Essential vocabulary:

1. to carry out – проводить, выполнять

2. search- поиск

3. to investigate– обнаруживать, открывать

4. to count- считать

5. terrestrial- земной

6. revolution- оборот

7. duration- продолжительность

8. to coincide- совпадать

9. supervision– контроль, детальное рассмотрение

10. to testify- свидетельствовать

11. to observe- наблюдать

12. site- место

13. vegetation- растительность

14. forecast– прогноз, показание

15. waterpairs– частицы воды (молекулы)

16. to remind– напоминать,

17. droughty- засушливый

18. polar- полярный

19. similar- похожий

20. to transfer– передавать

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What planet is considered to have any form of a life?

2. What distance does Mars follow the Earth?

3. How have the astronomers noted that there can be any form of a life on Mars?

4. Does the atmosphere pf a planet contain any substances for providing of a life?

5. Who was the first to declare that there is something on a surface of Mars?

6. What American devices have made landing on a surface of a planet?

7. Do you believe that Mars contains any form of a life? Is it similar to a terrestrial one?

II. Find the English equivalents of the following phrases in the text:

• проводить различные эксперименты

• в поисках жизни

• наполовину меньше земного

• на поверхности планеты

• засушливые зоны

• на борту космического корабля

• не похожий на земной

• примитивная форма

• содержать (в себе) малое количество

• продолжительность дня

• совпадать с чем-либо

• один оборот

• сезонные изменения

• полярные (северные) зоны

• обнаруживать (открывать) что-либо

III. Make up your own sentences using the phrases listed above.

IV. Look at the words listed below. Which word is the odd one?

1. a) to investigate b) to search c) to discover d) to change

2. a) to find b) to observe c) to count d) to search

3. a) reminding b) forecast c) transition d) transfer

4. a) observer b) scientist c) investigator d) discovery

5. a) Mars b) Jupiter c) Solar d) Venus

6. a) universe b) ground c) space d) galaxy

7. a) device b) microorganism c) vehicle d) equipment

8. a) landing b) taking off c) reminding d) flight

Energia

Energia is also called RKK Energia formerly OKB-1 Russian aerospace company that is a major producer of spacecraft, launch vehicles, rocket stages, and missiles. It built the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile and the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and pioneered the development and operation of Soviet space stations including the Salyut series and Mir. Its headquarters are in the Moscow suburb of Korolev (formerly Kaliningrad).

Energia serves as a main contractor for the International Space Station (ISS). It provided the service module Zvezda, the station's control centre and living quarters during the initial stage of human occupancy. Other primary products include the Block DM upper stage and the Yamal communications satellite system. The company, which employs more than 20,000 people, comprises a main design bureau and subordinate enterprises including an experimental plant in Korolev, the Volga design bureau in Samara, and the Primorsk Scientific-Technological Center. It also maintains a branch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch centre in Kazakhstan.

Energia's history is closely tied to the career of rocket designer Sergey P. Korolyov, widely recognized as the founder of the Soviet space program and its guiding genius until his death in 1966. The company traces its origin to a May 1946 decree that established the Soviet Union's missile and space programs. Under the watchful eye of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the Soviet armaments industry founded NII-88 (Scientific-Research Institute 88) in Kaliningrad to direct all work on long-range missiles. Assigned to lead Department 3, one of several departments within the institute, was Korolyov, who had studied aeronautical engineering under the aircraft designer Andrey N. Tupolev and helped develop the Soviet Union's first liquid-propellant rockets in the early 1930s.

Korolyov's department was initially assigned to build improved versions of the German V-2 missile, but by the early 1950s it began to develop its own ballistic missiles including the R-2 (U.S. Department of Defense code name SS-2) and R-5M (SS-3). In 1950 the department was upgraded to an experimental design bureau (OKB), and in 1956 it formally separated from NII-88 and became the independent OKB-1.

The most important work of the design bureau in the 1950s was the creation of the R-7 (SS-6), the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, which was successfully launched in August 1957. Two months later, on October 4, a modified R-7 placed the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into Earth orbit, inaugurating the space era. Korolyov was the primary force behind the launch, having convinced a reluctant Soviet leadership to fund the effort. Over the next decade his design bureau was responsible for establishing the U.S.S.R.'s commanding early lead in the space race with the United States. Its successes included the launches of the first probes—Luna 2 and 3—to reach the Moon, in 1959; the Vostok spacecraft that carried the first human—Yury A. Gagarin—into space in 1961 and the first woman—Valentina Tereshkova—into space in 1963; the Voskhod spacecraft in which Vladimir M. Komarov, Konstantin P. Feoktistov, and Boris B. Yegorov conducted the first multiperson spaceflight in 1964 and from which Aleksey A. Leonov took the first space walk in 1965; and the first spacecraft—Venera 3—to impact on another planet (Venus), in 1965.

The organization's most expensive space project in the 1960s was the secret N1-L3 program, designed to compete with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Apollo program to land humans on the Moon. The same year, the government created the NPO Energia (Scientific and Production Association Energia) conglomerate, with the former OKB-1 at its centre, to play a leading role in the Soviet piloted space program. In the 1970s and '80s, Energia was the prime contractor for the development of the Energia-Buran reusable space system, a combination of launch vehicle (Energia) and winged orbiter (Buran). Despite two successful launches—one of the launch vehicle in 1987 and another of the entire system, including an unmanned, fully automated orbiting and landing of the Buran orbiter, in 1988—funding for the program was canceled in the early 1990s due to severe financial problems accompanying the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Energia's other main work during the 1970s and early '80s focused on the Soviet Union's early generation of space stations, a series of seven spacecraft called Salyut. In 1971 it built and launched its first Salyut, the world's first space station. After recovering from a spate of failures, Energia mounted an unprecedented run of successful missions to the advanced Salyut 6 and 7 stations beginning in the late 1970s. These stations were supplied by improved versions of Soyuz ferry spacecraft and Progress unmanned cargo tankers. A total of 26 crews, including several international ones, visited the two stations, setting consecutive records for endurance in space.

In 1986 Energia launched the core module for the Mir space station, which it subsequently expanded with a series of science and service modules. For 10 years, from 1989 to 1999, the firm kept the station continuously manned, an unequalled achievement. Building on its experience with Mir, Energia signed on in the early 1990s as the main contractor for the Russian portion of the ISS. Its role, however, was gradually reduced, owing partly to stiff competition from another Russian company, Khrunichev, which assumed responsibility for the design and manufacture of a number of ISS modules. In April 1994 Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed an order renaming the firm RKK Energia (Rocket-Space Corporation Energia) and partially privatizing the company.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Energia vigorously pursued international cooperative efforts. Successful ventures included partnerships with Sea Launch and International Launch Services, two multinational satellite launching services to which Energia provided its Block DM upper stage for boosting payloads to geostationary orbit. The company achieved some notoriety in the late 1990s when it sought commercial customers for Mir in order to keep its single most important asset in operation. Continued financial support did not materialize, however, and Energia disposed of Mir in a guided reentry in 2001.