The State Space Corporation Roscosmos is the domestic company responsible for space flights and the space program of the Russian Federation.
Originally part of the Federal Space Agency, the corporation was transformed on December 28, 2015 by presidential decree. Previously, Roskosmos was known as the Russian Aerospace Agency.
Location
The corporation's office is located in Moscow, and the main command center is in the city of Korolev. The Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yu.A. Gagarin is located in the Star City of the Moscow Region. The launch centers used 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.
Guide
The current head of the corporation since May 2018 is Dmitry Rogozin. In 2015, Roscosmos became the successor to the Ministry of General Engineering of the USSR and the Russian Aerospace Agency and received the status of a state corporation.
Soviet time
In the Soviet space program there were no central executive bodies. Instead, its organizational structure was multicentric. The most common thing is to talk about design bureaus 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 B. N. Yeltsin. Yuri Koptev, who previously was engaged in the design of rockets for flight to Mars in the NGO named after Lavochkina, became the first director of the agency.
In the early years, the agency suffered from a lack of personnel, as powerful design bureaus fought to protect their fields of activity and to survive. For example, the decision to leave Mir in operation 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 maintain space programs. This has led the agency to play a leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism.
Basically, the future space programs of Russia were questioned by everyone or not even considered at all. Although Roscosmos has always had contact with Russian aerospace forces, its budget was not part of the country's defense budget. He could still operate the Mir space station, although 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 the Soyuz inherited from the USSR and "Progress."
Zero
In March 2004, Director Yuri Koptev was replaced by Anatoly Perminov, who had previously served as the first commander of the Space Forces. This had a positive effect 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. As a result, the State Duma approved a space agency budget of 305 billion rubles (about 11 billion US dollars) for the period from January 2006 to 2015, and the total cost of space in Russia amounted to about 425 billion rubles for the same time period.. The budget for 2006 reached 25 billion rubles (about 900 million US dollars), which is 33% more than the 2005 budget allocated for space activities in Russia. The state program in this area has reached such heights, since both individual industries and the whole country began to rise from their knees.
In accordance with the approved 10-year current budget, the agency’s budget will increase by 5–10% per year, providing it with a constant flow of money. In addition to what was planned, Roscosmos decided to send more than 130 billion rubles to its budget by 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 the semi-mythical secret space program of Russia.
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 of 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 Angara rocket family and new spacecraft for communications, navigation, and remote sensing of the Earth. For many years, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) has been one of the main priorities; it has been allocated its own budget line in the federal space budget. In 2007, GLONASS received 9.9 billion rubles (360 million dollars), 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 Russia's space budget has been spent on this program since 2009. Some observers noted that this has a detrimental effect on other aspects of space exploration, given that other powers spent far less on total budgets to maintain their presence in orbit. Nevertheless, the federal space program of Russia was gradually recovering at that time.
Improved financing
Despite a significant increase in the budget, the attention of legislative and executive authorities, positive media coverage and widespread support among the population, the Russian space program continues to face a number of problems. Salaries in this industry are low, the average age of employees is high (46 years in 2007), and most of the equipment is outdated. On the other hand, a number of firms in this sector have been able to profit from contracts and partnerships with foreign companies. Several new systems, such as the new upper stages of the rocket, have been developed by our scientists in recent years. Investments were made in production lines, and Roscosmos began to pay more attention to training a new generation of engineers and technicians, which improved the prospects of the Russian space program.
New leader
On April 29, 2011, Perminov was replaced by Vladimir Popovkin as director of Roscosmos. Perminov, 65, had no experience working as a government official and was criticized after the unsuccessful launch of GLONASS in December 2010. Popovkin is a former commander of the Russian space forces and first deputy minister of defense of Russia.
Reorganization
As a result of a number of security-related problems, and immediately 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 created by the government in August 2013 as a joint stock company to consolidate the Russian space sector. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the disruptive space sector is so worried that government oversight is needed to overcome its problems.
More detailed plans, published in October 2013, required the re-nationalization of the troubled space industry with widespread reforms, including a new unified command structure and a reduction in redundant capabilities. These actions, which could lead (and have led) to tens of thousands of layoffs. According to Rogozin, about 250, 000 people are employed in the Russian space sector, while the United States only needs 70, 000 to achieve similar results. He said: "Russian space productivity is eight times lower than that of America, since the various departments duplicate each other's work and work with an efficiency of about 40%."
Modernity
In accordance with the 2013 plan, Roscosmos was to act as the federal executive body and contracting organization for programs that should 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 said that it was necessary to radically improve the quality and reliability of space launch vehicles in order to maintain Russia's increasingly strengthening leadership in space. In November 2018, Alexei Kudrin, head of the Russian Financial Audit Agency, called Roscosmos a state-owned enterprise with the largest losses due to wasteful expenses, obvious theft and corruption.
Collaboration with NASA
Although Russia officially announced its decision to join the joint NASA collaboration project, so far the role of Russia in it has been limited to supplying the very last and smallest module, and even this has not yet begun. Rogozin publicly challenged the organizational design of the gateway project, where NASA took the lead. Given the lion's share of NASA's investment in the project, all partners except Roskosmos accepted US leadership.
However, domestic experts, including Rogozin, constantly focus on the importance of Russia's space program.
Rogozin meeting with NASA head Bridensteen
Does Russia have any reason to demand a serious rewrite of the rules, especially given the current political climate between the two countries, the precarious finances of the Kremlin and the continued misses in Roscosmos? Maybe not, but on the eve of the meeting with Bridensteen, Rogozin still criticized the Americans, warning NASA about the dangers of landing on the moon without the participation of Russia. Thus, the strategic importance of the lunar space program of Russia was emphasized.
“American partners, even after testing their new manned spacecraft, will come to the conclusion that it’s impossible to fly to the lunar orbit independently, and even more so to land on the lunar surface, ” Rogozin said.
At the same time, Rogozin emphasized Russia's potential in the upcoming exploration of the moon.
