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Russia Working on Soyuz Replacement
Buran writes "The Associated Press is reporting that RKK Energia is starting design work on a new manned spacecraft able to carry a crew of six (or more) to the International Space Station. The vehicle may have a reusable crew module (current Soyuz TMA and Progress vehicles are disposable) and would theoretically finally allow ISS crew size to increase, as the current limiting factor is the capacity of the Soyuz spacecraft, designed in the early 1960s for manned lunar flights. (While Soyuz never flew to the Moon, its Zond circumlunar variant did so several times, and Soyuz and Progress craft have been resupplying various space stations for over three decades.) It will be interesting to see how this develops, as at present ISS crews spend more time maintaining the station than they do performing research, due to the fact that the station wasn't designed to operate with a crew as small as two or three people."
i think they are... its called an Automatic Transfer Vehiclen dex.html
http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/ATV/i
Look here (thanks to the beeb) for a timeline of Mir's history.
If the ISS survives the problems that Mir had, it will be doing quite well.
If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
Russians have been designing larger and possibly reuseable Soyuz-type spacecrafts for long time. The original mission was ferrying military cosmonauts to Almaz and Polya military space stations. A later design was Zarya resusable space craft to be launched with Zenit booster. Project was cancelled on financial grounds back in 1989, but the technology has been further developed in connection with ISS and Sea Launch projects.
Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
There is a project that russians were working on awhile back. It is shuttle like and was tested number of times during cold war. I suppose most of people here wouldn't know about it ala Lunokhod.
New project based on that technology is MAKS (mnogocelevaya aviacionno-kosmicheskaya sistema) which claims to be able to reduce cost per kilogram down to 1K usd. (from 12-15 nowdays). It's not space elevator, but definitely more possible at this time.
Read about Buran and MAKS here -
http://www.buran.ru/
-- shortcut - the longest distance between two points.
..for those curious about such things *smiles*:
Soyuz 7K-L1A circumlunar
Soyuz 7K-L1A test article
Soyuz 7K-L1E circumlunar test article
Soyuz 7K-L1P prototype, boilerplate capsule
Soyuz 7K-LOK planned lunar orbiter
You might also be interested in reasing baout the Soviet Lunar Lander and the launchsystem they hoped to use. Had everythng gone as planned they could have reached the moon around the same time as the americans... but since their booster just wouldn't work right they lagged behind until they decided to cancell the whole program.
The site I've pulled those links from also has a number of interesting articles on the N1 program, the various soviet manned lunar programs and wether the design of the Soyuz was stolen from the US.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Get a clue.
Read some actual reports on Russian economy
Russia still has regions living in extreme poverty, but as an overall economy it has had a year on year GDP grouth of 7+ for the third year running. So in fact economically, it has no problem in affording it.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Komarov died in Soyuz-1 on descent; the parachute failed to open. This had been fixed.
Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev died on descent because the outer atmospheric valve opened too early, and the cosmonauts were only wearing shirts. This had been fixed in two ways: the valve had been reworked, and everybody now must wear light spacesuits during liftoff and descent.
Accidents are unavoidable. If one is too afraid of risk, he won't accomplish anything. As a russian proverb says, "one who does not take risks does not drink champaigne."
How many people have died in the Soyuz? None!
According to this article in Wikipedia, the official deathtoll for the spaceprogmans are 18 astronauts in flight, 11 astronauts in training and at least 70 groundcrew in launch pad accidents.
we know that NASA has lost 14 astronauts in flights and 3 in training - so logic dictates that the USSR lost 4 kosmonauts in flight and another 8 in training. One life was lost on Soyuz 1, and a further three on Soyuz 11.
What might be more interesting is that no kosmonauts has died in space since 1971, despite the fact that the russians have way more actuall hours spendt in space than the americans. This suggests that the design of the Soyuz is either safer in it self or that the russian spaceprogram is willing to learn from it's mistakes...
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Your referring to Buran (snowstorm).
The French had a mini shuttle called Hermes, designed to fly on the front of Ariane.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.