"There was a problem with one of the antennae in the Kurs (Navigation) system," Vitaly Lopota of the Energia space corporation the designs Russian spacecraft told the Interfax news agency.

The US space agency NASA said in a tweet: "Once in orbit, an antenna used as a navigational aid on the Progress did not deploy. Russian ground controllers are assessing a fix."

But Lopota stressed that the Progress cargo ship that was launched earlier Wednesday from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan could still dock to the International Space Station on Friday as planned.

"Even if the antenna fails to deploy, we will still be able to get to within 200 metres (of the ISS) and perform an automatic docking," the Energia president said.

An unnamed source at Mission Control outside Moscow told news agencies that space officials were not particularly worried about the latest mishap to affect Russia's once-vaunted space programme.

"Such incidents have happened before. Nobody is especially excited about this," said the Mission Control official.

"We will try to get the antenna open when (the Progress) makes its next orbit."

Russia's programme is being watched closely by other space powers because it remains the only nation capable of transporting humans to the International Space Station following the 2011 retirement of the US shuttle programme.

But the Roscosmos space agency has suffered through a string of problems in recent years that include the August 2011 explosion after lift-off of a Soyuz rocket carrying another unmanned Progress cargo craft.

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Korolyov, Russia (RIA Novosti) Apr 23, 2013 - Russia plans to deorbit and sink its Pirs docking module of the International Space Station later this year, a high-ranking official with the Russian space corporation RKK Energia said on Friday.

Alexander Kaleri, the head of the company's scientific technical center, said undocking and deorbiting Pirs will take place before a new Russian module docks with the station. Alexander Derechin, RKK Energia deputy chief designer said in late March the launch of the multirole laboratory module (MLM) is tentatively scheduled for the end of 2013.

"The final spacewalk [by Russian members of the present ISS crew] is scheduled to take place before the arrival of the new multirole laboratory module (MLM), and will be devoted to the "departure" of the Pirs docking module. It should be deorbited and sunk prior to MLM arrival," he said.

He said that Russian cosmonauts are scheduled to make six spacewalks this year, one of them is currently underway. The six-hour spacewalk by Flight Engineers Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko is due to end by midnight Moscow time [8:00 p.m. GMT].

Russia is planning to launch four new ISS modules - MLM, a node module and two science-power modules - by 2020, when the time comes to de-orbit the existing international outpost in space.

The ISS currently has five Russian-built modules: the Zvezda service module, the Zarya cargo block, the Pirs docking module, the Poisk ("Search") research module and Rassvet ("Dawn") research module.

Source: RIA Novosti

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Blagoveshensk, Russia (RIA Novosti) Apr 15, 2013 - Russia will develop new technology including huge new rockets for manned flights to the Moon and Mars by 2030, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.

Rogozin, who oversees the space and military industries, said on Friday Russia is going to design a carrier rocket with a payload of 130 to 180 tons as well as powerful interplanetary vehicles.

The new technologies will lay the ground for manned flights to the Mars, Rogozin said.

Rogozin made his remarks while opening a meeting on the space industry in Russia's Far East on Friday, as Russia marks the anniversary of Yury Gagarin's first manned space flight on April 12, 1961.

Russia plans to start test of a new-generation spacecraft in the next two decades which could potentially be used for manned flights to the Moon, Rogozin said.

The Russian space industry is also set to develop a robot system for Moon exploration, as well as construct a permanent research base and a takeoff and landing pad there, he said.

The Soviet Union was developing a large rocket called the N-1 in the late 1960's for a lunar landing, but the project was abandoned after the United States won the race to land on the moon in 1969.

Source: RIA Novosti

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Vladivostok, Russia (XNA) Apr 15, 2013 - Russia will spend 1.6 trillion roubles (50 billion U.S. dollars) on space-related activities till 2020, the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Friday.

Putin told a meeting dedicated to problems in the development of the space sector the funding would focus on the most promising areas, such as applied research.

Putin inspected Vostochny Cosmodrome construction in the Amur Region on Friday. It is being built to reduce Russia's dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The first launch from Vostochny is expected in 2015 and the first manned flight in 2018. Putin said the commissioning of Vostochny would be a milestone in the development of the space sector.

The president did not rule out the possibility a Ministry for Space Exploration could be established in the future.

April 12 is celebrated as the Space Day in Russia, marking the date Yuri Gagarin made the world's first manned space flight 52 years ago.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Moscow (Voice of Russia) Apr 15, 2013 - Plasma TVs, orthopedic matrasses, detailed weather forecasts, thermal underwear, jet fuel, frost-free refrigerators - these are only a few things which emerged thanks to several decades of space exploration.

October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite, marks the beginning of the satellite era. From that very moment mankind began the transition to wireless communication.

The results of this transition today are satellite TV, telephony, the Internet. Satellites help scientists study earth processes in detail. For example, they can observe the distribution of air masses. The importance of this aspect became especially evident in 2010, when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in Iceland, the head of the Institute of Space Studies Lev Zeleny says.

