Space Exploration - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 1 - 6 of 12

NASA’s Oldest Active Astronaut, Two Russian Cosmonauts, Land in Kazakhstan

Accompanied by two Russian cosmonauts, NASA astronaut Donald Pettit marked his 70th birthday on Sunday with a parachute-supported landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan after a journey back to Earth from the International Space Station. A Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft carrying Pettit, as well as cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, touched down at 6:20 a.m. local time southeast of Zhezkazgan, a city in Kazakhstan’s central Ulytau region. The three men had launched from the Russia-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docked at the station on Sept. 11 last year, spending a total of 220 days in space. “Rehabilitation and a meeting with loved ones lie ahead!” Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said on Telegram. Photographs and video of the landing showed Pettit giving a thumbs-up as support team members carried him away from the spacecraft. Ovchinin and Vagner were shown wrapped in blankets and smiling broadly. Pettit, Ovchinin and Vagner orbited the Earth 3,520 times and traveled 93.3 million miles during their mission, according to NASA. It was Pettit’s fourth spaceflight and he has spent a total of 590 days in orbit. Ovchinin, also a four-time spaceflight traveler, has spent just five days longer than Pettit in space. Vagner has logged 416 days in space on his two trips. While American John Glenn became the oldest person to go to space in 1998 at age 77, Pettit is NASA’s oldest active astronaut. During his time on the space station, Pettit researched how to enhance in-orbit metal 3D printing capabilities, advance water sanitization technologies, explore plant growth under varying water conditions, and investigate fire behavior in microgravity, NASA said. His photography also attracted followers back on Earth. “Mother Earth, I am coming home,” Pettit posted on X on Saturday.

Space Exploration Baikonur Arrest

Three Spaniards, One Australian Detained at Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome in a remote part of Kazakhstan has long held allure for people – trespassers included - who are intrigued by its storied role as a facility that pioneered early space exploration and remains a vital part of Russia’s space program. Three Spanish citizens and one Australian were detained while trying to get into a restricted area housing old space infrastructure at Baikonur on Tuesday night, reported RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency. It cited an unidentified source. Another Russian media organization, Tass, later reported that the Spaniards had been released and that the Spanish embassy in Astana was working to help them. Tass did not report on the status of the Australian. The attempted break-in at the Russian-run base occurred in the area of the disused assembly and refueling complex of the Buran spacecraft, a space shuttle that was developed in the 1970s and 1980s by the Soviet Union, whose leaders were concerned that the U.S. space shuttle program posed a possible military threat. The Buran flew once in 1988, but the program was abandoned because of high costs and a lack of purpose. In 2022, British YouTuber Benjamin Rich documented his trip to Baikonur, where he was also detained by Russian authorities. The journey involved walking with a companion for many hours across the desert, shielding themselves from the sun with umbrellas. They were able to enter the decrepit Buran hangar and see the space shuttle but got caught by guards as they were leaving the facility. Rich said he and his companion paid a fine of $50 each and were released. Last year, RIA Novosti reported that two French citizens tried to reach Baikonur by the same method, but one died of dehydration during the arduous journey on foot. The first man to go into space, Yuri Gagarin, and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which is run by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, under an agreement with the Kazakh government. Russia continues to launch spacecraft from there, sometimes in joint missions with NASA. The first launch from Baikonur in 2025 occurred on Feb. 28, when a Soyuz rocket hoisted a Russian spacecraft carrying three tons of food, fuel and other supplies that were delivered to the International Space Station.

Baikonur Art and Culture Photography Space Exploration International Space Station Steppe

