http://www.russodaily.com/index.html Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST en-us Russia's Bion-M1 biological research satellite, which recently carried rodents, microorganisms and plants on a month-long space flight, successfully accomplished its mission, an official said on Wednesday, despite the death of most of the animals on board. "The spacecraft did not show any noticeable failures and has accomplished its program in full," said Vladimir Sychev, deputy director o]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST For decades, Landsat satellites have documented the desiccation of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Once one of the largest seas in the world, it shrunk to a tenth of its original volume after Russia diverted its feeder rivers in the 1960s. Scientists studying the Aral Sea's changing ecology and retreating shoreline have looked to Landsat - and a new feature of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission ]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST SPUTNIX has been granted has been granted a license by the Russian Federal Space Agency for engaging in space activity, namely: creating and modernizing small automatic space vehicles for scientific and commercial purposes. The open-ended license #1749K, issued to the Company by Order #197 of 18 April 2013 based on a decision by the Federal Space Agency, confirms that SPUTNIX conforms to t]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano left for Baikonur, Kazakhstan, his last stop before heading to the International Space Station on 28 May. His launch on a Soyuz rocket will be the culmination of more than two years of preparation that has seen Luca training in Russia, Canada, Japan, Europe and the US at facilities of the Station partners. Luca and his crewmates, cosmonaut commander Fyodo]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST A flash drive with stress-relief software for crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) will be taken to space by Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin soon. The software was designed by the Russian Union of Nature Photographers, with the assistance of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament. According to Oleg Panteleyev, who along with other mem]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST Russia's Emergencies Ministry has finalized deployment of a space monitoring system to help ensuring prompt response to emergency situations in the country, it said on Thursday. "We have created and are expanding a system of space monitoring of emergency situations which provides real-time data on the conditions of potentially dangerous facilities or areas in high-risk zones," the ministry]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket will blast off on Tuesday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to put a French telecommunications satellite into orbit, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said. "The launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket with W3D satellite is scheduled for 20:02 [4:02 p.m. GMT] on Tuesday," the spokesman said. He added that the separation of th]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST In February, a speeding asteroid slammed into our atmosphere and exploded high over Russia's Ural region, injuring hundreds and causing millions of euros of damage. What should we do if we have a similar - or even bigger - strike in the future? Of the more than 600 000 known asteroids in our Solar System, almost 10 000 are classified as near-Earth objects, or NEOs, because their orbits bri]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST The launch of Russia's new Angara carrier rocket has been delayed by at least a year, Defense Ministry officials said on Monday. The light-class Angara is to be launched in mid-2014 and its heavy-class version toward the end of the same year, Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said. The light-class Angara was previously due to be launched in 2013. Deputy Defense Minister Col.]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST Many scientists have thought that dinosaur predecessors missed the race to fill habitats emptied when nine out of 10 species disappeared during the Earth's largest mass extinction, approximately 252 million years ago. The thinking was based on fossil records from sites in South Africa and southwest Russia. It turns out that scientists may have been looking for the starting line in the wron]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Monday it has reached an agreement with US-based Space Adventures Ltd. company to proceed with the plans to put British singer Sarah Brightman on a space flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2015. "The sides will discuss in the near future the implementation of this project, including Sarah Brightman's preparation for the flight]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST More and more private companies are now making suggestions to tourists to become cosmonauts and visit the Earth's orbit. Specialists say though that full-scale space flights are out of the question here. The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos remains the monopolist in this field. A Japanese journalist, Toyohiro Akiyama, gave a start to space tourism. In the early 90s of the last centur]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST An ultimate goal in the field of carbon nanotube research is to synthesise single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with controlled chiralities. Twenty years after the discovery of SWNTs, scientists from Aalto University in Finland, A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute RAS in Russia and the Center for Electron Nanoscopy of Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have managed to control chirality]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST NASA has signed a $424 million modification to its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for full crew transportation services to the International Space Station in 2016 with return and rescue services extending through June 2017. NASA is facilitating development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cos]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST Predecessors to dinosaurs missed the race to fill habitats emptied when nine out of 10 species disappeared during Earth's largest mass extinction 252 million years ago. Or did they? That thinking was based on fossil records from sites in South Africa and southwest Russia. It turns out, however, that scientists may have been looking in the wrong places. Newly discovered fossils from 1]]> Fri, 24 MAY 2013 11:54:39 AEST