Space bombardment
Like a bolt from the blue in mid-July, there was news that the president had decided to dismiss the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, from his post.
And, although press secretary Dmitry Peskov tried to soften the reaction of society to this resignation, stating indistinctly, they say, “everything is fine”, there are no complaints against him, but, like, it happened, but just like that, only cats walk around the Kremlin. And that’s with tags. It would seem that everything went smoothly for the head of the Russian space industry: he sang songs, hosted parades, delivered patriotic speeches. Even corruption in his separately taken patrimony seems to have exhausted. But, you see, something went wrong, something went wrong. Let’s try to figure it out.
Let’s start with the fact that the main task of the United States, and other “partners” of Russia, was not set today – to deprive it of all those advantages that still keep our country in the top of the world’s leading powers. The fact that “in the field of ballet” we are not all right is the subject of a separate discussion. Now let’s talk about missiles.
ON SPACE OLYMPUS
Knowledgeable people note that in the past ten years, Roscosmos has been rapidly losing its share in the space launch market. So, in 2011, the American corporation did not have a single civilian space launch, while Roscosmos had 24 launches. In 2013, our country accounted for 60% of commercial launches. In the past – 10%. What will happen now? It’s hard to say. Western sanctions have not yet directly affected this industry, but in terms of components, technologies and other problems, of course, there will be. We are being pressed on this front without embarrassment. Not shy about funds. And it’s not even about money and technology….
The apotheosis of the triumph of the United States over the Russian Federation was November 20, 2018. On this day, an American Falcon-9 missile was launched from the American military base Vandenberg in California. This was done by the private company SpaceX Elon Musk. This launch took place in the interests of… Kazakhstan.
The neighboring republic decided that its space program would not be connected with Baikonur, or with Vostochny, or even with the Soyuz rocket. She refused Russian cooperation, the Russian contract. The states have beaten us. Elon Musk’s company is rapidly ousting Roskosmos from the civil space launch market. Judging by the political events of January this year, the density of the presence of Americans in Kazakhstan is quite significant.
However, the absolute leader in space today is China. China last year updated its national record with 56 space launches, including two manned missions. The previous best achievement of the PRC was only 39 space missions.
The states are not far behind – 51 launches. Interestingly, the joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the ULA Alliance, dominated the US space market a few years ago, and now it has made only five launches. Everything else (including three manned ones) is on the Musk rocket.
Space Russia in 2021 was content with third place, having made 25 launches, including three manned missions. As for the rest of the countries, the European Union had six launches, Japan – three, India – two, South Korea – one. Iran is also among the space powers.
True, China and South Korea also gave the largest number of accidents. Lost a rocket and India. But for Russia, according to official statistics, 2021 has become the third accident-free year in a row. Although equipment failures happened with us.
Yes, the third place is honorable, but upon closer examination, it turns out to be “on a lack of fish.” A lag of more than two times is a clear loss in the space Olympiad.
It is noteworthy that it was from 2018, from May, that Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, a graduate of the international department of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, took up the position of General Director of the State Corporation for Space Activities Roscosmos. I took it cheerfully, but it turned out, as in that joke about the old horse: “I couldn’t, I couldn’t.”
You will ask why? What are the reasons for giving up positions? Why did the same Kazakhs stop being friends with us in near-Earth orbit? Officials give vague explanations about the high cost of Soyuz insurance, but this is true – from the region to “get rid of it.” In fact, everything seems to be more prosaic: the Kazakhs simply had no one to talk to. The “case of space generals” swept across the country.
IN 1937 ORBIT
Russia’s space industry has come under unprecedented attack. And it didn’t start today.
In February 2018, the Samara District Court removed Alexander Kirilin, General Director of the Progress RCC, from his post. A criminal case was initiated against him under Part 1 of Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Abuse of authority”).
According to the investigation, from November 2012 to December 2016, Alexander Kirilin entered into a contract with Soyuzobschemashimport LLC for the supply of a hydraulic draft press at an overpriced value of 2 million euros. The case was initiated based on the results of an internal audit of certain issues of financial and economic activity in May-August 2016. Acting was appointed in his place. Ravil Akhmetov and only later approved in a permanent position by Dmitry Baranov.
Kirilin himself was sentenced to 8.5 years. But on February 9 of this year, the Samara court reviewed the case and mitigated the punishment, leaving the former general director sentenced to 5 years in prison.
It is clear that such bossy “leapfrog” did not go unnoticed by the interested parties. And it is clear that judicial red tape does not play in favor of the common cause.
Further. Despite the successful completion of tests of the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, the government decided to fire Sergei Nikulin, general director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering Corporation (MIT), a manufacturer of the latest missiles. The position also remained vacant for a long time, and only then Sergey Ponomarev was approved in his place.
