Experts on Russia’s Position in the Space Race

Lion Green, scientific director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

— I can’t speak for the entire space complex, but scientific space has been and is getting tired of being competitive. The devices developed and manufactured by our scientists both at the Russian Academy of Sciences and universities have been used and are being used in the space programs Spektr-X-ray-Gamma, Luna, the unfortunately unlaunched ExoMars project, and many others, including abroad. Russian instruments are successfully working in foreign projects near Mars and on its surface, they worked near Venus, now they are working near the Moon, having passed difficult competitions. And they have been working for decades – on the ESA Mars Express project, for example, since 2002.

Now, of course, such competitions are frozen. But there are nuances. Although we are the customers of many scientific programs, all the trump cards are in the hands of Roskosmos – both in terms of funding and, of course, the manufacture of launch vehicles and other technical equipment for the industry. We receive funding as contractors – this is the established system. And I’m not sure that it is optimal, because the departments that are customers and executors have better control over the process of project implementation.

In the last case with the failed Russian lunar program, for example, our instruments successfully withstood the launch of the launch vehicle, having passed through harsh vibration conditions, we managed to turn them on, and everything also worked in lunar orbit. But other risk factors that are beyond our control have turned on.

There are still problems with the fact that the current contract system for state orders is extremely tough – if you do not complete the project on time, penalties will be imposed on you. This is good in the production of serial products, where everything is debugged. In the case of scientific instruments, this does not work, because something new is being done that requires verification and re-verification, changes, clarifications. I would like this to be taken into account when evaluating the work of scientists and their funding.

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Sergey Pekhterev, General Director of the Altegro SKY group of space communications companies:

– For 30 years, Russian space has been a hostage to the successes of the USSR, and the authorities and society expect it to repeat them. Today, Russia is still among the top three “full cycle” powers – its own launch vehicle for manned vehicles, spaceports and monitoring system, part of the orbital station, satellites. Only the United States and China have something like this, even collective Europe cannot send as many into orbit as our Soyuz. But 80-90% of all this we got from the great Soviet space empire.

In 2023, the gap with the achievements of China and especially the United States is extremely large. This is no longer a success. It is impossible to expect from ordinary Russians the same mobilization as from Soviet citizens with life in dormitories and communal apartments, food on cards and the transfer of Moskvich-408 from father to son. Yes, and space technology has gone too far to support all directions.

We need an honest analysis of the real possibilities for financing large space (and in any country this is budget money) and building a chain of priorities: defense-national economy-science-international cooperation. If there is enough money for the first “one and a half”, then we do not spend billions on projects like a lunar base that will not be implemented in the next 10-15 years. Better less is better.

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Igor Marinin, Academician of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics:

Is there a space race? In my opinion, it doesn’t exist.

For the first time in 47 years, we took on the lunar program. Naturally, the team has no experience in interplanetary stations, controls and landings. Everyone who was involved in these programs in Soviet times has already left, so our people have to learn everything practically from scratch.

There are many places on the moon. If we arrive there with astronauts 10-15 years later than the Americans, for example, then this does not mean anything.

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Alexey Volin, General Director of FSUE “Space Communications”:

— I would not say that Russia is taking part in the space race. The country is engaged in active work in space, and today the main task is not political, but scientific and economic. In this sense, I assess the success of the industry as impressive and productive, since Russia is one of the few countries that has its own launch facilities, owns its own spacecraft, operates not only individual satellites, but satellite constellations, and is engaged not only in near space, but also in deep space. Our state has been, and is still a member of an extremely limited club of space players, continuing to play an extremely successful role in it.

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Vladislav Ivanenko, CEO of the private space company Sputniks:

— Russia is one of the leading players, it is at a high world level. We have excellent scientific developments, technological solutions, excellent personnel. And the fact that sometimes there are unexpected cases, accidents, well, this is space – a very capital-intensive, highly intellectual and high-risk type of activity. All countries go through this, all new space projects, especially interplanetary ones.

Of the several dozen Soviet lunar robotic stations, well over half failed at various stages of flight, from launch to touchdown, but those that were successful made a huge contribution to the development of science, technology and our knowledge of space. We will continue to do our job, launch rockets, satellites and other devices. Everything is fine.

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Alexander Zheleznyakov, rocket science expert, astronautics historian:

First, there is no race. Secondly, the Russian cosmonautics still have a lot to do. Our ability to regularly conduct manned flights, along with the United States and China, has not gone away. In other applied areas – remote sensing of the earth, navigation, meteorology, communications – we are less strong due to the small number of orbital constellations, but we strive to increase them. So we stay afloat.

Remarkable results are produced by two Spektr observatories. They completed projects that were invisible at first glance, but important for science: a survey of the entire starry sky, the observation of pulsars, supernovas, and much more. This is comparable to the data obtained by Hubble or other Western devices.

Cooperation in space is very effective. When looking for new partners, it is logical to focus on the BRICS countries. The most promising is the creation of a scientific base on the Moon with China, India and other countries. But success primarily depends on the political decisions of the leaders of the countries. Within the limits they define, scientists and engineers will find common ground.

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Klim Shipenko, director, producer, cameraman during a 12-day flight to the ISS:

“I can’t say that we look bad. We are used to the fact that it should be so, and much is simply invisible: communication, navigation, weather forecasting and much more. Although someone may have the feeling that now we have the role of catching up. But I am sure that this is still not the case. First of all, our Soyuz is a super-reliable ship that has proven this many times over. But there is always room for improvement. With my height, it was cramped to be in it and in our modules on the ISS. American ones are wider. But in orbit it is more important that these systems and cosmonaut-astronauts duplicate and complement each other.

Secondly, how many people and technology work imperceptibly on Earth. Therefore, the transmission of huge amounts of information through space is already becoming routine, and I myself transferred large filming files for the film “The Challenge” from the ISS to Earth.

Third, the successes of today are the previous years of development, testing, and preparation. I don’t know how to make space stations, but I know that a new Russian one is already being created. I also saw the modules where a 500-day experiment is being held to prepare for a flight to Mars.

Group “Direct speech”