"The ash cloud moved toward Europe. Flights were suspended and nobody knew exactly where the cloud's danger zone was. Satellite measurements enabled scientists to estimate the size of the cloud, to see its course and to determine what zones were dangerous for flights and what zones were safe."

All ships and planes have satellite contacts and in case of a disaster crews can send SOS signals to their control centers using satellite connection. Land transport also widely uses satellite navigation systems and their application range gets wider every year, Alexander Gurko, president of the GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) non-commercial partnership, says.

"Global Navigation Satellite Systems have become widespread in many fields. Construction companies used it to check how the terms of contracts are observed. It is also applied in geodesic studies and for making of land cadaster maps."

Space developments have also found application in medicine, Zeleny says.

"Living on the ISS implies limitations in space and motions. These factors required the development of special medical facilities, trainer simulators, medicines and clothes. All these things turned to be useful for handicapped people and people with circulatory failures."

Recently, the Russian space agency has ordered the experts at the Space technologies cluster at the Skolkovo innovation center to design robots which will work in space, the cluster's executive director Sergey Zhukov says.

"The area of robots' application in space is huge. These can be robots that help cosmonauts to perform their technical tasks on the ISS, but also robots are capable of flying to a geostationary orbit and repairing a geostationary satellite. In the long term these robots will be able to work on the Moon."

It is difficult to predict whether space robots will find an application on Earth. However some time ago no one could imagine that the silver ion technology for water purification which was developed especially for the ISS would become so popular on Earth and practically every household would have water filters.

Source: Voice of Russia

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Moscow (AFP) April 12, 2013 - President Vladimir Putin on Friday unveiled a new $50 billion drive for Russia to preserve its status as a top space power, including the construction of a brand new cosmodrome from where humans will fly to space by the end of the decade.

Fifty-two years to the day since Yuri Gagarin became the Soviet Union's greatest hero by making the first human flight into space, Putin inspected the new Vostochny (Eastern) cosmodrome Russia is building in the Amur region of its Far East district.

Putin said in a live link-up with the multinational crew of the International Space Sation (ISS) that Russia hoped to have the first launches from Vostochny in 2015 and the first manned launches in 2018.

"It's going to be a great launch pad. It took a long time to choose but now work is fully underway," said Putin in comments broadcast on state television, adding that Vostochny would be fully operational by 2020.

Russia still carries out all manned launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan -- the same place where Gagarin made his historic flight. But this has been clouded in recent years by disputes with the Kazakh authorities over lease terms.

Putin announced that the town being built around the new cosmodrome to house its engineers and families would be called Tsiolkovsky, in honour of the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who pioneered rocket design in the early Soviet era.

The Russian space programme has been hurt in recent years by a string of launch failures of unmanned probes and satellites, but Putin vowed Moscow would ramp up spending.

He said that from 2013-2020, Russia would be spending 1.6 trillion rubles ($51.8 billion, 38 million euros) on its space sector, a growth far greater than any other space power.

Putin complained that Russia was behind other states in space activities other than manned flights, which he said had long been the "priority" of the Russian space programme "to the detriment" of other projects.

With up to 58 percent of the Russian space budget going on manned space flight, Russia had lost ground to other powers, in particular in unmanned deep-space exploration, said Putin.

"We need to preserve what we have achieved in manned space flight but also to catch up in these other areas," said Putin, who said he also did not rule out the creation of a ministry of space.

One of Russia's most embarrassing failures was the loss of its Phobos-Grunt probe to Mars in 2012 which ended up crashing back into Earth rather than even coming close to completing its mission of visiting a Martian moon.

The disaster underlined Russia's weaknesses compared with US space agency NASA, which has basked in the huge public successes of its unmanned Mars missions in recent years.

But speaking to Canadian spaceman Chris Hadfield, currently commander of the ISS, Putin hailed cooperation in space which meant world powers could forget about the problems of international relations and think "about the future of mankind."

Russia's veteran Soyuz rocket and capsule system, based on the same principles as the system that launched Gagarin, is currently the sole means of transporting humans to the ISS since the retirement of the US shuttle.

Putin said that cosmonauts returning to Earth after lifting off from Vostochny would most likely splash down in the Pacific Ocean rather than land as they currently do in Kazakhstan.

"Most probably, according to specialists, they will come down on the ocean. So our cosmonauts will splash down rather than touch down," Putin said.

The head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, meanwhile said Moscow was targeting 2030 as the year in which it could begin creating a base on the moon for flights to Mars.

"The moon is a great launch pad, it's basically a big space object on which a whole load of things could be accommodated. Not using it would be sinful," he told state television.

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Moscow (RIA Novosti) Apr 09, 2013 - Landing missions to celestial bodies in the Solar System will form the backbone of Russia's space research program in the coming decades, a prominent Russian expert said Monday.

