Spaceflight Vol 60 No 11 – November 2018

So you want to be a Cosmonaut?
Tony Quine has been quietly following the latest recruitment drive for Russian cosmonauts with the help of Tatiana Drozhzhova, who provides an insightful description of what’s involved in the selection process – more rigorous than any training programme in the West.

OK, so why don’t we just rent a rocket
The Editor considers the implications of two seminal announcements from SpaceX – that a Japanese billionaire has made a “substantial” down-payment for a circumlunar fly-by aboard the Big Falcon Rocket, and that CEO Gwynn Shotwell is offering to put weapons in space for the US military..

Rumble in the Jungle
Interplanetary podcast host Matt Russell visits the Kourou space complex in French Guiana. Currently providing launch facilities for ESA’s Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega flights, the site will also support Vega-C from 2019 and Ariane 6, anticipated to be flying by 2020.

Apollo programmer
Reflecting on former MIT software whizz-kid Don Eyles’ recent book Sunburst and Luminary, Fabrizio Bernardini, FBIS explores the technology surrounding the Apollo Guidance Computer and its implications for our lives today.

Behind the news
US commercial astronauts named

Opinion

ISS Report
9 August – 8 September 2018

Multi-media
The latest space-related books, games, videos

Satellite Digest
550 – August 2018

Society news / Diary
What’s happened/ What’s coming up