|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Russian Space Chief: Space Program Slowly Regains Shape
By Yuri Karash
Moscow Contributing Correspondent
posted: 07:00 am ET
15 June 2001
|
MOSCOW -- Russia's space program faces many economic challenges but there are indications the program's technical and financial health is improving, according to Yuri Koptev, General Director of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos). Last year was especially good for the program as Russia made 34 out of 79 launches worldwide, he said. "These launches enabled Russia to maintain cooperation among space hardware manufacturers and to develop cosmodrome and flight control facilities infrastructure," Koptev said. That accomplishment came despite a sharp decrease of government support for Russian space activities, which has been a huge problem in Russia during the past ten years. According to Koptev, since 1989 the Russian space budget has decreased 18 times. To make up for the difference, Russian space managers have had to actively search for other sources of revenue. "The state has allocated $160 million for the Russian civil space activities this year," said Koptev. "But the industry managed to get orders from different clients for $826 million. At the same time there is a tendency to increase budget financing of the space program." In order to attract private investors to the national space industry, 26 percent of the space enterprises became stock-holding societies. However, the state still holds a control or at least a blocking stock package at each of these enterprises.Last year RSC Energia, the leading Russian space enterprise which develops all Russian manned spacecraft and space stations, generated 379 million rubles revenue (approximately $12.6 million). The situation with the launch pads at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan doesn't seem to be gloomy either, according to Koptev, although not everything is perfect. "During the years since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Baikonur infrastructure has degraded," admitted Koptev. "We have lost the Energia/Buran launch complex, in particular." "However, we have also developed an infrastructure that never existed in Baikonur during the Soviet Union," he said, "particularly a special facility with a high degree of the vacuum purity inside it." It would be impossible to prepare foreign satellites for the launches from Baikonur without such a facility, Koptev said.
1 2 | >> Continue with this story >
|
|
|
|
|
