Russia&CIS

OneWeb, the global communications company with a mission to bring connectivity to everyone everywhere, confirmed its next launch will take place on Saturday, 21 March 2020 at 17:06 GMT from the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Roscosmos Space Corporation announced on 12 March 2020 that they have decided to postpone the launch of the second ExoMars mission to study the Red Planet to 2022.

British-headquartered satellite communications company OneWeb has received permission to operate in the South Caucasus country of Armenia, according to the company’s CEO Adrián Steckel in a 1 March 2020 interview with Russian newspaper Vedomosti.

Russia’s Khrunichev Space Center has built a Proton-M carrier rocket to deliver the Nauka (Science) multi-functional laboratory module to the International Space Station (ISS), the head of the state space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said on 21 February 2020.

A Russian military communications satellite rode a Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage on 20 February 2020 into an orbit stretching nearly 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) above Earth, successfully launching after a one-month delay to replace a suspect third stage on the Soyuz booster.

The Russian government has accused the United States of using an allegation that two Russian satellites are stalking a US reconnaissance satellite as an excuse to “fuel an arms race in space,” according to Sputnik, a Russian media outlet.

Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, met for a status check on the development of the two nations’ cooperation in space.

One of the more notable space stories of the past week is that of two Russian satellites allegedly 'stalking' a KH-11 reconnaissance satellite operated by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). 

The Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) has started the planned training programme of Indian astronaut candidates under the contract between Glavkosmos, JSC (part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos) and the Human Spaceflight Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The United States is alleging that two Russian satellites are stalking a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) reconnaissance satellite in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and has formally complained about the matter to the Russian government according to numerous press reports.