Space program cutbacks

These budget cuts, however, will only further constrain the leader of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. The cuts also raise questions about the future of Roscosmos, which has been restructured on multiple occasions during the last decade. As a space agency, it had a number of contractors who provided services and built rockets, spacecraft, and satellites.

In , Russia re-nationalized its space industry and converted the contracting companies into corporations owned and operated by the state. Three years later, the Russian national space agency was then dissolved and merged into the Roscosmos State Corporation, which became the parent company for the state-owned space companies.

Rogozin became the head of Roscosmos in , and last year he further reorganized its subsidiaries into business blocks. In recent years, Roscosmos has been beset by corruption in its efforts to build a large new spaceport in the eastern part of the country. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website.

These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Spaceflight Insider. Tomasz Nowakowski Tomasz Nowakowski is the owner of Astro Watch, one of the premier astronomy and science-related blogs on the internet.

Related Reading. Reader Comments. May 2, pm. May 20, am. Mike Orrell. May 7, pm. Next Launch. Search Search for: Go Social. In Affiliation With. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Manage consent. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.

The men and women who are needed to build that next generation of military communications systems are now unemployed and there is every possibility that they will never work on another highly advanced military space program. According to Aviation Week the industry claims to have learned its lessons and will make every effort to maintain a balanced workforce.

One wishes them the best of luck, but the pressures on them, from both shareholders and from their unions, may make it impossible for them to hire a new generation of workers and engineers. If the Constellation program is gutted, as now seems likely, it will take years or decades to rebuild the expertise that was lost. Boeing and Lockheed Martin and the other big space firms are facing serious dangers to their ability to carry out the jobs that the nation has long expected them to do.

For the time being it is going to be up to Congress to keep the space industry on life support. But cooperation with China on space endeavors has been blocked by Congress, and funding of the U. But NASA's ambitious plans for space exploration will ultimately depend on cost-conscious lawmakers in the U. Congress, now struggling to reduce the nation's massive budget deficit. The Day in Photos. January 13, New series 52 Documentary. You may also like.