Russian space programme close to collapse as latest failure exposes its fragility

Industry experts tell The Independent the breakdown of Russia’s space industry would be ‘bad news for everyone’. ‘At its peak, it was a credible rival – a spur,’ says an ex-Nasa engineer. ‘Without it, there wasn’t a chance in hell that we’d have put a man on the moon’

• Dmitry Rogozin, the minister responsible for the Russian space industry, could only watch as the Prime Minister delivered a damning assessment of his work. Unsuccessful rocket launches had “become a repetitional issue” for the country, Dmitry Medvedev said at a cabinet meeting on Monday.
  “Dmitry Olegovich, I hope you understand the seriousness of this matter,” he said.
  The political fallout from last Tuesday’s unsuccessful launch of a Soyuz 2-1b rocket continues at the highest level. And Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin, who has been responsible for the Russian space programme since late 2011, has been attracting a large part of the criticism. Tuesday’s crash was, after all, the tenth under his watch.
  It reminded everyone that Russia’s space industry remains a few steps away from collapse.
  Up until an hour after launch, everything was going fine. It was only the second launch at Russia’s new far-eastern Vostochny Cosmodrome, so there was a festive atmosphere. The equipment – the Soyuz 2-1b rocket, Fregat booster, and associated payload of 19 satellites – was well-worked and considered reliable. The rocket was a direct descendent of the one that sent Yuri Gagarin to space, and has been refined thousands of times since.  
   SOURCE Independent