"We've found our direction, our niche," Lev Zelyony, the director of the Institute of Space Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said at a press conference in Moscow.

The Soviet Union has a track record of successfully landing unmanned probes on celestial bodies, including two moon rovers as well as a number of probes to Venus, an achievement that has not been reproduced since by any other space agency to date.

However, Russia's space program was largely halted after the Soviet Union's collapse, though it is gradually being redeveloped on a smaller scale, Zelyony said.

Russia plans to send a succession of five unmanned probes to the Moon between 2015 and 2022, the latest set to retrieve samples of lunar soil.

The 2015 probe was supposed to be called Luna-Glob-1, but the name will be changed to Luna-25, indicating continuity with Soviet-era lunar missions, named Luna-1 through Luna-24, Zelyony said.

Russia's Federal Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA) would also jointly develop two unmanned Mars probes, said Rene Pischel, the head of ESA's mission in Moscow.

The probes are set to launch in 2016 and 2018, and would study the planet's atmosphere and map out traces of water, Pischel said at the press conference.

Another joint project would be an unmanned probe to Jupiter's moon Ganymede, expected to launch in 2023, said Oleg Korablyov, who heads the planetary study department at the Institute of Space Research.

The Europeans wanted the probe to go to the other moon, Europa, for symbolic reasons, Zelyony said. But this destination is currently unfeasible because Europa is set in the gas giant's radiation belt, whose effect would cripple any modern electronics, he said.

Longer-term prospects for the global space industry include a scientific research base on the Moon by the late 2030s or early 2040s, which would see periodic visits from human crews for maintenance, Zelyony said. "After that, the next stop [for manned spaceflight] will be Mars," Korablyov said.

The experts disagreed on the prospects of manned flights. "I believe humanity will have toyed enough with manned spaceflight by the century's end...and switch to unmanned flight," Zelyony said.

But Korablyov said that "manned flight, while not bringing any immediate economic benefits, is a development route that mankind cannot avoid taking."

Source: RIA Novosti

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Paris (AFP) March 27, 2013 - A spacesuit used for Soviet spacewalks in the 1980s was auctioned in Paris for 112,484 euros ($143,979), the sale organisers said on Wednesday.

Other Soviet-era space memorabilia that found buyers on Tuesday were a launch key from a Soyuz capsule, a capsule heat shield, Soviet propaganda posters and items from the Buran -- a rival to the US space shuttle that carried out only a single, unmanned flight in 1988 before the programme was scrapped.

The Orlan D spacesuit "was bought over the Internet by a European collector", said a spokeswoman for auctioneers Cornette de Saint Cyr.

The name of the cosmonaut or cosmonauts who used the suit was unknown, she said. The item had been valued at 100,000-120,000 euros.

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Moscow (RIA Novosti) Mar 26, 2013 - Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree set to extend the U.S.-Russia agreement on cooperation in the use and exploration of outer space till 2020, the government reported on Saturday.

"The agreement extention corresponds with Russia's interests and will help promote effective implementation of its space programs as well as joint U.S.-Russian space projects, including exploration of the Moon and Mars," the government said in a statement on its official web site.

Originally signed on June 17, 1992, the U.S.-Russian space cooperation agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency was later extended in 1997, 2002 and 2007.

The agreement extension is embodied with an exchange of notes between the two states. Russia's Foreign Ministry has already received the U.S. note, while Medvedev's dercee has approved Russia's note draft.

The U.S.-Russia space cooperation is seen as one of the most successful aspect in the bilateral relations.

Russian spacecraft are currently the only transportation means for U.S. space crews traveling to the International Space Station, what provides Russia with needed financial resources for its space projects.

Source: RIA Novosti

]]> Sat, 18 MAY 2013 00:18:23 AEST Moscow (AFP) March 06, 2013 - Russia will send a female cosmonaut into space for the first time in two decades next year, an official at the space training centre said Wednesday.

Yelena Serova, 36 and a professional cosmonaut, "is getting ready for a space flight in the second half of 2014," said Alexei Temerov, an official at Russia's Star City space training centre.

Russia will this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first woman's trip to space. The feat was accomplished by Valentina Tereshkova on June 16, 1963, and was followed by that of another Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, who became the first woman to do a space walk.

But while NASA regularly sends female astronauts to work at the International Space Station (ISS), there has been only one Russian woman to fly to space since the early 1980s, Yelena Kondakova.

Kondakova spent five months in space on the since-retired Mir station in 1994-1995. She also travelled aboard the US Space Shuttle in 1997.

Yelena Serova will spend six months at the ISS, Temerov said.

"Her work programme at the ISS will not be anything extraordinary. It will be the usual research programme. A space walk is not planned," he added.

A second woman currently in training, 28-year-old Anna Kikina, has joined the cosmonaut program after becoming one of eight people selected in last year's recruitment drive.

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