Roscosmos plans to launch over 40 rockets in 2024 – Kommersant

General Director of Roscosmos Yuri Borisov told the publication “Pro Cosmos”that this year the state corporation plans to make more than 40 launches. He said the company is working to introduce market mechanisms into the industry to attract private capital.

The General Director said that, on the initiative of the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Andrei Belousov, work was organized to create a roadmap for attracting private capital to the industry, eight companies were selected that are participating in this work. Mr. Borisov explained that the law on space activities of 1993 stipulated that all space services in the Russian Federation are free. This, he said, prevents private companies from entering the industry.

Mr. Borisov admitted that last year Roscosmos failed to fully implement the launch program. According to the general director, the main enterprise due to which this happened is the Scientific Research Institute of Precision Instruments (NIITP).

The head of Roscosmos expressed hope that the company will be able to renew its fleet of launch vehicles at the turn of 2028-2029. He stated that TsNIIMash JSC is developing a new reusable ultra-light rocket. In addition, the state corporation began developing a cheap, cost-effective Amur-LNG launch vehicle to replace the R-7 rocket. As the general director stated, this year Roscosmos is faced with the task of breaking even.

Mr. Borisov said that previously about 70% of Roscosmos’ external contracts were with European countries and the USA, but today this has been practically reduced to zero. He said that the last joint project remains the work of the International Space Station. According to him, the state corporation is negotiating with NASA to continue cooperation in terms of ensuring the safety of space activities.

In April 2023, Yuri Borisov said that by 2030 Russia could drop from fourth to seventh place in terms of the share of space services in the world market if it does not increase the pace of production of multi-satellite constellations. Currently, the leaders in the number of satellites in orbit are the USA, China and the UK. Russia’s share in the global constellation of satellites is 2.5%. As of the beginning of 2024, there were 229 Russian spacecraft in orbit.

Erdni Kagaltynov