Contents tagged with Soyuz rocket

  • Once again a hole discovered in the booster block of a Russian rocket

    On February 19th, a Russian rocket was supposed to bring a batch of internet satellites into orbit under a Roscosmos contract with the British company OneWeb. However, a hole was discovered in the booster block that was not expected to be there, TASS  reports with reference to their sources in the space industry.

    “In one of the pipelines in a block, a micro hole was found, which developed, apparently due to the long transportation of the upper stage of the rocket to the spaceport in French …

  • Head of Russian space agency: Russia is ready to build a super heavy-lift carrier rocket

    The Central Research Institute of Machine Building or TsNIIMash is ready to begin work on the next generation of super heavy-lift carrier rocket, Director General of the Russian space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Twitter. 

    “The design and production groups of the rocket and space industry are ready to implement the project to create the super heavy-lift carrier rocket,” he wrote. 

    Earlier, it was reported that the super heavy-lift rocket will be named Yenisei and it is expected to …

  • Head of Roscosmos speaks of collapse of Russian space program

    Nearly all of the production equipment belonging to Roscosmos, the Russian State Corporation for Space Activities, is outdated, the company’s director Dmitry Rogozin told RIA Novosti.

    By Rogozin’s assessment, at least 87% of the capabilities of the Russian space industry do not meet modern standards.

    “Despite the fact that Roscosmos’s production funds are severely outdated and that modern equipment accounts for no more than 13%, it is only a question of money,” Rogozin said.

    However, he …

  • Russian insurers refuse to insure Russian space program

    Not a single Russian insurance company has bid to insure the upcoming launch of the Progress MS-10 spacecraft with a Soyuz-FG launch rocket. The spacecraft will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in November.

    This was reported by Interfax, citing documentation from the Russian state procurement website. The client was TsENKI, a subsidiary of Roscosmos, which announced its call for proposals on October 10.

    The premium on the contract would be capped at 116.5 million rubles for a …

  • Russia postpones launch of reconnaissance satellite after Soyuz rocket crash

    The launch of the electronic reconnaissance satellite Lotos-S using the Soyuz -2.1B rocket from  the Plesetsk cosmodrome that was scheduled for October 19, "has been postponed indefinitely due to the accident at the Baikonur cosmodrome," reported TASS on Saturday, October 13, citing a source in the rocket and space industry.

    According to the agency’s source, the Soyuz-FG rocket used to put in orbit the manned spacecrafts Soyuz MS-10 and Soyuz-2.1B has the same first stage strap-on boosters. …