Space news #22: Why are Russia's space program costs rising?
Russia’s space program woes continue. During the week a planned adjustment of the ISS’s orbit was abandoned after a Progress M-26M’s engines failed to start. The recent failure of two Russian launch vehicles have caused delays to Britain’s largest space project.
The reliability issues are partly because Russia’s space program costs have increased 30% due to the Ukraine sanctions placed on them by the EU and US. The EU sanctions are set to automatically expire unless the EU continues to extend them. The Russian and EU economies are linked, so the EU would be more inclined to let the sanctions quietly expire at some point in the future. The US won’t be removing their sanctions any time soon.
![By alexpgp (Flickr: At the Launch Pad) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons](http://apps.nburlock.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ProtonM.jpg)
By alexpgp (Flickr: At the Launch Pad) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The problems are deeper than just sanctions. Corruption is a big issue with reports late last year that US purchases of RD-180 engines included millions of dollars of mark-ups. In the past few day news surfaced that billions of rubles have disappeared from the Russian space program in shady transactions and that construction projects are behind schedule.
Russia has a lot of work ahead of it to remain competitive. They have to solve the corruption and reliability issues, make their launchers cheaper and/or re-useable and they need to do it all while the Ukraine sanctions drive up their costs.
[gard group=’2′]
Spaceflight
- Russia must be more competitive in commercial space market
- Britain’s commercial space project delayed d to Russian rocket failure
- A Tough Three Weeks in Space for Russia
- Failure is not an option for Russian space industry
- LightSail Aloft!
- Future Explorers Powered By Fission?
- The RD-180 Addiction
- Tiny ‘Cubesats’ Gaining Bigger Role in Space
- Space Station Module Room for Commercial Crew Spacecraft
- Testing Spacecraft to Extremes
- Space Shuttle Rising
- China Plans First Ever Landing on the Dark Side of the Moon
- Russian Space Program Costs Soar 30% Over Sanctions
- Japan to redesign cargo spacecraft for cost-saving, multifunction
- House Approves Commercial Space Bill
- X-37B Space Plane’s Capabilities Explained By Boeing
- ISS Module Move Makes Way For U.S. Commercial Spacecraft
- NASA Sets New Launch Window for Supersonic Vehicle Test
- ISRO to Test Plane-Shaped Reusable Launch Vehicle in July
- SpaceX cleared for US military launches
- LightSail Glitch: Hoping for a Reboot
- Three Soyuz-2 launch pads to be built at Plesetsk by 2019
- Flawed Debates begets false choices beyond LEO
The Solar System
- Impact crater or supervolcano caldera?
- Ceres Bright Spots Sharpen But Questions Remain
- Slippery Slopes on Mars Send Curiosity Rover on Detour
- Martian impact crater or supervolcano caldera
- After Mars, Indian Space Agency Aims at Venus
- Martian Reminder of a Pioneering Flight
- Ceres Bright Spots Seen Closer Than Ever
- Asteroid Impact Mission to the Didymos Binary Asteroid System
- Did Curiosity Rover Cause Mars’ Mysterious Methane Spike?
- The 30-Million-Year Mass Extinction Cycle
- Could ‘Green Rust’ Be A Catalyst For Martian Life?
- Europa’s Jupiter-Facing Hemisphere
- Two Tiny ‘CubeSats’ Will Watch 2016 Mars Landing
- Mars Rover’s Laser-Zapping Instrument Gets Sharper Vision
- UAE eyes “first Arab unmanned probe” to Mars by 2021
- Rover Restored to Normal Operations After a Reset
- Could ‘Green Rust’ Be A Catalyst For Martian Life?
- New Project Aims to Establish a Human Colony on Mars
- NASA Mission to Europa Will Seek Conditions for Life
- China, Russia plan joint landing on the Moon
- Planetary Science Institute researchers to study Europa
- NASA Begins Testing Mars Lander
Exoplanets
- Mystery of the Giant ExoPlanets
- Exoplanet Exploration Organization Proposed
- Sun-Like G-Dwarf Stars
- Dying Star May Have Torn Alien Planet Apart
The Universe
- Left-handed cosmic magnetic field could explain missing antimatter
- Spectacular Galaxy With a 2,400 Light-Year Ring of Star Clusters
- Life in the Milky Way
- Rare Supernova Burst Shines Light on Its Mysterious Origins
- NASA’s Spacecraft Discovers Most Luminous Galaxy in Universe
- Stunning ‘Snakes’ of Medusa Nebula Hint at Sun’s Fate
- Hubble Observes One-of-a-Kind Star Nicknamed “Nasty”
- Strange ‘Nasty’ Star May Be Spawned by Cosmic Cannibalism
- Why the Universe Exists
- The Most Luminous Galaxy in the Universe
- A Dark and Dusty Sky
- Enigma of the Universe
- Gas arms form giant spiraling molecular cradles of dense molecular cores
- Caltech astronomers observe a supernova colliding with its companion star
- Supernova ignition surprises scientists
- The dark side of star clusters
- The dreadful beauty of Medusa
- Mysterious New Type of Star Cluster Carries Extra Baggage
- Nebula’s Glowing ‘Champagne Flow’ Snapped By Very Large Telescope
- Uncovering the mysteries of cosmic explosions
- WISE Discovers Most Luminous Galaxy in Universe
Everything else