The Russian Academy of Sciences and Federal Space Agency, together with the participation of many international organizations, worked toward the launch of the RadioAstron orbiting space observatory with its onboard 10-m reflector radio telescope from the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 18, 2011. Together with some of the largest ground-based radio telescopes and a set of stations for tracking, collecting, and reducing the data obtained, this space radio telescope forms a multi-antenna groundspace radio interferometer with extremely long baselines, making it possible for the first time to study various objects in the Universe with angular resolutions a million times better than is possible with the human eye. The project is targeted at systematic studies of compact radio-emitting sources and their dynamics. Objects to be studied include supermassive black holes, accretion disks, and relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei, stellar-mass black holes, neutron stars and hypothetical quark stars, regions of formation of stars and planetary systems in our and other galaxies, interplanetary and interstellar plasma, and the gravitational field of the Earth. The results of ground-based and inflight tests of the space radio telescope carried out in both autonomous and ground-space interferometric regimes are reported. The derived characteristics are in agreement with the main requirements of the project. The astrophysical science program has begun.

We present an approach to testing the gravitational redshift effect using the RadioAstron satellite. The experiment is based on a modification of the Gravity Probe A scheme of nonrelativistic Doppler compensation and benefits from the highly eccentric orbit and ultra-stable atomic hydrogen maser frequency standard of the RadioAstron satellite. Using the presented techniques we expect to reach an accuracy of the gravitational redshift test of order 10 −5 , a magnitude better than that of Gravity Probe A. Data processing is ongoing, our preliminary results agree with the validity of the Einstein Equivalence Principle.

A survey of 27 galactic star-forming regions in the 6 K −5 K , 5 K − 4 K , and 8 K − 7 K CH 3 CN lines at 110, 92, and 147 GHz, respectively, was made. Twenty-five sources were detected at 110 GHz, nineteen at 92 GHz, and three at 147 GHz. The strongest CH 3 CN emission arise in hot cores in the regions of massive star formation. CH 3 CN abundance in these objects is larger than 10 −9 due to grain mantle evaporation. Weaker CH 3 CN lines were found in a number of sources. They may arise either in warm (30-50 K) dense (10 5 -10 7 cm −3 ) clouds, or in hot regions accompanied by colder gas.

We present results of single‐dish and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of a strong 1000‐Jy OH maser flare in the star‐forming region W75N. The flare was first seen in 2003, and persisted for at least four years. Three major spectral features were present during the whole period of observations, with N1 being the strongest initially and N2 becoming stronger later. The large velocity range of 43 km s−1 observed during the flare is not kinematic in origin, but is caused by the Zeeman splitting in the strong magnetic field generated by the central star. The maps and proper motion of the maser spots were monitored over eight epochs, between 1998 and 2006, using the European VLBI Network (EVN) supplemented by published Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA) data. Mapping of the maser spots has shown that all the new spectral features of the flare were located close to the ultracompact H ii region VLA2, while the quiescent maser features were found near VLA1. We suggest that the flare was initiated by a disturbance, probably an magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shock launched from the massive young star, also responsible for the excitation of the ultracompact H ii region. The proper motion of the majority of the maser spots was not detected at 1665 and 1667 MHz with the upper limit of several km s−1. The only positive detection of the proper motion was made for the two brightest flare features N1 and N2. The spot N2 is moving along the filamentary spot N3, with a tangential velocity of 14 km s−1. This motion is caused by the MHD shock propagating along the filament. The measured low upper limit for the velocity of OH maser spots is consistent with models of a slowly rotating Keplerian disc rather than with outflows, jets or expanding shells.

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