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This apparently is a building/warehouse valued under $30 million that was under construction and never completed, never paid for. It is inside the boundary line
by hadlock 4y ago
This apparently is a building/warehouse valued under $30 million that was under construction and never completed, never paid for. It is inside the boundary line of the cosmodrome which makes it notable, but this does not impact space operations for Russia directly.
However it's not like they just seized a Soyuz rocket or crates of rocket engines, or even a train load of rocket fuel and they're holding it in lieu of payment now.
Kazakhstan in recent days has been on record saying that they intend to take small steps towards further independence from Russia.
- cozzyd 4y agoVery nice. I guess Russia's lease on Baikonur is until 2050. I wonder what happens if it's not renewed...
- fredoralive 4y agoRussia has now built a launch site inside Russia (Vostochny Cosmodrome), in its far east. Although they don't seem to be actually using it that much at the moment, they wouldn't be cut off from space.
- selimthegrim 4y agoI think the trajectories from there are nowhere as good as Baikonur
- smcin 4y agoBaikonur is 45.62° N, 63.31° E Vostochny Cosmodrome, (Tsiolkovsky, Amur Oblast) is 51.85° N, 128.35° E. 550 miles west of Sakhalin Island and the Sea of Japan.
- pestatije 4y ago51° N is like London...not the best latitude for launching to space
- rob74 4y agoIt's definitely not optimal, but GP probably wanted to highlight that it's not much worse than Baikonur (45°), at least when you compare it to Cape Canaveral (28°) or Kourou (5°). Actually, Roskosmos was cooperating with ESA to launch some of their rockets from Kourou, but of course since the Ukraine attack that is suspended (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-suspends-cooperation-with-europe-space-launches-french-guiana-2022-02-26/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-suspends-coopera...)
- maxerickson 4y agoYeah, most of the continental US is better than 45°.
- _joel 4y agoGot to love those dog-leg manouevres and a dashing of extra fuel :)
- sorenjan 4y agoI don't know anything about space launches, how come the first orbital launch site in mainland Europe is in Esrange in northern Sweden, latitude 67° N? Are different latitudes good for different trajectories?
- Robotbeat 4y agoYou’re right. 45.6deg vs 51.8deg N. The eastward boost you get from the earths rotation is just: 2 * pi * cos(latitude)/day so the difference is: 2 * pi * r_Earth*(cos(45.2deg)-cos(51.8deg))/day = 40m/s. Which doesn’t sound like a lot but can add up. I compared Plesetsk (Russia) vs Baikonur (Kazakhstan) in the Silverbird Astronautics calculator for Soyuz v2-1B using 3.3m fairing and without Fregat, and I got 1552kg estimated payload to escape for Plesetsk and 1665kg for Baikonur. 7% performance hit to high energy trajectories. http://www.silverbirdastronautics.com/LVperform.html http://www.silverbirdastronautics.com/LVperform.html Plesetsk is more established than V, but is 63deg latitude.
- latchkey 4y agoI never considered this and your response made me ask google the question: "Where is the best place to launch a vehicle?" "The land at the equator is moving 1670 km per hour, and land halfway to the pole is only moving 1180 km per hour, so launching from the equator makes the spacecraft move almost 500 km/hour faster once it is launched." Neat, thanks for such an interesting answer.
- jareklupinski 4y agowondering if there is an inhabited planet somewhere out there much more optimized for launching spacecraft with its equatorial denizens barely hanging on to its surface
- s1artibartfast 4y agoSize and mass are the other big factors.
- Symbiote 4y agoKourou, at 5° North, is very nicely positioned.
- hadlock 4y agoYeah it's no accident SpaceX built their test launch facility on the beach in Texas, less than 10 miles from the southernmost point in Texas. Brownsville is about 20 miles away and is a natural, true deepwater port which is also helpful, but primary reason was to get as close to the equator as possible while still being on the US mainland. You can throw about 9% more mass into orbit on the equator than from NYC. Florida coastal property is mostly built out and southern Texas is mostly vacant + has a very favorable business climate and lax (state-level) environmental regulations which doesn't hurt either.
- pk-protect-ai 4y agoI do not believe russians will want or need to get into space until 2050, because the economy of this country is screwed and electronics tech-stack is dependent on global market to deliver required chips... Needless to say the window of opportunity to receive the electronic components is closing. They can't run a space program on gray market deliveries.
- chii 4y agoThey can run one where china supplies the required components.
- NicoJuicy 4y agoI doubt China will pay Russia for the space program as the US did.
- vincnetas 4y agoLast i heard, china is also being limited in acquiring advanced electronics : On October 7, the Biden administration unveiled a sweeping set of export controls that ban Chinese companies from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license. The rule also restricts the ability of “US persons” — including American citizens or green card holders — to provide support for the “development or production” of chips at certain manufacturing facilities in China.
- baybal2 4y agoThe land there is leased, but Russia have to pay annual fees for property of Kazakhstan on the territory separately. Cases of Kazakhstan seizing something there because of late utilities payment happened before.
- joseftexas 4y ago[flagged]
- The_Colonel 4y agoRussia isn't currently in a position to invade another country. In the medium-long term, *stans might want to balance the relations between Russia and China (and a bit with the West) which might make further Russian invasions unlikely.
- smcl 4y agoYeah to me (admittedly a complete outsider) they seem to just barely have the capability to remain in the fight in Ukraine, it's almost unthinkable that they'd try to open another front. I've also been wondering recently if Georgia might see this war as an opportune moment to retake South Ossetia and Abkhazia, or if Moldova might attempt to reestablish control of Transnistria. With Russia underresourced and distracted there may not ever be a better time to do so. Note that I understand this is complex and that none of those three regions are officially 100% controlled and occupied by Russia the way Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk are, and that residents might not 100% desire to be "liberated" (I haven't spoken to anyone from those and don't follow opinion polling).
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoUnlikely; the current Georgian gov't is rabidly pro-Russian. They've got the previous (anti-Russian, pro-Ukrainian) president thrown in jail, slowly dying (Saakashvili). And the country is rammed full of Russian ex-pats. Much of the populace seems extremely unhappy about this, but it's an unstable situation in the wrong way that would lead to military action in that way.
- 5e92cb50239222b 4y agoMost of those Russian expats are anti-Putin and anti-war. But I guess you don't care about that, as usual these days. We're the (old) new boogeyman, and this is Red Scare 2.0.
- dudeinjapan 4y ago[flagged]