Champagne corks were popping in Russia last week after the country's first successful launch of an orbiting observatory in the post-Soviet era. Spektr-R, a radio-astronomy satellite, was originally planned in the early 1980s, but its construction was left in limbo by lack of funding when the economy collapsed after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was finally launched on 18 July. On the way back from the launch site, says Yuri Kovalev of the Astro Space Center (ASC) of Moscow's Lebedev Physical Institute, "everyone was smiling like little suns."But then came some more nail-biting. According to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency, the satellite's 10-meter-wide dish, made up of 27 carbon-fiber "petals," began unfurling on 22 July.
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