Russia&CIS

According to Alexander Medvedev, deputy general director of the TsNIIMash rocket and spacecraft scientific center, the inaugural launch of the Angara-A5M rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome is planned for 2025.

Olga Nikolaevna Gershenzon is the deputy director general of the engineering company LoReTT, as well as a co-founder of the SCANEX holding. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field of practical application of remote sensing in various branches of economy.

According to Alexander Medvedev, the chief designer of launch vehicles, deputy general director of the TsNIIMash rocket and spacecraft scientific center, and one of the ideologists of the Angara rocket, the Angara-A5B heavy-lift launch vehicle can be modified to be reusable, with landings performed using landing legs similar to those of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket’s reusable first stage.

China has offered Russia to work together on promising methane and hydrogen rocket engines, Igor Arbuzov, General Director of NPO Energomash, told RIA Novosti.

According Igor Arbuzov, General Director of NPO Energomash, the production of the engines for the Proton-M heavy-lift launch vehicle is to be ceased by the end of 2018. However, it is possible to resume production if there are new contracts for these launch vehicles.

Russian Soyuz rockets will be launched from the European Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on November 6 and December 14, 2018, a source in the rocket and space industry outed to RIA Novosti.

UK-based Effective Space is set to launch its first Space Drone spacecraft in 2020 which will introduce life extension services to satellite operators. The company has received very encouraging feedback on its plans and other potential lines of business such as accommodating new constellations in LEO.

Pressurized and unpressurized hulls for the Science and Power Module (SPM) are currently undergoing service life tests, expected to be completed in February 2019. The module is planned to be added to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Secure World Foundation (SWF), the influential think-tank that focuses on the secure, sustainable, and peaceful uses of space, has announced the appointment of Dr. Peter Martinez as its new Executive Director effective 1 October 2018.

Lunar Orbital Platform – Gateway (LOP-G) is a future international lunar orbiting outpost, planned to be built in the 2020s. We talked about the development of the project, its tasks and goals as well as about Russia’s participation with Oleg Valerievich Kotov, pilot-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation, recipient of the Hero of the Russian Federation medal, veteran of three space missions, currently Deputy Director for Science at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.