Russian cargo ship bound for the ISS explodes after launch from Kazakhstan

A Russian cargo ship headed for the International Space Station has exploded shortly after launch from Kazakhstan. The unmanned supply ship was carrying rocket fuel, food, water and a new spacesuit and contact was lost six minutes after take-off and two minutes before it was due to arrive in orbit.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 2 December 2016.

Russia's Roscosmos space agency has revealed that the incident occurred "about 190km (118 miles) above the rugged, uninhabited, mountainous territory of the Republic of Tyva and most of the fragments were burned in the dense layers of the atmosphere".
The cargo ship had been scheduled to arrive at the ISS on Saturday but, its non arrival "not affect the normal operations of the ISS systems and the subsistence of the station's crew".
Incidentally, this incident is the second failed launch of a Progress cargo ship within two years. In April 2015 a Progress ship disintegrated as it fell to Earth - this failure was blamed on a problem with a Soyuz rocket. As a result of that Russia suspended all space travel for nearly three months and the astronauts in ISS were forced to remain there for an extra month.
Russia sends at least three such supply ships every year to ISS and they plummet back to Earth after delivering the stores and burn up in the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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Russian Soyuz space capsule back on Earth with three astronauts from the ISS

A Russian Soyuz space capsule has brought back three astronauts from the ISS and has landed in Kazakhstan. The three astronauts who have come back to Earth are from the United States, Japan and Russia and they are back from a 115-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 31 October 2016.

The landing happened near Dzhezkazgan on the treeless Central Asian steppes. The three who returned are Kate Rubins of NASA, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia. They were removed from the capsule and then sat on the steppes still in their capsule seats as they gradually readjusted to the forces of gravity after nearly four months in weightless conditions. Subsequently, they were shifted to a nearby medical tent for initial examination.
With their return, the three who remain on the ISS are Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhykov of Russia and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough. They have arrived on October 22 after a two-day voyage.
Incidentally, the trip back to Earth was much quicker for the three returnees today - it took about 3 1/2 hours from undocking until landing. It landed upright and that made the extraction of the astronauts quicker than when capsules land on their sides.


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This has been reported in space.com dated 23 March 2015.

The three are American astronaut Scott Kelly of NASA and two cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of Russia – they will blast off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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#YelenaSerova #ISS #NASA #BarryWilmore #Kazakhstan #Soyuz The three astronauts including Yelena Serova, the first female Russian cosmonaut to have spent time on the ISS, have returned to Earth after a six-month stint in space as reported in news.sky.com dated 12 March 2015.
The other two are Alexander Samokutyaev of Russia and Barry Wilmore of America – they landed in Kazakhstan after spending 167 days on the International Space Station and travelling 70 million miles around the planet.
NASA has indicated that after successfully undocking, the capsule enjoyed a few hours of free flight and, communication links between the capsule and Earth were lost for a brief period. Anyway, the Soyuz landed safely under parachute on a landing site located southeast of Dzhezkazgan.
With their return, three astronauts now remain on the Space Station and they will be joined by more crew members on March 27. This would be a historic mission because two of them astronauts would remain on board for a whole year so that scientists can assess the impact of long-term missions on humans.
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Sarah Brightman scheduled to visit the International Space Station for 10 days

#internationalspacestation #Baikonur #Soyuzrocket #Reignwood #Kazakhstan Yes, it is now known that the ISS would soon get a British visitor – she will be Sarah Brightman, a British soprano and she would be there for a period of ten days as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 26 February 2015.
It is understood that on Septemvber1, Sarah Brightman, the big haired Phantom Of The Opera star, would blast off in a mighty Soyuz FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome deep in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan.
Along with her on board the space capsule would be three highly-trained cosmonauts and all of them would be bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
42-year-old Colonel Sergei Volkov will be commander and he would be leading his third mission into space. He will be accompanied by 35-year-old Danish Flight Engineer Andreas Mogensen, the holder of a doctorate in engineering from the University of Texas.
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Mystery sleeping sickness strikes Kalachi village in Kazakhstan

#Kazakhstan It is an unexplained phenomenon – there are reports of a mysterious sleeping epidemic from the Kalachi village in north Kazakhstan in which residents of a village known as Sleepy Hollow doze off for days at a time. Kalachi is 276 miles from Kazakh capital Astana.
In the opinion of doctors, this is caused by excessive fluid in the brain but they are not able to pinpoint the cause of the condition. It has affected residents for nearly four years. As per the locals, this strange sleeping disorder is gradually worsening with nearly 14 per cent of the town’s 600 residents having been affected.
Those affected complain of being dizzy, unable to stand, fatigued and with memory problems and some have also reported suffering from vivid hallucinations.
Doctors have already ruled out any virus attack or bacterial infections like meningitis and scientists are also stumped – they have also not been able to find any chemicals in the soil or water that might be responsible for the sleeping sickness.
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