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Russia's New Cosmodome Approved
eldavojohn writes "You may recall discussing Baikonur, the Kazakhstan city rented by Russia that has been used as a launch site for quite some time. Today, Putin has just approved construction of Vostochny between 2010 and 2018 which will be positioned in the far east of Russia to complement the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the northern part of the country. This is not bad news for Kazakhstan as the director of the Russian Federal Space Agency has announced they plan to operate this facility alongside Baikonur."
Russia having two space ports (similar to how the US has the Kennedy and Johnson space centers) is going to be one of the best things they can do. The more efficient the process of launching stuff into Earth orbit, not to mention out of orbit for interplanetary missions, the closer everyone comes to space based living.
A multinational space race (or even better, cooperative missions) benefits everyone, even if its the side effects of materials developed for aerospace programs being used for everyday life.
This is a gamble on Putin's behalf, but it can pay off big for Russia, because people will be contracting with them for launches of private satellites (new ones, and replacements for existing satellites.)
There's a big difference between a cosmodrome and a cosmodome. I got my hopes up really high from the story title, just to have them dashed by the blurb.
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Borat was excited for his country.
I also know that when they finally deliver, the whole atmosphere will be met with very little fanfare unlike in the US.
I guess it's not in them to seek publicity unlike we in the west.
Now for those who might think this post is "flamebait", I'd like to remind them that the Soviet Union, much of which became today's Russia had and still has the biggest, heaviest and highest-capacity flying aircraft in service today. And this was put in service more than ten years ago...again, with little fanfare.
Contrast that with the Airbus A380 that the [TV] networks appeared not to get fed up of when it made its first commercial flight. Ohh, what about the Space Shuttle which continues to make news whenever it's to lift off or land. On this front, the Russians just fire their Soyuz craft as if it's just another chore!
That's because of a fundamental difference between Soviet/Russian space policy and American space policy. The Soviet space mission was always viewed as a military one, while the American space agency was a civilian organization. Therefore, there was always more fanfare around American launches, simply because NASA made itself more accessible to the public than the equivalent Soviet agency.
Now for those who might think this post is "flamebait", I'd like to remind them that the Soviet Union, much of which became today's Russia had and still has the biggest, heaviest and highest-capacity flying aircraft in service today. And this was put in service more than ten years ago...again, with little fanfare.Again, you're comparing apples and oranges. The AN-225 was originally envisioned as a special carrier for the canceled Buran space shuttle. Only one was ever built, and even it was in storage until 2000, at which point it was retooled into a conventional transport. To compare a custom-built transport originally built for a single purpose to a multi-use mass-produced jetliner is unfair. You may as well compare Formula 1 cars to Toyota Camrys.
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Huh? Their track record over the last fifteen odd years is of one project after another that fails to materialize - or is delivered years late.
That would explain the endless stream of glossy presentations, especially from their space industry, promising ever more wonderful accomplishments. (None of which, as noted above, have ever amounted to anything.)
It's not that your post is flamebait, it's just disconnected from the facts. The AN-225 was put into service nearly twenty years ago in the Soviet Union - with a great deal of fanfare. It was then mothballed with the fall of the Soviet Union. When it was placed back into service, it wasn't Russia that placed it in service - but a private company. While it did recieve a great deal of fanfare in the appropriate circles, like all cargo aircraft it was soundly ignored by the media. Comparing it with the A-380 is comparing apples and oranges.
Again the disconnection with facts... It may not make the Western media, but it does the Russian each time it launches or lands.
Actualy when the Mria (An225) launched the customer was there. The Russian space program, Buran, the military complex, you name it. All of these were mothballed or frozen 15 years ago and not entirely unexpectedly so did the Mria. For the last 15 years its little brother - the An124 did the heavy hawling. Now the market for ultraheavy loads is opening again so it was once again taken to the skies: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1296054/L/. Compared to it the A380 is a dwarf.
IMO while awesome it is not that much of a technological achievement. It may be big, but it ain't revolutionary in any sense.
Now this http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1295104/M/ is something out of a different league. It may not take a large load, but its take-off and landing requirements (a field only slightly bigger than a football pitch) are in the realm of the insane.
Same for some of the specs for this one: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1262070/M/.
Both of these are so far ahead of anything in their class it is not even funny.
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Both programs were driven from the passion of just two men - Korolov and Von Braun - championing similar goals, to advance humanity into the space age. The reality is the space age was born out of the paranoia of the other capability to inflict harm. Our risk mitigated litigious society doesn't do things "because they are hard" to achieve any more, instead our mantra is "better, faster, cheaper". Both programs are now the victims of pork barreling and both suffer from a critical "lack of relevance" to Joe Public.
More than likely the Baikonur cosmodrome will be opened up to more commercial use as it gets more expensive to maintain, so additional launch facilities have got to be a good thing. The shuttle downtime did demonstrate that collaboration works when it comes to utilising redundancy in a space program, which is a positive outcome for the ISS. I just wonder how much could be achieved if co-operation and standardisation across space programs were the norm and not just an exception.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Is this site not intended for launching stuff into orbit, but merely intended as a landing site, or a sub-orbit launch site?
I strongly believe they will deliver on this given their track record.
Note that the announcement comes one week before the Russian Parliamentary elections set for December 2nd. Putin is term limited as President but has vowed to run for Parliament and speculated that he could continue to rule as a strong prime minister.
What has actually been announced is a feasibility study to decide a location by 2010, and intentions to build start in 2018. The Amur Region that is named is the same one where Putin announced on February 26th, 2003 that he was opening a new road across Siberia and that 2008 it would be paved. That was coincidentally three weeks before the last Russian Presidential election. I have been across the Amur Highway this year (2007) and while a lot of good work has been done, there is no way the Amur Highway will be entirely paved in 2008, nor for that matter by 2010 (Putin's last announcement on the topic in 2006) or in my opinion by 2018.
So when I think of "track record" and I think of some of the engineering difficulties of the Amur Region (think permafrost, little infrastructure,...) and I put it in the context of Russian politics, then while this may eventually be built, I doubt it will be done by 2018 mentioned in the article. All that is promised so far is a study in 2010.
Russia's New Cosmodome
Wow, that sounds like some huge condom. They are not lacking in self-confidence, are they?