Grounding the Stars: Andrew McConnell’s Lens on Space and the Steppe

Award-winning photographer and filmmaker Andrew McConnell has dedicated his career to illuminating the world’s overlooked regions and underreported stories. He has a distinctive ability to examine major global issues and events from fresh, often unexpected perspectives. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances are the focus of McConnell’s lens. From conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the hidden lives of the Sahrawi people in Western Sahara, his work frequently highlights human endurance in challenging environments. His new book, Some Worlds Have Two Suns, takes a different direction. It explores the vast, remote Kazakh Steppe, where the sparse local population coexists with the high-tech world of space travel. The project began in 2014 after he filmed his documentary Gaza. While decompressing at home in Ireland, he watched a BBC documentary about a Soyuz spacecraft landing in the Kazakh Steppe. The stark contrast between destruction and human achievement struck him. “I turned to my parents and said, ‘I’m gonna go and see that.’” That moment sparked an eight-year journey documenting the Russian ground crews recovering astronauts and the communities living beneath these celestial homecomings. TCA: You visited the Kazakh Steppe multiple times to document the Soyuz landings. How many trips did you make and what were the challenges of reaching such a remote location? Andrew: I probably made a dozen. I would join the ground crew in Karaganda, which is not far from Astana, and from there they head out to the Steppe, and depending on whether it's winter or summer they have different vehicles for either one. In summer, the Steppe is fine to drive on, so they have four by fours and we head out and set up camp the day before the Soyuz arrives. They know the exact time the Soyuz will land, right down to the second, and it always goes to the same location, which is a group of tombs. You can see those in the book, the two horsemen beside these tombs. These are old nomadic burial tombs, maybe 300 years old, so that, initially, was very interesting to me… you know, what are these? The Steppe is this unending boundless void of nothingness, just flat grassland. At first, as a photographer, it was quite underwhelming because visually, how do you make that interesting? But here were these tombs in the middle of nowhere and it was instantly fascinating. That was always the base camp. I don’t know if that’s where Rocosmos aimed Soyuz, but that’s where it came into the atmosphere every time I saw it. It would enter the atmosphere above these tombs. The parachute deploys and then it depends on the wind because they can drift for 20 kilometers. A couple of times it was a windless day, and the Soyuz dropped within sight of these tombs. I had a fantasy that it would drop in the middle of it. [caption id="attachment_28250" align="aligncenter" width="2000"] Nomadic burial tombs, Soyuz landing zone, Kazakhstan, 2018; image: Andrew McConnell[/caption] TCA: What shifted your focus from the...

Space Exploration Mongolia Government Bilateral Cooperation Foreign Cooperation

First Kazakh Satellite for Mongolia

During Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s visit to Mongolia on October 29, Kazakhstan and Mongolia signed a landmark agreement to jointly develop an Earth remote sensing satellite. This collaboration will allow each country to independently control the satellite, providing both with real-time data to monitor natural resources and advance agricultural development. At the signing ceremony, Zhaslan Madiyev, Kazakhstan's Minister of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry, commented: "This is the first export of a Kazakh satellite in the country's history. Fully developed by Kazakh engineers, the satellite will be adapted to Mongolia's needs, strengthening the regional satellite infrastructure and highlighting Kazakhstan's growing potential in space technology." Remote sensing technologies will allow both countries to monitor land conditions, manage water resources, and analyze environmental changes more effectively. The National Space Center of Kazakhstan will lead the project, working closely with Mongolian engineers. Throughout the initiative, Kazakh specialists will provide training to their Mongolian counterparts.

Space Exploration Science Legislation

Uzbekistan Joins International Agreement on Space Exploration

On October 10, President Shavat Mirziyoyev signed a law sealing Uzbekistan's agreement on the activities of states on the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies. The Outer Space Treaty was signed on January 27, 1967, by London, Moscow, and Washington. Since then, 115 countries have joined this agreement, and a further 22 have yet to ratify it. According to the CIS countries' rules, the Interstate Space Council chair is transferred among the participating countries in alphabetical order. Following Tajikistan, Uzbekistan will take the lead from 2024 to 2025. To this end, the Uzbekkosmos agency has announced a series of events in celebration of World Space Week, scheduled to take place in Uzbekistan in collaboration with NASA. This global event, commemorated in nearly 100 countries, was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1999 in recognition of the importance of space exploration.

NASA Space Exploration Exhibition

Uzbekkosmos and NASA Unite for World Space Week Celebrations in Uzbekistan

The Uzbekkosmos agency has announced a series of events in celebration of World Space Week, which will take place in Uzbekistan from October 4 to 10. This global event, commemorated in nearly 100 countries, was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1999, recognizing the importance of space exploration. As part of the World Space Week festivities, Uzbekkosmos is launching several major initiatives. A key highlight is a special exhibition on space history at the Tashkent City Mall Trade and Entertainment Center, which will open its doors on October 4. In addition, on October 5 and 6, Uzbekkosmos, in collaboration with NASA, will host the NASA Space Apps Challenge 2024 hackathon. This event will take place at the Turin Polytechnic University in Tashkent, where over 200 young innovators, organized into approximately 40 teams, will showcase their creative projects.