The termination of flights under the Space Shuttle program at one point made Russia a monopoly in the field of manned space exploration. From now on, every state that expresses a desire to send its cosmonauts into orbit is forced to resolve this issue with Roscosmos. In the next 7-10 years, there is no alternative to our "Soyuz" and will not be. The American manned spacecraft of the new generation "Orion" will appear no earlier than the next decade. China's space program is in its infancy and is not yet capable of becoming a serious competitor for our space industry.
The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) works like a clock. In 2013 alone, 30 successful launches were carried out from three (out of five operating) Russian cosmodromes, incl. 4 manned missions on board the Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to the International Space Station.
The emblem of the Soyuz TMA-10M mission, launched on September 26, 2013.
The dizzying success of Roskosmos, accompanied by the obvious decline of foreign manned astronautics, gives reason to believe that our country, in spite of everything, is still a leading space power. Last week Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin stated this bluntly: "Having analyzed the sanctions against our cosmodrome, I suggest the United States to deliver its astronauts to the ISS using a trampoline." Thus, underlining the leading role of Roskosmos in space exploration.
Taunting NASA is a reasonable response to threats against Russia. Nevertheless, Mr. Rogozin's daring speeches are in clear contradiction with the statements of Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut who participated in four space expeditions and nine spacewalks:
“We fly on the technologies of the 70s of the last century, and the cosmonauts have no emotional uplift. When you see the achievements of your partners, you understand that we have no progress”.
- Press conference in Star City, September 20, 2012
How does the only country in the world capable of regularly delivering people to space orbit find itself "lagging" in the space race with other powers whose astronauts fly on our own rockets? What did the Russian cosmonaut mean when he spoke of "the achievements of our partners"?
Launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. View from the embankment in Yekaterinburg
The main intrigue lies in the termination of flights of American shuttles, the last of which flew in July 2011.
The reasons for the premature end of the Space Shuttle program are usually cited as a reduction in NASA's budget, exacerbated by the general inefficiency of the space shuttles and problems with their safety (two out of five shuttles were lost). Of course, shuttles were not ideal ships: heavy reusable structures were created for intensive work, with a view to the future. When you need to make 20 or more launches per year. The real needs of astronautics turned out to be noticeably lower: the number of launches did not exceed 4-5 per year, as a result, the cost of one launch increased to 400-500 million dollars, and the reusable system lost all sense.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to speak of “premature write-off”: the Space Shuttle program existed for 30 years and worked 100%. Space shuttles performed 135 flights. How big is this figure? For comparison, the number of launches of domestic Soyuz of all modifications since 1967 to date is 119 (the last, the 119th Soyuz-TMA-12M was launched to the ISS on March 26, 2014).
Intensive use of shuttles contradicts various speculations about their inferiority and any flaws in their design. These were spacecraft, outstanding for their time, with a 7-seat cabin and a cargo compartment designed for 20 tons of payload (lifting or returning cargo from orbit).
Space Shuttle Columbia crew servicing the Hubble Space Telescope
In addition to the ability to maneuver in the Earth's atmosphere, the shuttles were distinguished by no less excellent maneuverability in near-earth space. This made it possible to carry out with their help unique operations in open space associated with the launch, maintenance or repair of spacecraft. The most famous are five expeditions associated with the maintenance of the Hubble orbiting telescope (launching the telescope during the STS-31 mission and 4 repair expeditions STS-61, 82, 103, 109). The astronauts had to move 570 km away from the Earth - 1.5 times farther from the ISS orbit and spend several hours in open space, replacing the gyroscopes and electronic "stuffing" of the telescope. Other notable Shuttle missions include the launch of the automated interplanetary station Magellan to explore Venus (the station was launched by the Atlantis shuttle, May 4, 1989).
Knowing firsthand about the capabilities of the "shuttles", Soviet specialists feared that the shuttles could be used to "steal" domestic spacecraft. To repulse insolent robbers, the Almaz military orbital stations were specially armed with an NR-23 automatic cannon (Shield-1 system) or self-defense missiles of the space-to-space class (Shield-2 system).
That's what the Space Shuttle reusable transport system is all about! A real "devil" of the Cold War and a consequence of unfulfilled dreams about the imminent exploration of outer space!
The most honored of the shuttles is Discovery. Member of 39 space expeditions
So why did the wealthy Yankees not have enough extra $ 400-500 million to continue operating these unique ships capable of performing any mission in low-earth orbit ?!
If you are told that it’s not about money, but in principle, then it’s about money (F. Hubbard).
Of course, money is everything. However, despite the devastating impact of the global financial crisis, the reduction in allocations for space and the collapse of US government agencies (2013), NASA laboratories, together with their partners, continue to research and prepare for the launch of new spacecraft.
Only in the last three years (since the shuttle shutdown) have been launched into the icy blackness of space:
- automatic interplanetary station "Juno" (August 2011) for the study of Jupiter. Mission cost over $ 1 billion;
- the Martian Science Laboratory (MSL), better known as the Curiosity rover (launched in November 2011). 899 kilograms of high-tech systems and scientific equipment crawling across the surface of the Red Planet at a speed of 140 meters per hour. The largest and heaviest of the Martian robots cost NASA $ 2.5 billion;
- automatic interplanetary station MAVEN (November 2013) to study the atmosphere of Mars. A simple short mission worth $ 671 million. Almost a penny by the standards of American astronautics.
