Russia

What Happen to Used Russian Space Equipment – Make a Bag!

Space industry cost lots of money and attract lot of attention to those who always look ‘up there’ and follow every space mission both US and Russia.  Some of them want a piece of history for their own….  They can!

ISSFront170

everQuest design sells several design bags that use a piece of Soyuz TMA-3 main landing parachute as a material.  If you’re still in doubt, there is a certificate certifies the mission that parachute came from, what date, signed by Mission Pilot.  So you not only get a piece of space history but also cosmonaut signature..

Soyuz_landingSome of these Soyuz was docked at International Space Station as an emergency life boat for up to 6 months.  This particular mission Soyuz TMA-3 was flown during Oct 18, 2003 to Apr 29, 2004 (194 days).  So this is the real deal not some of the “15 second of fame” kind of thing.

This company also sells bag made from America’s Cup sail and iPod nano case mode from iPod Billboard material.  The price is quite high.  But what you’ve got is a piece of history.

Space Collision

000318iridium

Just heard from the news that Iridium Satellite collided with defunct Russian Cosmos satellite creates huge cloud and some 600 space debris.

It is quite a rare event that 2 satellites collided in orbit especially one is the operational US satellite.   Communication relay satellite, Cosmos 2251 which was lunched in 1993 and was out of service more than 10 years while Iridium Satellite provides mobile telephone service globally.

I personally feel this story interesting since my work at Iridium Southeast Asia some time before Iridium LLC went Chapter 7 in 2000.  Then all the asset including satellite constallation were sold to Iridium Satellite LLC with the value about 10% of the original cost.  With its rebranding, the new Iridium service is quite success.