Speaking of flame trenches for rockets, here is my (previously unpublished) view of the Energia test and launch stand at Site 250 in Baikonur. There are some humans for scale.
Context:
Another remarkable advantage of the Indian space program over the Russian one, along with better technology, international integration and openness, is visible presence of women, who are used almost exclusively as decorations by Russians:
Seeing the sheer enthusiasm across the folks in Mission Control at
@isro
is bringing happy tears to my face! So, so happy for the entire team, bringing India into the very small list of countries that have successfully landed on the lunar surface! 🇮🇳
#Chandrayaan3
Russia is bewildered by unexplained cancellation of highly anticipated Putin's address tonight. Kremlin's spokesman is out of sight, propaganda channels removed the speech broadcast announcements. Rumors about imminent border closures are circulating like in some banana republic.
Some good news:
#Nauka
module burned ALL the propellant available to its thrusters during its brawl after docking with
#ISS
, so there no chance it could happen again. DETAILS:
UPDATE:
#Nauka
's main engines (pictured in operation) are currently out of commission. Specialists are troubleshooting the issue and developing a backup rendezvous plan. The module has ~30 stable orbits at current altitude. EXCLUSIVE DETAILS:
...In the meantime, some kind of leak is possible from the Soyuz crew vehicle docked at ISS and providing "lifeboat" for the crew. Its impact on safety of the vehicle and the spacewalk is evaluated according to NASA:
#ISS
crew reports some flashes on
#ISS
from newly arrived
#Nauka
module, indicating some inadvertent thrusters firings (or propellant leaks)... The crew is advised to close windows...
#Nauka
's missing thermal blankets were not simply forgotten during the installation, but they had not even been manufactured! FIND OUT WHY (and support the practically only surviving independent publication on the Russian space) ->
A classified payload, delivered into orbit in the first launch of the Angara-1 rocket last month, appears to be inactive and will fall back to Earth without maneuvers:
#Nauka
update: Mission control just programmed the module to conduct first test engine firing. The planned orbit correction to follow, if everything works as planned. DETAILS:
...And after nearly half a century of waiting, finally, a clear visual of the legendary Almaz space cannon (left), along with my circa 2016 virtual recreation. FULL STORY:
According to my sources,
@Roscosmos
tried to convince China to increase orbital inclination of its station (at very little cost), so that
#Russia
could add its modules and sent transport ships, but China refused. DETAILS:
In my humble opinion, nothing
@Rogozin
says at this point has any real approved policy or rational behind it, but
@NASA
should be ready for the worst-case scenario, where
@Roscosmos
stops providing propellant and orbit corrections to the
#ISS
.
In Russian space industry, the excuse "a meteor caused my spacecraft failure" (in this case, the Soyuz coolant leak) is one step away from "my dog eat my homework"...
Head of Russian meteorological service says Europe is "delaying" supply of data from its meteo satellites, "trying to endanger Russia's civil aviation, but it forgets Russia has its own assets in orbit." My translation: Russian meteo satellites are inadequate.
Luna-Glob (
#Luna25
) mission ends with a crash into the lunar surface, Roskosmos confirms. The conclusion is made after unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the spacecraft:
In Russian space industry, the excuse "a meteor caused my spacecraft failure" (in this case, the Soyuz coolant leak) is one step away from "my dog eat my homework"...
BREAKING: Roscosmos plans (potentially, make-or-brake) test of the Kurs-A rendezvous system aboard
#Nauka
module as early as tomorrow. DETAILS, UPDATES:
Rogozin says that Roskosmos will not put its cosmonauts on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, even in case of striking a deal with
@NASA
on crossover flights to
#ISS
.
#Nauka
update: According to a source, a potentially mission-saving firing of DKS engines (pictured by me) was scheduled between 21:00 and 21:30 Moscow (2-2:30 p.m. EDT) or half an hour from now, if this info is correct. CONTEXT:
A mad tyrant with a finger on a nuclear button, unchecked power and imperial ambitions is bombing cities in Ukraine. It is time for Russian people to rise up, as we did in 1991, and wipe out this barbaric menace from the face of the earth or be complicit.
#StandWithUkraine
#Nauka
update: Mission control plans new corrections of the module's orbit today to reduce a potentially fatal orbital plane drift, works to bring main engines back online... so here's my newly minted & hopeful pic of Nauka approaching
#ISS
. DETAILS:
"It is like disarming a grenade": one expert about planning for deactivation of Nauka's compromised propulsion system after docking with
#ISS
. DETAILS, UPDATES:
Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a hero of Russia, criticizes the Russian invasion of
#Ukraine
(likely placing himself into a group of people who Putin and Rogozin want to "cleanse" from the society:
Геннадий Падалка - воплощение героизма. Я с полным правом могу утверждать это, поскольку он был моим командиром на борту Международной космической станции в течение 6 месяцев.
Padalka personifies the word, “hero.” I know, he was my commander on the ISS.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announces the 2022-2031 period a "decade of science and technologies in Russia." My comment: if he stays in power that long, there will be little left of science and technologies in Russia.
HUGE DAY for the Russian space program: Prichal module is on track for docking with
#ISS
in less than 4.5 hours (fingers crossed!), so here is our depiction of the historic event along with updates and more:
Sources: Cosmonauts aboard the
#ISS
' Russian Segment just completed drilling holes (!) around the first crack in the effort to stop its spread. The sealing of the air leak comes next. Keeping fingers crossed! UPDATES:
Roskosmos and Arianespace are discussing a potential deal to return a
#Soyuz
rocket stuck in French Guiana in exchange for Western satellites held by Russia.
