Russian space program: general information, main provisions, tasks and stages of implementation

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roskosmos" is a domestic company responsible for space flights and the cosmonautics program of the Russian Federation.

Originally part of the Federal Space Agency, the corporation was reorganized on December 28, 2015 by presidential decree. Roscosmos was previously known as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency.

Location

The corporation's office is located in Moscow, and the main command center is in the city of Korolev. The Yu. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center is located in the Star City of the Moscow Region. The launch centers in use are the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (most launches take place there, both manned and unmanned), the Vostochny Cosmodrome under construction in the Amur Region, and Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk Region.

Manual

The current head of the corporation since May2018 is Dmitry Rogozin. In 2015, Roscosmos became the successor of the USSR Ministry of General Mechanical Engineering and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and received the status of a state corporation.

Soviet times

There were no central executive bodies in the Soviet space program. Instead, its organizational structure was multi-centric. Most of all it is customary to talk about the design offices and the council of engineers, and not about the political leadership of this organization. Thus, the creation of a central agency after the collapse of the Soviet Union was a new development. The Russian Space Agency was established on February 25, 1992 by decree of President Boris N. Yeltsin. Yuri Koptev, who previously worked on the design of rockets for a flight to Mars at the NPO. Lavochkin, became the first director of the agency.

In its early years, the agency suffered from a shortage of manpower as powerful design offices struggled to protect their areas of work and survive. For example, the decision to keep Mir in service after 1999 was not made by the agency; this was done by the Board of Shareholders of the Energia Design Bureau.

After the collapse of the USSR

In the 1990s, serious financial problems arose due to a reduction in cash flow, which prompted Roscosmos to improvise and look for other ways to support space programs. This has led the agency to play a leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism.

Mostly futureRussia's space programs were called into question by everyone or were not even considered at all. Although Roskosmos has always had a connection with the Russian aerospace forces, its budget was not part of the country's defense budget. He was still able to operate the Mir space station, even though it was obsolete, and was able to contribute to the International Space Station and continue to carry out other missions in orbit with the help of Soyuz inherited from the USSR and "Progress".

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In March 2004, director Yuri Koptev was replaced by Anatoly Perminov, who previously served as the first commander of the Space Forces. This had a positive impact on the space program of the Russian Federation.

The Russian economy grew during 2005 due to high prices for export resources such as oil and gas, the prospects for future financing in 2006 looked more favorable. This led the State Duma to approve a space agency budget of 305 billion rubles (about $11 billion) for the period from January 2006 to 2015, and total space spending in Russia amounted to about 425 billion rubles over the same time period.. The budget for 2006 reached 25 billion rubles (about $900 million), which is 33% more than the 2005 budget for space activities in Russia. The state program in this area has reached such heights, since both individual industries and the entire economy began to rise from their knees.country.

According to the approved current 10-year budget, the agency's budget will increase by 5-10% per year, providing it with a constant inflow of money. In addition to what was planned, Roscosmos decided to allocate more than 130 billion rubles to its budget through other means, such as investments in industry and the launch of commercial programs. Around the same time, the American Planetary Society entered into a partnership with Roscosmos. Despite such open cooperation between the two powers, some American analysts still often write about Russia's semi-mythical secret space program.

Budget

The federal space budget for 2009 remained unchanged, despite the global economic crisis, and amounted to about 82 billion rubles (2.4 billion US dollars). In 2011, the government spent 115 billion rubles ($3.8 billion) on national space programs.

The main project budget for 2013 amounted to about 128.3 billion rubles. The budget for the entire space program is 169.8 billion rubles. ($5.6 billion). By 2015, the budget amount was increased to 199.2 billion rubles. In the end, she stopped at about this level.

Important Projects

The priorities of the Russian space program include the development of a new family of Angara rockets and new satellites for communication, navigation and Earth remote sensing. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) has beenone of the main priorities, it was allocated its own budget line in the federal space budget. In 2007, GLONASS received 9.9 billion rubles ($360 million), and in accordance with a directive signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in 2008, another 2.6 billion was allocated for its development.

