Russian Federal Space Agency

Proton-M with Raduga-1M lifts off Thursday. Credit: Roskosmos

Russia launches first spacecraft of 2010

Published: 2010 Jan. 28

Russia conducted its first space mission of 2010, launching a military communications satellite Thursday. A Proton M rocket with Briz-M upper stage lifted off from Site 81 in Baikonur Cosmodrome, on January 28, 2009, at 03:18 Moscow Time, carrying a Raduga-1M/Globus-1M military communications satellite.

According to the official Russian media, the satellite successfully reached its intended orbit, with the separation from the upper stage occurring at 12:19 Moscow Time on January 28.

The mission was originally expected in July and Aug. 28, 2008, and was later postponed to the Dec. 25-30, 2009, period.

According to the Kommersant newspaper in 2009, the production of at least one Globus satellite was delayed by two years, leading to a litigation of the Russian Ministry of Defense with PO Polyot. According to the publication, the Defense Ministry demanded the return of 79.61 million rubles in overpaid charges and 126.4 million rubles in fines. Only with the mitigation of Vladimir Popovkin, Deputy Minister for Armaments, two sides reached a compromise, according to which PO Polyot owed Ministry of Defense 79.6 million and paid a symbolic 10,000 rubles in fines.

Progress to Deliver Pickles to the ISS

:: 31.01.2010

Progress M-04M which is scheduled for launch from Baikonur on Feb. 3, is to deliver fresh fruits and pickles to the International Space Station, IBMP informs.
The additional food delivery will include 5.5 kg of apples, 4 kg of oranges, 3 kg of grapefruits, and 2.5 kg of pickles.
Earlier in his orbital blog Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev mentioned that the crew doesn’t need much onion and garlic on-board. “What’s most amazing for us all is that onion and garlic is sent (in Progresses). Sometimes we do like it indeed – to taste a morsel of garlic or onion with brown bread.
However, it’s being sent to us in huge amounts, so if we ate a clove of them each meal, we’ll still have some left as ointment, to let our slumbers be pleasant.
Our American partners are joking that our friends on the Earth fear vampires on board, and thus have sent garlic and onion to use them as protective weapons.
Seriously, we would rather have had tomatoes and more apples.”
It looks like the specialists considered Maxim’s opinion.