FULL STORY:
I hear,
#Roscosmos
and
#NASA
are close to a deal to put Russian cosmonauts on Dragon & Starliner commercial vehicles and US astronauts on
#Soyuz
ships heading to
#ISS
. DETAILS:
UPDATE: First orbit-correction maneuver of the
#Nauka
module this afternoon had been cancelled to give ground controllers time to deal with a potential propulsion issue ->
...On another hand, a Soviet rocket propulsion giant Valentin Glushko is attributed a saying: "Even a broomstick will fly if you attach a (good) rocket engine to it"
@elonmusk
,
#SpaceX
:
I hear that
@NASA
is indeed considering switching the return to Earth of its
#ISS
astronaut Mark Vande Hei from Russian
#Soyuz
to an American vehicle. DETAILS:
...And the latest visuals of
#Russia
nuclear-electric space dreadnought emerge at a military trade show... but its mission described as delivering scientific instruments to the Moon and planets. MORE PICS, CONTEXT:
#Nauka
update: Mission control just programmed the module to conduct first test engine firing. The planned orbit correction to follow, if everything works as planned. DETAILS:
A HERO: A lonely protester in
#Russia
against invasion of
#Ukraine
. We can't even begin to imagine what kind of bravery and moral compass it takes to do this in the midst of blood-thirsty war mongering, brainwashing and repression from
#Putin
's criminal regime:
NASA Astronaut Mark Vande Hei is returning to Earth soon after spending a record-breaking 355 consecutive days on the space station. Before he comes home, he’s taking the time to answer YOUR questions! Use
#AskNASA
to ask
@Astro_Sabot
about his mission, and he may answer on video
Russian engineers jokingly called
#Nauka
Multi-Purpose Laboratory Module, MLM "the Multi-suffering Laboratory Module," according to the ISS flight director Vladimir Soloviev.
SAINTS AND EXECUTIONERS: Russian
#ISS
Segment is turned into a bizarre display mixing religious icons, communist symbols and
#Roscosmos
' endorsement of the carnage in Ukraine:
A newly surfaced document reveals Soviet plans for public announcements in case if the first launch of the N1 Moon rocket succeeded in 1969!
FULL STORY:
Angara's ill-fated Persei space tug to fall back to Earth tomorrow (yes, this is how it looks, seriously!) Its ~18 tons of propellants were likely drained, so around 3.5 tons of metal remain to plunge through the atmosphere. UPDATES in the morning:
In light of today's events, I would propose
@NASA
:
– Expel
@Roscosmos
from
#ISS
as soon as technically possible (no money spared);
– Put
#Ukraine
's pilot on the first Artemis crew. They bleed and die for all freedom-loving people, including in
#Russia
:
UNUSED PICS: My eye-to-eye with Buran (yes, that's the one that actually flew in 1988 and destroyed in 2002). Remember doing a rather precarious climb to get that photo. CONTEXT:
Sources: Air leak aboard
#ISS
requires extra air supplies, imposes limitations on the use of Zvezda's aft port by visiting vehicles. New plan to combat the leak is in the works.
Details/visual:
According to Zakryty Kosmos TG channel (unofficial): Luna-Glob (
#Luna25
) broke communications with ground control during today's orbit correction but Roskosmos continues its attempts to contact the spacecraft...
Russian specialists are preparing for a complex choreography of adding yet another piece to the Russian
#ISS
Segment, just 4 months after the docking of the
#Nauka
module. DETAILS:
50 YEARS AGO TODAY: The largest explosion in space exploration history rocks Tyuratam, as the Soviet N1 Moon rocket collapses back to its launch pad shortly after liftoff.
FULL STORY:
Our friendly reminder that tomorrow is Rogozin's ultimatum deadline for lifting western sanctions from Roskosmos entities, unless partners want something bad happen to the
#ISS
!
50 YEARS AGO TODAY: The USSR launches the 1st Salyut space station, which started the most enduring effort in human space flight for the next half a century. PART 1 of our illustrated history:
@Roscosmos
head
@Rogozin
says that
#Nauka
module conducted a two-impulse maneuver with its (main) DKS-1 engine (pictured) starting at 17:20:47 and 17:54:20 Moscow Time (10:20, 10:54 a.m. EDT):
ISS robotic arm inspects nadir (Earth-facing) docking port on the Zvezda service module, which was vacated by Pirs module earlier today and intended for the arriving
#Nauka
module. These images should clear it for docking on Thursday. DETAILS:
It is clear now that the amount of damage to the Russian space program will depend directly on the longevity of the current regime in Kremlin. Longer Putin stays in power, the more severe and irreversible will be the degradation of the space industry in the country.
The Prichal Node Module (undergoing final preps for launch to
#ISS
) is the closest Russian engineers got to implementing the plug-in-play concept in space station design. IN-DEPTH:
Very strange custom designs on a
#Soyuz
rocket launching movie crew tomorrow. I hope this is not a bar chart representing annual
@Roscosmos
budget in the past few years:
I hear Roskosmos' boss Rogozin tells Kremlin's media he can jump-start Ukrainian rocket industry (presumably, after Russian hordes occupy the country). Comment: the same way he "jump-started" Sea Launch rusting away in the Russian Far East.
A view of the International
@Space_Station
that is a bit unusual and new for us. Hello everyone from the
#Nauka
module!
We continue to gradually unload it and are getting ready for spacewalks scheduled for September 2 and 8 to prepare our new module from the outside.
Russian plans for building new station instead of separating from
#ISS
, depends on converting the Science and Power Module, NEM, into the core of the future station. However, this strategy poses a number of major technical and financial obstacles. DETAILS: