“After saying farewell to NASA’s Jeff Williams and the rest of the crew onboard the International Space Station on June 18. Expedition 47 Commander Tim Kopra of NASA, Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) undocked from the ISS for the return trip to Earth. Kopra, Malenchenko and Peake spent 186 days in space aboard the orbital laboratory.
[They] landed safely near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan June 18, hours after leaving the International Space Station in their Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft.”
“On April 28th 2016, a Soyuz-2.1a lifted off from Vostochny (Восточный) with three satellites: Lomonosov (Ломоносов), AIST-2D (Аист-2Д), and SamSat-218. This was the first launch from Vostochny. Construction of the cosmodrome began in January 2011 and it is expected to be completed in 2018.”
“Vostochny (which means “eastern” in Russian) is in the Svobodny and Shimanovsk districts of Amur Oblast in the Russian Far East, on the watershed of the Zeya and Bolshaya Pyora rivers, approximately 600–800 km (370–500 mi) from the Pacific Ocean, depending on launch azimuth. The planned total area is 551.5 km2, being a region approximately 30 km in diameter centred on 51°53′N 128°20′E. The nearby train station is Ledyanaya and the nearest city is Tsiolkovsky. The cosmodrome’s latitude, 51° north, means that rockets will be able to carry almost the same amount of payload as they can when launched from Baikonur at 46°N. Other arguments for choosing this location include the ability to use sparsely populated areas and bodies of water for the rocket launch routes; proximity to major transportation networks such as the Baikal–Amur Mainline, the Chita–Khabarovsk Highway; abundance of electricity production resources in the area; and the infrastructure supporting the former Svobodny Cosmodrome, on which the new spaceport will be based. The site’s location in the Russian far eastern region allows for easier transport of materials to the site, and allows rockets to jettison their lower stages over the ocean. It was expanded as part of the plan of modernization of the supporting infrastructure. Putin said that among places offered was an area on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, near Vladivostok, but that experts recommended not to locate it there since the proximity to the ocean can create problems and delays in launches, and as a result the current place was chosen.
The new cosmodrome is to enable Russia to launch most missions from its own land, and to reduce Russia’s dependency on the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Currently, Baikonur is the only launch site operated by Russia with the capability to launch crewed missions to ISS or elsewhere. The Russian government pays a yearly rent of $115 million to Kazakhstan for its usage. Satellites bound for geostationary orbit and high inclination orbits can be currently launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia. The new site is intended mostly for civilian launches. Roscosmos plans to move 45% of Russia’s space launches to Vostochny by 2020, while Baikonur’s share will drop from 65% to 11%, and Plesetsk will account for 44 percent. In a draft strategy, which was presented at a meeting of the club of friends of the cluster space technology and telecommunications fund “Skolkovo” and published in the official fund microblog on Twitter said that in 2011 the share of space launches from Russia’s territory stands at 25% today and by 2030 this figure will stand on 90%.”
“Expedition 47-48 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and Jeff Williams of NASA launched on the Russian Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft on March 19, Kazakh time, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a six-hour journey to the International Space Station and the start of a six-month mission on the ISS.
[…]Expedition 47-48 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and Jeff Williams of NASA arrived at the International Space Station on Mar. 19. The new crewmembers will join station Commander Tim Kopra of NASA and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos and Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, already onboard the station”
“ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) Programme is an astrobiology project to investigate the past habitability environment of Mars and to demonstrate new technologies paving the way for a future Mars sample return mission in the 2020s.
The programme is led by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). The programme will search for biosignatures of Martian life, past or present, employing several spacecraft elements to be sent to Mars on two launches. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a test stationary lander called Schiaparelli were launched on 14 March 2016. The TGO will deliver Schiaparelli lander in 19 October 2016, and then proceed to map the sources of methane on Mars and other gases. The TGO features four instruments and will also act as a communications relay satellite.
The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) is a Mars telecommunications orbiter and atmospheric gas analyzer mission that was launched on 14 March 2016. The spacecraft will arrive in the Martian orbit in October 2016. It will deliver the ExoMars Schiaparelli EDM lander and then proceed to map the sources of methane on Mars and other gases, and in doing so, help select the landing site for the ExoMars rover to be launched in 2018. The presence of methane in Mars’ atmosphere is intriguing because its likely origin is either present-day life or geological activity. Upon the arrival of the rover in 2021, the orbiter would be transferred into a lower orbit where it would be able to perform analytical science activities as well as provide the Schiaparelli EDM lander and ExoMars rover with telecommunication relay. NASA provided an Electra telecommunications relay and navigation instrument to ensure communications between probes and rovers on the surface of Mars and controllers on Earth. The TGO would continue serving as a telecommunication relay satellite for future landed missions until 2022.
The Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) called Schiaparelli, is intended to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s Roscosmos with the technology for landing on the surface of Mars. It was launched together with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on 14 March 2016 and will land on 19 October 2016. The lander is equipped with a non-rechargeable electric battery with enough power for four sols. The landing will take place on Meridiani Planum during the dust storm season, which will provide a unique chance to characterize a dust-loaded atmosphere during entry and descent, and to conduct surface measurements associated with a dust-rich environment.
Once on the surface, it will measure the wind speed and direction, humidity, pressure and surface temperature, and determine the transparency of the atmosphere. It carries a surface payload, based on the proposed meteorological DREAMS (Dust Characterization, Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the Martian Surface) package, consists of a suite of sensors to measure the wind speed and direction (MetWind), humidity (MetHumi), pressure (MetBaro), surface temperature (MarsTem), the transparency of the atmosphere (Optical Depth Sensor; ODS), and atmospheric electrification (Atmospheric Radiation and Electricity Sensor; MicroARES). The DREAMS payload will function for 2 or 3 days as an environmental station for the duration of the EDM surface mission after landing”
“The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft approaches the International Space Station. The spacecraft lifted off at 20:59 GMT on 23 November (21:59 CET; 02:59 local time 24 November) and reached orbit nine minutes later.
Their spacecraft docked as planned at 02:49 GMT (03:49 CET), and the hatch to their new home in space was opened at 05:00 GMT (06:00 CET).
“After launching earlier in the day in their Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 40/41 Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency docked at the International Space Station on May 29 following a six-hour rendezvous.”
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