Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his desire to once again jump start Russia’s space exploration efforts, Reuters reports.
Russia is known as the forerunner of space exploration during the Cold War and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, is a product of their space exploration projects.
The president’s statement stemmed from the fact that the country’s space exploration projects, including research centers and infrastructures have all weakened over the years.
Over the years, the once proud space exploration pioneer has witnessed a series of failed launches, wasted infrastructures, and most importantly, brain drain. Experts estimate that of 240,000 people involved in the industry, 90 percent are over 60 years old or are younger than 30 years old. Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin told Reuters that factories have no engineers anymore and Roskosmos, the country’s space agency, is now operated by the army.
Schools like the one in Baikonur attempt to get the younger generation to have interest in the industry by introducing them to test flights and rocket modelling design classes. However, it will take some years before Russia can reap its fresh batch of engineers.
President Putin is looking into bringing fresh ideas from Russia’s own experts with the hopes that they can revive the industry the country was once known for. The government will separate their space agency Roskosmos and its contractors, giving the space agency more control over the projects. With this, they are hoping that they will not make the same blunders like the crash of a Proton rocket carrying a payload amounting to $200 million this July. The space agency will now be in charge of research, policy, and maintenance of infrastructure.
The President is to create a government branch which will work specifically on this new endeavour. The United Rocket Space Corporation will be established by April and their official mandate will include space research and exploration.
In line with this project, the government has increased the budget for the industry, doubling its usual allocation for it. However, critics argue that even with money, the system is very inefficient and most funds are just misappropriated because of funding sub-standard satellites.
