Russian Space Industry Nine Times Behind U.S. Says Rogozin

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has been left red-faced after telling reporters that “Russia will never catch up to the United States in the space race,” the Interfax news agency reported.

“Our space industry has fallen behind the Americans ninefold. All of our ambitious projects require us to up productivity 150 percent – and even if we manage that, we will still never catch up with them,” Rogozin originally said to Interfax Friday.

“We will be following the news about NASA and [Elon] Musk and licking our lips while trying to explain ourselves why we don't need what they are doing,” Rogozin said, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Rogozin took to Facebook later in the day to say that his quotes had been taken out of context.

In the field of space-rocket engine construction Russia are much more competitive than the US both in terms of quality and prices, he said.

"I said that, considering our ambitious plans of to increase labor productivity in the space industry, we will never catch up with the Americans in that regard," the deputy prime minister said.

"But this absolutely does not mean that we are behind them [the United States] in every other aspect of space exploration."

Igor Komarov, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, announced on April 12 that the organization would compete with SpaceX, a rocket company founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The claim came several days after Musk's Falcon 9 reusable rocket successfully landed on an ocean platform.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/...nine-times-behind-us-says-rogozin/570708.html

He is an honest guy but it seems media always tries to report out of context.

to truly see how bad Russia space program has gotten just read about Vostochny Cosmodrome

so much corruption and waste.


http://phys.org/news/2015-05-corruption-tarnishes-russia-showpiece-cosmodrome.html


only thing Russkies can really be proud about is that we need them to send our Astronauts into space and our main workhorse rockets are reliant on their engines, but even that is coming to an end because of SpaceX.

Comrade Ivan said:

There is still a lot of corruption in Russian industries left over from the post-Soviet era oligarchies. The collapse of the Soviet Union certainly gave US generations of head start compared to Russia who's own space industry faced massive neglect.

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I read Russia space engineers were earning on average $260 a month after the collapse of USSR.

must of faced massive brain drain.

China will replace Russia to compete with US in space.

2016 is a very exciting year for China space progress. CZ-7 will debut June and Asia most powerful rocket CZ-5 will debut end of the year

New Zealand also has a space program. The LEO electron launch vehicle will launch from New Zealand's Mahia Peninsular with payloads up to 150kg, at launch prices less than $5 million-1u cubestat from US $50,000 and 3u cubestat from US $180,000. World leading prices in the small payload market space.

I wonder if it could be modified into a single stage MRBM? It could have enough range for us to drop 150kg payloads onto Australia's Eastern seaboard. More than enough to shoot back Russell Crowe if he ever tries to return here.

C130 said:

to truly see how bad Russia space program has gotten just read about Vostochny Cosmodrome

so much corruption and waste.


http://phys.org/news/2015-05-corruption-tarnishes-russia-showpiece-cosmodrome.html

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I wonder how this will affect the relations between Russia and Kazakhstan, currently Russia uses a launching pad in Kazakhstan to launch its satellites. if this cosmodrome project would be successful then Russia wouldn't rely on Kazakhstan anymore.

C130 said:

only thing Russkies can really be proud about is that we need them to send our Astronauts into space and our main workhorse rockets are reliant on their engines, but even that is coming to an end because of SpaceX.

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I guess you can say that capitalism wins again