Happy Noruz 2016!

 

Happy New Year • С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched an unmanned resupply ship to the International Space Station on July 27 to make an express delivery to the orbiting outpost. The vehicle will be delivering food, supplies and the last-minute addition of a repair kit for a U.S. spacesuit that malfunctioned during a spacewalk last week.

The robotic Progress 52 spacecraft and its Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The cargo ship is loaded with food, fuel, supplies and science experiment equipment for the six-person crew of the station’s Expedition 36 mission.Among its cargo is a set of tools intended to help the astronauts investigate and patch up the spacesuit that malfunctioned during a July 16 spacewalk outside the orbiting laboratory.

That spacewalk was terminated early after just 92 minutes when water began to leak into the helmet of spacewalker Luca Parmitano, an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency. Parmitano and his fellow spacewalker Chris Cassidy of NASA aborted the excursion, which was intended to perform maintenance work to prepare the space station for the arrival of a new Russian module later this year.

Progress 52’s express trip will bring it to the space in station in just six hours, docking after only four orbits of the planet — a shorter journey that’s been adopted recently to save vehicles time on a trip that used to take multiple days.

The space station is about the size of a five bedroom house with the wingspan of a football field. The $100 billion facility, built by five space agencies representing 15 countries, has been staffed continuously with rotating crews of astronauts since 2000.

The astronauts currently there include NASA’s Karen Nyberg and Chris Cassidy; the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano; and Russian’s Fyodor Yurchikhin, Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.

 

 

 

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North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il paid a quick visit to one of Russia’s largest hydroelectric power plants on August 21, 2011, and then boarded his armored train bound for Siberia, where he is expected to meet later this week with Russia’s president to press for economic aid.

Mr. Kim, who is said to fear flying, has made armored train his preferred conveyance to Russia in the past. Mr. Kim’s last foray into Russia was a four-day jaunt in Russia’s Far East that was little publicized.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Mr. Kim’s train Sunday left Amur in Russia’s Far East after he visited the power plant, and it is heading to Ulan-Ude for his summit with Mr. Medvedev, which will take place Tuesday at an army base.

Russia’s new stealth fighter jet, the Sukhoi T-50 made its public debut at the MAKS 2011 air show in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow.

General Aleksander Zelin, head of the Russian air force, said he expects the T-50 prototype to be ready in 2013, with “mass-produced aircraft” arriving in 2014 or 2015.

The aircraft is expected to become a staple of airborne defense for both Russia and India, who collaborated on its design, explained Mikhail Pogosyan, head of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation.

“The T-50 will be the newest main plane both for the Russian and the Indian air force,” Pogosyan said.

The Sukhoi T-50 cost the two governments about $6 billion to develop, with India shouldering about 35% of the cost. It is intended to match the U.S. F-22 raptor.

Taken at the 2010 Moscow Auto Show

Taken at the 2010 Moscow Auto Show