Russia 101027 Basic Political Developments

Kremlin Shuffles Army

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/kremlin-shuffles-army/421195.html
27 October 2010

President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked three army generals and appointed a number of other top brass to new positions, the Kremlin said on its web site Tuesday, without providing reasons for the reshuffle.

Nikolai Vaganov, Alexander Ionov and Alexander Mazharov, all senior generals, were discharged from the military, the statement said.

Major-Generals Valery Konurkin and Yury Petrushkov got new posts at the military’s educational establishments, and Colonels Igor Afonin and Leonid Mikholap received new rocket divisions under their command.

Lieutenant-General Alexander Miroshnichenko was appointed an aide to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who has been embroiled in a dispute with a group of veteran paratroopers this month.

(MT)

Next Bulava missile launch scheduled for Oct. 29

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/7178777.html

09:22, October 27, 2010

The 14th test-launch of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile is scheduled for Oct. 29, official from test flight commission said on Tuesday.

The Bulava missile, a three-stage, liquid and solid-propellant, submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), was designated for the fourth generation submarines of Project 955 Borei. However, it has officially suffered seven failures in 13 test launches.

"Three Bulava tests were planned for late 2010. The three missiles were manufactured under strict technological control which yielded positive results," the Itar-tass news agency quoted the source as saying.

The first test launch of these three submarine-launched ballistic missiles was successfully conducted on Oct. 7. The warhead hit its target in Russia's Far East Kamchatka region.

A further launch of the missile is also scheduled to take place before the end of the year, the local reports said.

The missile with the range of 8,000 km was designed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering and is capable of carrying up to ten supersonic maneuvering re-entry vehicles.

The Russian military hoped the Bulava program would reach the designated objective to make this intercontinental ballistic missile the backbone of the country's strategic forces.

Source: Xinhua

Next Bulava launch scheduled for October 29

http://www.barentsobserver.com/next-bulava-launch-scheduled-for-october-29.4834976-58932.html
2010-10-26

The next test launch of Russia's troubled Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile is scheduled for October 29, a source in the test flight commission said to RIA Novosti.

The last test launch of the Bulava missile was conducted from the White Sea on October 7. This was the first launch since the test program was halted in December last year, after several unsuccessful test launches. As RIA Novosti reports, the next launch is scheduled for October 29.

This week’s planned test launch will probably be conducted from the rebuilt Typhoon-class nuclear submarine “Dmitry Donskoy”, the only sub so far to launch the hi-tech ballistic missile. It has earlier been said that if the next test is a success, the planned third test launch this year could be conducted from the submarine “Yury Dolgoruky”, the first of Russia’s fourth generation strategic Borey-class subs.

Progress cargo ship to be blasted off from Baikonur to ISS

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15627021&PageNum=0

27.10.2010, 09.27

MOSCOW, October 27 (Itar-Tass) - The fifth and this year’s last Russian cargo spaceship Progress will be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Wednesday to the International Space Station (ISS).

“The launch of the Progress M-08M spaceship from the first – ‘Gagarin’ – launch pad is scheduled for 19:12, Moscow time,” the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) told Itar-Tass. “The cargo craft will deliver to the orbiting outpost about 2.5 tonnes of various cargoes for the station’s life support and the crew.

The spaceship will take to the ISS fuel and equipment for the station, oxygen, water, clothing and food for the cosmonauts. In addition to standard cargoes, the spacecraft will deliver in orbit the equipment for the biotechnological experiment “Constanta,” the results of which will be brought to Earth Fyodor Yurchikhin, whose orbital mission ends on November 30.

The resupply ship will also deliver to the ISS parcels from families and gifts for the crew (Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri, Oleg Skripochka, Fyodor Yurchikhin and American astronauts Shannon Walker, Douglas Wheelock and Scott Kelly). This time the astronauts will receive in the dispatch from Earth, aside from the standard rations, as usual, a portion of fresh vegetables and fruits, as well as sweets, dry fruits and chocolates in parcels from home.

Space designers have sent to the astronauts New Year gifts sealed in a package with the words: “To be opened on December 31.” The next crew that will be launched to the ISS on December 15 will deliver to the cosmonauts New Year’s gifts from psychologists.

Psychologists have sent with the cargo spacecraft only books, magazines and CDs. So, the ISS library will be replenished by two quite specific books on the training of military professionals, ordered by Kaleri, and the ISS video collection will be enriched with 9 DVDs with movies and serials.

Six launches of Russian cargo ships and the second European cargo ship of the ATV series were planned this year for the needs of the ISS. However, in August, regarding that the station is provided with all the necessary, Russian specialists decided to postpone the launch of the Progress M-09M ship until early 2011. The launch of the European cargo spacecraft Johannes Kepler (ATV-2) has also been postponed until next year’ s February.

The Progress M-08M ship is to dock to the Pirs module at 20:39, Moscow time, on October 30 in an automatic mode. After an incident in early July when the sixth ship of the “digital” series failed to dock to the station at the first attempt due to a malfunction in the system of VHF communications, blocks to protect certain frequency range are put in all the spacecraft starting from Progress M-08M.

Operated as a joint project between the five participant space agencies, the ISS sections are controlled by mission control centres on the ground operated by the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The ownership and use of the space station is established in intergovernmental treaties and agreements that allow the Russian Federation to retain full ownership of its own modules in the Russian Orbital Segment, with the US Orbital Segment, the remainder of the station, allocated between the other international partners. The cost of the station has been estimated by ESA as 100 billion euros over 30 years, and, although estimates range from 35 billion dollars to 160 billion dollars, the ISS is believed to be the most expensive object ever constructed. The station is serviced by Soyuz spacecraft, Progress spacecraft, space shuttles, the Automated Transfer Vehicle and the H-II Transfer Vehicle, and has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 different nations.