[FPSPACE] Russian space science missions?

[Larry Klaes]

At 06:06 PM 11/19/2000 -0500, Dwayne Allen Day wrote:

[snip]

>Does anybody know anything more on the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma satellite
>deal?  Specifically, was the agreement that ESA would provide the
>instruments and Russia the spacecraft bus and launch vehicle?

You may find the information you seek here:

http://hea-www.harvard.edu/SXG/sxg.shtml


>It just hit me that we hardly hear anything about Russian unmanned space
>science plans anymore.  Is there anything else in the works?  Planetary
>missions would appear to be too costly, but do the Russians have any plans
>for observatory missions?

Does anyone know what happened to the fully built and
ready to go Venera probes that were put up for sale circa
1992 for the incredibly low price of just $3 million in
USA dollars?  

Could the Russians use them to revive their glorious Venus 
exploration program again?  Almost twenty years later and they 
are still the only ones who have ever taken actual optical 
images of that planet's surface.  

I would also love to see a Venus balloon probe that could
image large swaths of the surface from low altitude.

Larry