Preparation for the launch of the automatic interplanetary station MAVEN
Less high-profile projects are known:
- probes "Ebb" and "Flow" for studying the gravitational field of the Moon (GRAIL program, launched in September 2011);
- automatic station LADEE for studying the properties of lunar dust and rudiments of the lunar atmosphere (September 2013).
This is despite the fact that the MESSENGER probe is still roasting in the orbit of Mercury. The orbital reconnaissance LRO “cuts circles” around the Moon. Three of the previously launched stations and rovers are operating on and around Mars. The Cassini station has been located near the rings of Saturn for 10 years. In the black hole between the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, warmed by the flames of two plutonium generators, the New Horizons probe rushes. In the summer of 2015, after 9 years of wandering, he should fly near Pluto. And somewhere outside the solar system, at a distance of 19 light hours from the Sun, the probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, launched back in 1977, fly into infinity.
All of these vehicles are "hanging on the balance sheet" of NASA. Communication is maintained with everyone, regularly received telemetry and scientific data are analyzed, and technical problems are searched for and solved.
James Webb Space Telescope (project)
Needless to say, a lot of funds are allocated! NASA's official budget for 2014 is $ 17.7 billion. However, no daring projects are planned yet - no flights to Neptune or drilling the ice shell of one of Jupiter's moons. In the coming years, the Webb Space Infrared Telescope, worth $ 8.7 billion, became the flagship program of NASA. However, the complexity of the project is extremely high: a 6.5-ton telescope should be delivered to a distance of 1.5 million km from the Earth (4 times farther from the Moon's orbit) and operate there for 5-10 years. Webb is scheduled to launch in 2018.
Of the "small" projects for the near future, only the next Martian station InSight and landing on an asteroid using the OSIRIS-Rex probe remained.
As you have already noticed, there is not a single manned mission here - everything is solved with the help of automatic devices.
“Both we and the Americans have spent a lot of money and effort on manned flights and manned stations. But the main achievements are not associated with them at all, but with the Hubble telescope, which really brought a huge amount of fundamentally new information. The future belongs to automatic stations. Manned space exploration has no applied value, neither in the present, nor in the foreseeable future."
- Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, designer, leading developer of the Soyuz spacecraft, Salyut and Mir orbital stations.
This is what cosmonaut G. Padalka had in mind when he spoke about the absence of domestic projects and technologies comparable to the technologies of our “partners”. This is exactly what is confirmed by the words of the leading Russian cosmonautics Konstantin Feoktistov.
The catch is that our "partners" deliberately abandoned manned flights in the next decade due to the lack of any intelligible meaning and objectives for astronauts in space. The Shuttle idea has completely exhausted itself. To maintain skills and maintain the American segment of the ISS in working order, it is enough to send a couple of astronauts a year as part of international crews aboard the Russian Soyuz-TMA.
All the necessary data on the impact of long-term space flight on the human body were obtained many years ago. At the present stage of technological development, the presence of a person in orbit is just an expensive walk without much practical sense. The arguments about the greater reliability of the system with the participation of a person in it (if something breaks, it will fix it) are untenable. The Opportunity rover has worked on the surface of Mars for over 10 Earth years and still continues to swarm around in the cold red dust to the delight of its creators. If the suicide fans were able to raise enough funds and fulfill their dream of building a base on Mars, it is unlikely that they would be able to last half that time. Despite the fact that the rover "Opportunity" was created using the technologies of 15 years ago.
Opportunity Mars rover prepares for flight
Of course, no one thinks of opposing manned astronautics to soulless robots. Sooner or later, the need for the presence of man in space will again arise. In this case, the Yankees create a 25-ton spacecraft of the new generation "Orion" with an estimated autonomy of 210 days. In accordance with the conclusions of the Ognastin Commission ("Flexible Path"), "Orion" will be needed to fly to the Moon, to the Lagrange points and the asteroids closest to the Earth. And in the future - for flybys of Venus and Mars.
Orion's first unmanned flight is scheduled for 2014. The first manned launch is scheduled for 2021.
Orion is being tested
Space veterans or space taxi drivers?
To the shame and shame of the Americans, they never managed to build their own analogue of the Soyuz, a simple and cheap "minibus" for delivering a couple of people to space orbit. But the domestic cosmonautics does not look the best against this background. The last major success was the unmanned flight of Buran in 1988 …
Dmitry Rogozin's words about a "space trampoline for Americans" will sound much more convincing if Roscosmos carries out the planned interplanetary expeditions Luna-Glob (2015) and Luna-Resource (2016), repeats (this time successfully!) The Phobos mission -Grunt-2 "(2018) and will be able to land the device on the surface of the Jupiter satellite (the Laplace-P project). And from the Svobodny cosmodrome in 2018, Russian manned spacecraft of the new generation Rus-M will be launched.
Without all this, Mr. Rogozin's joke does not sound funny. Otherwise, we can jump on trampolines …
