Russia’s private space sector likely to get major thrust

The Russian space sector, which has largely been state-dominated, could witness some reformative changes soon. This is because the world’s largest country is opening up its space sector to multiple private firms which are going to make products from small satellites to a mega lunar base in the future. The announcement comes at a time when this country is already in the eye of a storm and has been getting harsh sanctions from the west over its invasion of Ukraine.

“Dozens of private communication, meteorological observation and Earth distance sensing spacecraft manufactured in Russia will be sent to target orbits before the end of this year. The Soyuz-2 launch vehicles we have withdrawn from the project to launch the British satellite system OneWeb will be used for that,” Russian government-backed space agency Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said.

Also read: Ukraine war: Here's every tech service banned or suspended in Russia

Roscosmos, the country’s space agency, is responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research. The state-owned space agency will also be rolling out dozens of private spacecraft for communication, meteorological observation and remote sensing of the Earth. 

“Roscosmos will provide unprecedented support to Russian private space companies. They will get access to new domestic developments in the sphere of space equipment engineering and will be able to get spacecraft created by private design bureaus and startups delivered to the orbit practically for free,” Rogozin said.

“Mikhail Khailov, deputy general director for the development of the orbital group at Roscosmos, has received my order to take exhaustive measures to support our private space companies,” he said.

While giving a boost to the country’s private sector, Roscosmos is also imposing restrictions on global commercial clients looking to launch their satellites aboard its Soyuz line of rockets. Reuters has reported that the agency has already halted the supply of its rocket engines to the United States in retaliation for its sanctions against Russia.

Amidst all this, the Indian space sector may stand to gain commercial contracts as a fallout of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.