Photo: NASA
According to an article in The Moscow Times, times are tough in the Russian space program. After Western countries placed sanctions on Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, said that it had lost nearly 180 billion rubles ($2.1 billion).
Photo: Roscosmos
“The termination of contracts by unfriendly countries cost Roscosmos 180 billion rubles,” Roscosmos First Deputy General Director Andrei Yelchaninov said in official Russian media channels.
Among the missions that were canceled was the joint effort with the European Space Agency to explore Mars. The ExoMars program was canceled by ESA on March 17, 2023. It was planned to carry the Rosalind Franklin rover to explore the Martian surface and search for evidence of life in the Martian past.
Also canceled were Russian launches from Khazakstan of OneWeb satellites. In 2023, OneWeb canceled all its future Soyuz launches. Afterward, OneWeb was unable to secure the return of the satellites from the Soyuz launch site at the Russia-owned Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellites were worth a combined $50 million, according to OneWeb. The company later launched replacement satellites from the US. As to the satellites, Yelchaninov said, “The story of the satellites at Baikonur and the situation with the Soyuz rockets at the Kourou cosmodrome will go to the [Russian] courts.”
Russian space coffers have also diminished since NASA no longer needs to purchase Soyuz seats to transport American astronauts to an from the International Space Station. Between 2011 and 2020, the United States had a “space gap” between the Shuttle program and Crew-1 of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon program, an integral part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. To make up for the lack of crewed capability, NASA was purchasing seats on Soyuz, which, while productive, was a political football on both sides of the deal. Prices varied for those rides through the years but were as high as $86 million, according to NASA. In 2019, NASA’s inspector general pegged Crew Dragon’s cost per seat at $55 million and Starliner’s cost at $90 million.
To counter those revenue losses, Roscosmos officials plan to enter and develop markets for its launch services in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. “This is a long-term project since competition is strong in all these new markets,” Yelchaninov was quoted as saying. “If we penetrate the markets correctly, the prospects are very good.”
Regarding cooperation with NASA, Yelchaninov said, “We have established working contact with the Americans, specialists communicate on a daily basis, the cross-flight program is working, we do not intend to stop and are ready to expand this cooperation.”
He also said, “Space remains one of the few niches where joint work with representatives of various states does not stop, despite the political situation. The position of the management of the state corporation [Roscosmos]: space is out of politics.”
