in the number of space launches. The peak came in 1982, when the USSR carried out more than 100 space launches. After this, the number of space launches in our country decreased, reaching a minimum in 2002, when just over 20 launches were carried out.

The decline in the rate of space launches in Russia in 2016 may be due, in particular, to the unsuccessful launch campaign of the Proton-M heavy rocket. Since the beginning of the year, only three launches of these rockets have been carried out, while usually from 8 to 12 Proton-M launches were carried out.

A number of launches in 2016 were postponed to a later date due to the clarification of the reasons for the abnormal operation of one of the engines of the second stage of the Proton-M rocket during the June launch of the Intelsat DLA-2 device. At the time, a space industry source told RNS that during the satellite's launch, one of the engines shut down eight seconds ahead of schedule. The error had to be compensated by engines of other stages. As a result, the satellite was launched into the intended orbit.

The role of accidents and sanctions

Russia does not need to maintain the number of launches at the same level, says Academician of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. K.E. Tsiolkovsky Alexander Zheleznyakov.

“Firstly, we have already largely completed the deployment of our satellite constellations navigation system,communication systems. And the number of launches that were required in previous years is no longer required. Therefore, there has been a decrease in launches under our national program,” Zheleznyakov said.

According to him, “the consequences of those accidents with the Proton launch vehicle that occurred in previous years have also begun to show.” “Still, some customers have abandoned the use of Proton; as a result, the number of commercial launches of this launch vehicle has sharply decreased this year. If I'm not mistaken, last year there were eight, the year before that 12, this year only four. Well, as a result, the sum turned out that we were in third place after the United States and China in terms of the number of missiles launched,” the expert said.

He emphasized that “the status of a space power is determined not by the number of rockets launched, but by the number and purpose of spacecraft that were launched into space.”

“The situation there is more complicated and worse. We do not have a single interplanetary station, we have practically no scientific satellites - you can count them on one hand. This is the biggest problem. And the fact that we started launching fewer rockets and stopped being a space carrier is nothing to worry about,” Zheleznyakov said.

This point of view was partly shared by independent expert in the field of space policy Andrei Ionin. According to him, it is incorrect to assess the level of development of astronautics by the number of launches. “Adults still measure astronautics by some other horizon. This is a huge, long-term process,” he said. According to him, “quality is more important than quantity.”

“We have fallen behind in commercial launches for obvious reasons: there are sanctions, and the space market is very sensitive to all risks. There are millions of dollars at stake here, and therefore any risks are perceived as threats. Therefore, it is better to switch to another rocket that is on the market than to take the risk of not receiving permission from the State Department to launch as a result. Therefore, the number of commercial launches has decreased significantly,” the expert said.