Image by Анатолий Терентьев
Russia’s civilian ‘space force’ looks to shrink dramatically under competition from American corporate space entities, such as SpaceX. Russia has lost a considerable portion of its once commanding market share for space launches. The reduction in demand is taking its toll on Moscow’s rocket production infrastructure.
Russian Space Program Close To Collapse
“The State Space Research and Production Center (Khrunichev State Research and Production Center) seeks to optimize expenditures through mass reductions. By 2025, it is planned to reduce the number of employees at the Moscow site by more than 2.5 times to 1691 people, down from over 4,000. Debt obligations of SCNC are at the moment almost 100 billion rubles,” reported Kommersant, a Russian media outlet.
Kremlin Looks To Probe Russian Space Industry Failures
“GKNPTs builds “Proton” and “Angara” booster rockets. For the past several years, the enterprise has reported losses in the billions and taken on considerable debt. “Proton” rocket production is scheduled to end in 2021, as the center transitions to “Angara” production exclusively,” writes Meduza.
The space business used to be a big revenue producer for the Kremlin. Those days are gone. With the Russian economy limping along, this development does not look to change anytime soon.
