Baikonur: Soyuz Launch Site in Economic Crisis

Although its future might have appeared certain until 2050, Baikonur may not perhaps remain Russia's primary space hub after the Soviet Union's demise. Sooner or later, it has to be replaced.

Only 12 Proton-M launches were approved by Kazakhstan for 2013 instead of the planned 17.

The decision has put the future of Russian-Kazakh space cooperation under further threat. What does fate have in store for the famed launch pad in the near future?

It seems the status quo, which has survived in the space world for several decades, is to face an imminent challenge. Once again, Baikonur cosmodrome, Russia's main launch pad, is at the centre of the conflict.

Kazakhstan has refused to approve the limit of 17 Proton launches that Russia asked for in 2013, allowing only 12, even fewer than in 2012. Russia's response could be to reduce the annual rent paid to Kazakhstan for the site.

Proton-M, currently the heaviest launcher in the Russian space programme, provided 10 of the 24 launches in 2012 (plus an additional Proton-K launch, also from Baikonur).

Its capabilities could only be replaced by Angara, which is still-under-development. Moreover, as Russian space officials have announced, no launch pads for Protons are available other than those at Baikonur.

Should the available number of launches diminish, a good deal of the contracts with launch operators will come under threat of termination or penalty sanctions.

One apparent reason for the decision could be the Proton rocket's toxic propellant, perhaps a legitimate bargaining point. Last year also saw two failures, in August and December, fortunately, they occurred in space and had no impact on the environment. As a result, the next Proton launch was postponed until at least the end of March.

Few however doubt that the real cause of the tension is Russia's apparent future withdrawal from Baikonur. Kazakhstan is concerned about the future of the space port after the new Vostochnyi cosmodrome is up and running, which may be as soon as 2015.

Moreover, Vostochnyi also threatens Baiterek, the joint Russian-Kazakh endeavour at Baikonur, which was initially intended mainly for Angara launches. If Russia builds Vostochnyi, there will be no reason to maintain another launch pad incurring additional rental costs.

Russia has also announced that it is going to make more use of its northern Plesetsk cosmodrome, and launch the majority of state satellites from there, rather than Kazakhstan.

The conflict follows a statement by Talgat Musabaev, head of the Kazakh space agency, in early December 2012, blaming Russia for failing to follow the Baiterek agreement and calling for Proton launches to be cut. As the dispute heats up, both sides will have to make decisions with long-term consequences.

Although its future might have appeared certain until 2050, Baikonur may not perhaps remain Russia's primary space hub after the Soviet Union's demise. Sooner or later, it has to be replaced. On the other hand, Kazakhstan does have a usable cosmodrome, but who will use it?

Eighth Landsat LDCM Satellite Arrives At Launch Site

An oversized semi-trailer truck carrying NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has arrived at its launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in preparation for launch. 

This NASA and U.S. Geological Survey mission will continue a 40-year record of measuring change on the planet from space.

LDCM is the eighth satellite in the Landsat series, which began in 1972. It will extend and expand global land observations that are critical in many sectors, including energy and water management, forest monitoring, human and environmental health, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture.

Following final tests, the LDCM satellite will be attached to an Atlas V rocket and launched into space Feb. 11, 2013. Built and tested by Orbital Sciences Corp., LDCM left their Gilbert, Ariz., facility on Dec. 17.

"LDCM builds on and strengthens a key American resource: a decades-long, unbroken Landsat-gathered record of our planet's natural resources, particularly its food, water and forests," said Jim Irons, Landsat project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

LDCM carries two instruments, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) built by NASA Goddard.

"Both of these instruments have evolutionary advances that make them the most advanced Landsat instruments to date and are designed to improve performance and reliability to improve observations of the global land surface," said Ken Schwer, LDCM project manager at NASA Goddard.

OLI will continue observations in the visible, near infrared, and shortwave infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum and includes two new spectral bands, one of which is designed to support monitoring of coastal waters and the other to detect previously hard to see cirrus clouds that can otherwise unknowingly impact the signal from the Earth's surface in the other spectral bands.

TIRS will collect data in two thermal bands and will thus be able to measure the temperature of the Earth's surface, a measurement that's vital to monitoring water consumption, especially in the arid western United States.

ESA: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer arrives at launch site

Looking down on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) inside the Large Space Simulator in March 2010

One of the most exciting scientific instruments ever built, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will arrive at the Kennedy Space Center.

The quest for discovering the composition of the Universe is about to take a step further on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is not only the largest scientific instrument to be installed on the Station, and the largest cryogenically cooled superconducting magnet ever used in orbit. It will be delivered to the ISS by NASA's Space Shuttle.

During the unloading of AMS, following arrival at the Space Shuttle Landing Facility, media will have the opportunity to have a look at the hardware and talk to AMS scientists and managers.

Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, and Prof. Sam Ting, the experiment's leader from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will be available for interviews.



Understanding our Universe
AMS will help us to understand the origin and structure of the Universe by searching for signs of antimatter and dark matter.

As a byproduct, AMS will also gather a host of information on stars and galaxies millions of light years from our home Galaxy.

AMS was built mostly by institutes in Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, together with the participation of China, Russia, Taiwan and US. In all, the experiment's team consists of 56 institutes from 16 countries.