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On 2 July, a Proton-M transport rocket, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, failed a minute after lift-off. Over the past two and a half years, this is the seventh failed Russian space launch. See our infographic for the specifications of the Proton-M rocket. The Proton-M heavy-duty Launch Vehicle (LV) is designed to launch an unmanned spacecraft into Earth orbit and then into space. The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre developed the vehicle, which Roskosmos uses to launch Russian and foreign government and commercial spacecraft. Proton-M is the workhorse of the Russian space programme; at present, it’s carrying the GLONASS satellite system and Ekpress communications satellites, which will provide coverage all over Russia. Read more >> For now, Proton-M launches are on hold, after two or three days, it’ll be clear what happened to the rocket. Indeed, it’s a fairly straightforward and well-proven piece of equipment. A space programme source said, “It’s clear that it wasn’t a glitch with the rocket; it was human error”.
On the possible causes of the Proton accident >>
Other Russian space failures in 2005-13 >>
2 July 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://ria.ru/infografika/20130702/947036250.html
http://en.ria.ru/infographics/20130702/182009409/Proton-Carrier-Rocket.html
Click here for more on the Proton-M Baikonur launch failure
Voices from Russia 
Russia and Iran to Cooperate in Space
Tags: Ali Akbar Salehi, cosmonautics, Iran, Iranian space programme, John McCain, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Iran), Moscow, political commentary, politics, Republican, right-wing, Russia, Russian, Russian space programme, satellite, satellites, Sergei Lavrov, space, space exploration, United States, USA
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Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told a press conference in Moscow that Russia and Iran would cooperate in cosmonautics. When answering a question from VOR, Salehi said that these plans were in a communiqué issued following the meeting of an intergovernmental commission in Moscow. Salehi emphasised that Iran is the only one of 57 Islamic countries that has the resources to independently produce and launch space satellites. He expressed his hope that cooperation with Russia would help Iran advance in outer space.
12 February 2013
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_02_12/Russia-Iran-to-cooperate-in-space-industry/
Editor’s Note:
This, along with Foreign Minister Lavrov’s recent statement that Western sanctions against Iran were counterproductive are signs that Russia has given Iran tacit guarantees and that all talk of attacking Iran is arrant bullshit. The US Republican Party is chock full of it, especially John McCain. These Russian (and Chinese) assurances give Iran protection against any Western assault (including any strike from the West’s client state, Israel). Anything that you hear on such sources such as Fox News, the National Review, or the Washington Times are empty chattering words… it’s nothing but vacuous sabre-rattling with nothing behind it.
Yet, the bubbas will eat it all up… Orthodox people should reflect on the fact that Potapov, Rod Dreher, Terrence Mattingly, and Alexander Webster (along with their Stepin Fetchit Paffhausen) are part of the godless neoliberal American propaganda machine and act accordingly. We shouldn’t allow such Sergianist trash to set the agenda amongst us…
BMD