Russia plans over $50 billion in space spending by 2020, eyes space weapon deterrent by 2030

Russia plans over $50 billion in space spending by 2020, eyes space weapon deterrent by 2030

We've already seen the Obama administration announce its latest budget for NASA this week, and now President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will be spending more than $50 billion on its space-related efforts by 2020. The most immediate result of that will be the completion of the Vostochny Cosmodrome near Russia's border with China, which Putin says is still on track to see its first rocket launch as soon as 2015 and its first manned launch in 2018. With NASA decommissioning its shuttle program, all manned space launches currently take place at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (as pictured above), and Putin says the new launch base will also be open for other countries to use.

Beyond that, Putin says that Russia will also have what's being described as a space weapon deterrent system by the year 2030, although specifics on it unsurprisingly remain a bit light for the time being. Russia says it also remains committed to sending cosmonauts beyond Earth's orbit in the future, including to a permanent base on the moon that it says could be used as a future launching pad for flights to Mars. Unmanned missions will precede that, though -- indeed, a new Moon probe is set to be the first launch from the aforementioned Vostochny Cosmodrome.

[Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls]

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Source: Bloomberg, AFP, Reuters

Russia and Europe team up for joint missions to Mars

ESA team builds self-piloting rover in six months, tests it in Chilean desert

We're not sure how George Smiley would feel at the news, but we're certainly pleased to see that Europe and Russia are teaming up to revive the moribund ExoMars missions. The ESA has signed a deal with Roscosmos, its Soviet counterpart, that'll see the pair launch an orbiter to the Red Planet in 2016, followed by a rover mission two years later. Unsurprisingly, Russia will be chipping in the rockets, leaving Europe with the job of building the hardware that'll go on it. Now all the pair need to do is argue about how best to usurp Curiosity as the mayor of the Gale Crater.

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Via: Space.com

Source: European Space Agency

NASA, Roscosmos pick seasoned astronauts for year-long ISS trip

NASA, Roscosmos pick seasoned astronauts for yearlong ISS trip

We now know which two astronauts will have to pack their bags very, very well in the next three years: NASA's Scott Kelly and Roscosmos' Mikhail Kornienko have been picked for the year-long stay aboard the International Space Station in 2015. Both voyagers are old hands at space travel, having each spent a total of six months in orbit and at least some time on the ISS crew. There's no great shock in the choices when the mission will track the long-term effects of near-zero gravity on the human body -- after all, most of us would want a crew comfortable in its spacesuit boots for such an ambitious (though not record-setting) trip. Kelly and Kornienko will start a two-year training program shortly into 2013 that should have them in shape by the expedition's launch... and hopefully remind them to bring a good toothbrush.

Continue reading NASA, Roscosmos pick seasoned astronauts for year-long ISS trip

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Source: NASA (1), (2)