Author of Russia in Space; journalist, illustrator. Clients: Popular Mechanics, Aviation Week, Air & Space Smithsonian, Aerospace America & others.
Joined August 2009
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A view of today's classified Soyuz launch from Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic, downrange from Plesetsk:
A Soyuz-2-1b rocket launches a military payload from Plesetsk, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense quoted by official media:
...another piece of statistics: this is the 70th mission to deploy and replenish the GLONASS constellation (the Soviet/Russian equivalent of the GPS system): russianspaceweb.com/glonass_…
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...and last but not least: it was the 131st mission of the Fregat which is the upper stage delivering GLONASS satellites from a suborbital trajectory to their deployment orbit some 19,000 kilometers above Earth: russianspaceweb.com/fregat.h…
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...It was also the 198th mission for the Soyuz-2 series of rockets (by my calculations, excluding now-retired Soyuz-2-1v variant): russianspaceweb.com/soyuz2_l…
...for the Soyuz-2-1b version, it was the 107th launch: russianspaceweb.com/soyuz2-1…
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On the left is my artwork, which took months to develop, and on the right, it is disfigured into AI slop, which floods the Internet, despite clear copyright notices and without permission. If you have a professional idea how to legally challenge this, please contact me privately.
Moscow-based operator of geostationary satellites has eight spacecraft in the development pipeline, with two quartets to be launched in 2029-2030.
DETAILS: russianspaceweb.com/express.…
Anatoly Zak retweeted
.@Astro_Kutryk and @Astro_Anil completed their spacewalk at 3:35 p.m. EST today after installing the eighth and final roll-out solar array. This completes the upgrade of the International Space Station's power generation system. More... go.nasa.gov/4sG21Dq
Anatoly Zak retweeted
Off to work we go 🎵
@astro_anil and @csa_asc's Joshua Kutryk have exited the space station and will begin their work installing the final roll-out solar array.
Another chapter. Context: russianspaceweb.com/spacecra…
Could there be another ICEYE RPO?
On 17 Oct COSMOS 2612 passed 59 m from ICEYE-X36. Two of its launch mates, COSMOS 2611 and COSMOS 2613, now sit in a similar setup with ICEYE-X37, which launched with X36 on 4 Mar 2024.
On distance alone there is little to see. COSMOS 2611 is about 11,800 km from ICEYE-X37 and COSMOS 2613 about 13,500 km, both well around the orbit from it. The orbits are where it gets interesting.
Our predictive rendezvous job has tracked 2611 against X37. Their planes are now 0.035° apart and still closing, reaching 0.021° on 10 Nov. Matching orbits takes 0.5 m/s to adjust altitude and 2.6 m/s to tilt the plane.
The same job flagged COSMOS 2613 against X37 on 2 Nov. Their planes come closest early on 5 Nov UTC, 0.051° apart. Matching orbits takes 1.7 m/s to adjust altitude and 6.7 m/s to tilt the plane.
Those costs assume the planes are lined up, so they apply around 5 Nov for 2613 and from 10 Nov on for 2611.
#Space
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Anatoly Zak retweeted
NASA reopens prospect of commercial Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission
sam.gov/workspace/contract/o…
Keldysh center at Roskosmos reports thermal problems in development of a methane engine for the Amur-SPG reusable booster.
Details on the site (subscription):
Anatoly Zak retweeted
Mission accomplished! After installing a new solar array and preparing for the next spacewalk, Menon and Kutryk have returned to the Quest airlock as today’s spacewalk comes to an end.
Be sure to follow @Space_Station for the latest updates from the orbiting lab!
Anatoly Zak retweeted
LIVE: NASA's Anil Menon and @csa_asc's Joshua Kutryk are setting up a new solar array outside the @Space_Station. Today's spacewalk is scheduled to start around 8am ET (1200 UTC) and run for about six and a half hours. xitter.twitterapi.xyz/i/broadcasts/1rxmqpBDD…
The latest addition to my collection of Russian lunar sample return concepts for the past 20 years. Leaving some white space for another decade of studies, which are ongoing.
FULL STORY is on the site (subscription):
Two dead Russian Starlinks are predicted to fall back to Earth starting as early as Friday.
Full story: russianspaceweb.com/buro1440…
