Russia&CIS

The head of the Russian Roscosmos state space corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, has approved the timetable and budget for the development of Russia’s super-heavy launch vehicle called Yenisei. It is expected that Yenisei will be developed and operational by 2028 at an overall cost of U.S.$15 billion (approximately 1 trillion rubles). …

The last Russian satellite launch of 2018 took place on 27 December 2018 when a Soyuz 2-1A launch vehicle lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, lofting two Kanopus-V remote sensing satellites and twenty-six secondary payloads into orbit with the aid of a Fregat upper stage. The Soyuz 2-1A launched at …

The last two launches of the Rokot satellite launch vehicle fitted with a Ukrainian-made control system will be carried out in 2019, after which the vehicle will be decommissioned, a source in the Russian space industry told Russian news outlet Sputnik on 18 December 2018. “In 2019, it is planned to …

GK Launch Services, a subsidiary of Glavkosmos, Lavochkin Association, and Astroscale Japan Inc. held a kick-off meeting in Moscow on 12 December 2018 under the agreement on launch services for the Astroscale End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) satellite. ELSA-d will be orbited within a Soyuz-2 cluster mission that is scheduled …

The Government of India headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the agreement on cooperation in space research for peaceful purposes with Uzbekistan, according to a Trend News Agency report citing local Uzbek media. The agreement was signed between the two countries on 1 October 2018 during the first …

Azerbaijan’s state space corporation, Azercosmos, will examine the economic and commercial feasibility of building additional Earth observation satellites in its approved 2019-2022 state programme for remote sensing, according to a report by the Trend News Agency. Azercosmos already operates the Airbus-built AzerSky-1 Earth observation satellite, and through Airbus Defence and …

Azerbaijan’s second communications satellite, Azerspace-2, will reach its intended Geostationary orbit – 45 degrees East longitude – in January or February 2019, according to the country’s state space corporation Azercosmos, reports Trend News Agency. According to the company, at present the satellite is in its transfer orbit and is very …

The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos has been accused by a Russian journalist of spending “billions on space but kopecks” on the engineering talent required for the sustainable and long-term success of Russia’s space ambitions. Vladimir Koryagin, an investigative journalist for Lenta, wrote a report titled “A Flight to Nowhere: …

Andrey Potapov is an alumnus of the economic faculty of the Moscow State University and a former employee of Scanex. He was also director general of a pioneering Russian satellite manufacturer Sputnix. We asked him to explain how Skoltech is organized and what educational opportunities it has to offer. Tell …

Azerbaijan and Iran have concluded negotiations on space cooperation, to include the Iranian use of Azerbaijani communications satellites and the joint development of a remote sensing satellite, according Azerbaijani media reports. “We are currently holding negotiations on Iran’s use of satellites belonging to Azerbaijan. In addition, Iran has a satellite …