Status of the Russian space program


Recommended Posts

The recent failures bring up questions about the Russian space program which in western public opinion has, guided by the mainstream media, been viewed in generally positive terms. Today, while reading through PRAVDA, I ran into this article which paints a rather contrary, and depressing, view from the inside -

PRAVDA....

Russia wastes billions in space

>

>

Konstantin Kreidenko, an expert with Glonass Herald magazine, believes that the Russian space industry is outdated.

"All these problems take place because of the mistakes made by previous administrators of the industry. All technical malfunctions occur on the level of rockets and their components, not on the level of spacecraft. This is not a surprise at all because the rockets have not been replaced for years, they were only modernized. This is the core of the problem," he said.

Igor Lisov, an expert with News of the Space Industry magazine, shares a similar point of view.

"The crisis in the industry is not news, it is a consequences. We have to realize that we do not have many good specialists in the industry. We hope for young people, who come to work in the industry, but if they get paid less than street sellers of ice cream, then we have nothing to hope for," he said.

"As for education for young specialists, up to 80 percent of professors are pensioners who work in cold offices and receive low salaries. The institute looks depressing, many students are simply shocked with what they see in the building. Everything is broken and dilapidated. The people don't know what they work for. There is no national idea. Everyone knows that top officials in the industry have billion-ruble budgets, but no one needs any innovations."

Ivan Preobrazhensky, an editor of the political department of Rosbalt news agency said: "It is about time everyone must realize that Russia is not the first country in the world when it comes to either ballet or the rocket industry. The Soviet scientific school no loner exists. The people that the school created have either died or retired for age reasons. No new scientific schools have been created in the country in the field of physics, cosmology, philosophy, history, biology, etc. There is no demand for it either on the part of the society or on the part of the authorities," he said.

"In less than a year, the Russian space industry suffered 16 billion rubles of losses. This is the price for restoration works in the Hermitage, development programs on Kurile islands and the support of small business before 2013. This money was literally launched into space and wasted," the expert added.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The blame game has begun; Russia's Prosecutor General is investigating the factory where the Soyuz 3rd stage engine is built. Oops - more deck chairs under the next Proton :p

Until the investigations are complete all Soyuz vehicles are grounded. Once its cleared Roscosmos and NASA want to fly 2 unmanned missions before crewed missions resume. PM Putin has ordered stricter quality controls.

The entire launch schedule is being moved to the right, and SpaceX's Falcon 9/Dragon C2/C3 flight could be delayed until January.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

am sure it's not as bad as the naysayers are claiming, but this should be a good wake up call for them. i have great hope for the Russian side of things, as well as the Chinese and Indian. Japan i'm not so sure about, no idea what JAXA has been up to lately, they've been quiet. at least the Russians are launching like crazy all the time, this of course takes more effort than most people realize, as you well know Doc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JAXA has been talking about getting Bigelow to build them a small hab extensiin for their ISS module, mainly to act as storage. They're also making noises about a manned capsule.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Japan's SELENE mission launched in 2007 and is still doing geoligy, gravity mapping and surface environment analysis.

SELENE-2 is a lunar orbiter/lander/rover due for no earlier than 2016.

The Lunar-A surface penetrator was cancelled.

Their Venus Climate Orbiter launched in May 2010 and suffered a thruster malfuntion that prevented it from going into Venus orbit. It's thruster problem has since been fixed and it'll have another shot in 2015.

A Japanese manned lunar mission is still a powerpoint - no earlier than 2030.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roscosmos updated its investigation results on September 9, when it announced that the fuel supply to the Soyuz/Progress 2nd stage engine's gas generator had been "choked" due to a "production defect". They plan to examine engines in the inventory to determine if the defect was an isolated incident.

The gas generator burns fuel and oxidizer diverted from the main flow to generate gases that drive the fuel and oxidizer turbopumps, which in turn feed the rocket engines thrust chamber.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well, at least they have a cause that can be addressed and fixed. it will be fine in the long run. i still have a lot of faith in the Russians, they've done so much and can be very persistent...can you spell Venera?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.