In connection with participation in the creation and financing of the International Space Station, up to 50% of the Russian space budget has been spent on this program since 2009. Some observers noted that this was having a detrimental effect on other aspects of space exploration, given that other powers were spending much less of their overall budgets to maintain their presence in orbit. Nevertheless, Russia's federal space program was gradually recovering at that time.

Improved funding

Despite significant budget increases, legislative and executive attention, positive media coverage, and widespread public support, the Russian space program continues to face a number of challenges. Wages in this industry are low, the average age of workers is high (46 in 2007), and much of the equipment is outdated. On the other hand, a number of firms in the sector have been able to profit from contracts and partnerships with foreign companies. Several new systems, such as new rocket upper stages, have been developed by our scientists in recent years. Investments were made in production lines, and Roscosmos began to pay more attention to training the new generationengineers and technicians, which improved the prospects for the Russian space program.

New leader

On April 29, 2011, Vladimir Popovkin replaced Perminov as director of Roscosmos. Perminov, 65, had no experience as a government official and was criticized after the failed launch of GLONASS in December 2010. Popovkin is the former commander of the Russian space forces and the first deputy minister of defense of Russia.

Reorganization

As a result of a series of security concerns and just before the failure of the Proton-M launch in July 2013, a major reorganization of the Russian space industry was undertaken. The United Rocket and Space Corporation was established by the government in August 2013 as a joint stock company to consolidate the Russian space sector. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the disruption-prone space sector is so worried that government oversight is needed to overcome its problems.

More detailed plans, released in October 2013, called for a re-nationalization of the troubled space industry with sweeping reforms, including a new unified command structure and a reduction in excess capabilities. These are actions that could (and have) led to tens of thousands of layoffs. According to Rogozin, the Russian space sector employs about 250,000 people, whileThe United States only needs 70,000 people to achieve similar results. He said: "Russian space productivity is eight times lower than America's, as different departments duplicate each other's work and operate at about 40% efficiency."

Modernity

According to the 2013 plan, Roskosmos was to act as the federal executive body and contractor for programs to be implemented by the space industry.

In 2016, the state agency was transformed, and Roscosmos became a state corporation.

In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the quality and reliability of space launch vehicles needed to be radically improved to maintain Russia's growing leadership in space. In November 2018, Alexei Kudrin, head of the Russian Financial Audit Agency, called Roscosmos the state enterprise with the biggest losses due to wasteful spending, outright theft and corruption.

Cooperation with NASA

Although Russia has officially announced its decision to join the joint cooperation project with NASA, so far Russia's role in it has been limited to the delivery of the latest and smallest module, and even this has not yet been started. Rogozin publicly challenged the Gateway project's organizational chart, with NASA taking the lead. Given the lion's share of NASA's investment in the project, all partners, except for Roscosmos, have accepted US leadership.

However, domestic experts, including Rogozin,constantly focus on the importance of Russia's space program.

Rogozin's meeting with the head of NASA Bridensteen

Does Russia have reason to demand a major rewrite of the rules, especially given the current political climate between the two countries, the Kremlin's shaky finances, and Roscosmos' ongoing blunders? Maybe not, but on the eve of the meeting with Bridenstine, Rogozin attacked the Americans anyway, warning NASA about the dangers of landing on the moon without Russian participation. Thus, the strategic importance of Russia's lunar space program was emphasized.

"American partners, even after testing their new manned spacecraft, will come to the conclusion that it is impossible to fly independently into lunar orbit, and even more so to land on the lunar surface without a second transport system," Rogozin said.

At the same time, Rogozin emphasized the potential of Russia in the upcoming exploration of the moon.

Future plans

Does the Russian space program exist until 2030? Almost! Over the past few months, Russian specialists have been working on a new concept for lunar exploration, leaving Rogozin optimistic about the future. The idea is to build a small Russian outpost in lunar orbit from two Russian ISS modules that have yet to be launched, and do so as early as 2024. So the Russian space program still has a chance to overtake the Americans.