Never let it be said that spaceflight is not high profile in Russian society, whether it is the birthday of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, or the recent visit by the country’s prime minister Vladimir Putin to Star City aka Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre
And preparations continue for the new cosmodrome at Vostochny with another meeting between Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) head Anatoly Perminov and the governor of the region that hosts the spaceport
NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery delivered the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Leonardo today. Leonardo will be attached permanently to the International Space Station for Shuttle’s final mission STS-133. Watch this video of the MRM 1 which is to be delivered by Shuttle in May. Its sister module MRM 2 was launched to the International Space Station by a Samara Space Center Soyuz rocket in November last year
Go here for a Russian, English language, news report on the NASA, Roscosmos crew transport deal. Thanks to the US government Russia will profit from NASA’s transport needs for years to come, Shuttle extension or no Shuttle extension
Find here a video alleging to be the recent Soyuz TMA 18 docking at the International Space Station