The reason for Nikulin’s resignation is that he … did not calm down his chief designer, who publicly (at a press conference) criticized the government of D.A. Medvedev and the Prime Minister personally. Now everything is quiet there. So quiet that Russian President V.V. In July 2019, Putin promised to ensure a sustainable water supply of settlements with drinking water of adequate quality, including using water treatment technologies developed by … the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering Corporation joint-stock company. Water is good, of course. But the roll of the main theme is somehow not in the direction of space distances.
Vladimir Putin, General Director of OAO RCC Progress Alexander Kirilin and Acting Governor of the Samara Region Nikolai Merkushkin (left to right). Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS.
On October 29, 2018, the Supervisory Board of Roscosmos recommended nominating candidates for the positions of general directors of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure” (TsENKI) and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “TsNIIMash” (the head scientific institute of the State Corporation) within three months.
Their leaders also suffered through no fault of their own. Subordinates failed.
The fact is that Safronov, the chief specialist of the investment support department of the budgeting and economics department of the FSUE TsENKI, according to the investigation, forged contracts for the supply of services for 7.6 million rubles. He acted together with employees of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, not yet identified by the investigation. They entered into a fictitious contract with Alt LLC, transferred money for undelivered products to the company’s settlement account in four installments, and then stole it. And the head of the center was “given a cap” for this. But how the criminal case ended is unknown. It may not have made it to court. Understood.
Photo: Alexander Ryumin/TASS
But that’s not all! The Investigative Department of the Federal Security Service for the Amur Region opened a criminal case against Marat Arustamov, Deputy General Director of TsENKI JSC for Economics and Finance. The reason was the testimony of Alik Aleksanyan, the head of the Moscow construction company Respect-SM, who is under investigation, who said that TsENKI JSC paid Respect-SM for work at the Vostochny Cosmodrome only for kickbacks in the amount of up to 5% of the payment amounts. As follows from the testimony, on October 29, 2020, through his acquaintance, he transferred the required amount to the top manager of TsENKI JSC.
Note that Aleksanyan himself was previously detained for fraud on an especially large scale. Under contracts with TsENKI JSC, he was supposed to complete the construction of the cosmodrome facilities, however, having received an advance payment of 700 million rubles, he completed work for only 100 million, and another 600 million, according to investigators, was stolen. Now he makes “frank” confessions about other people. But Vostochny was under the direct supervision of Dmitry Olegovich himself. How did he miss the grabber?
TsNIIMash generally ended up in a spy story. A certain Viktor Kudryavtsev, a 74-year-old employee of the institute, was arrested. He was charged with transferring some information classified as “top secret”. As evidence, his report at an open scientific conference in Belgium in … 2013 is given.
To be honest, it makes no sense to list all the big and small scandals around the Russian space, we are talking only about those that have affected the top management, the “head” people of the industry. It seems that Lavrenty Beria moved into Dmitry Rogozin. Criminal cases with his arrival in the industry are baked like pies.
General Director of JSC “Scientific and Production Association named after S.A. Lavochkin” Sergey Lemeshevsky. Photo: Sergey Bobylev/TASS.
Even a cursory glance is enough to understand: in a number of cases, the heads of key enterprises were suspended from work on facts that were either insignificant or unproven, but definitely not requiring their isolation or removal from duty.
In this regard, the case of Sergei Lemeshevsky, the general director of the NPO named after S.A. Lavochkin.
The case was initiated on suspicion of misappropriation of 330 million rubles. The bottom line is that Lemeshevsky ordered that this money be transferred to a law firm that accompanies the international multibillion-dollar transactions of the enterprise. The contract and payment documents are in perfect order. The investigation could well have simply seized them, interrogated the suspects and not interfered with anyone’s work. But Lemeshevsky was arrested. For what? Could he put pressure on some witnesses? No, all the documents were confiscated, the testimony was recorded. Could hide? No. People of such a level and such a degree of secrecy are still “not allowed to travel abroad”. Then – why?
Is it so that the Kazakh order goes to the Americans?
And not only Kazakhstani.
On the eve of his arrest, in June 2018, in an interview with our correspondent, the author of these lines, Lemeshevsky announced his intention to launch 628 satellites of the Global Network into orbit, which will be able to provide reliable Internet reception not only in Russia, but throughout the “ball”. He also announced that new lunar and Martian programs have been developed.
And then … the aforementioned Elon Musk talks about his plans to launch 2500 of the same Internet satellites. And he also becomes the leader of future extraterrestrial programs.
Do you see a conflict of interest? How did the “Lemeshevsky case” end? And nothing yet. It has been hanging like a satellite in Earth orbit for four years now.
Judging by how the events listed here developed and how they ended, then you come to the unequivocal conclusion: the commanders of the space industry are purposefully “shooting.” This is just some kind of 1937 in a single space industry, in which we are used to seeing people who are crystal honest, patriotic, gifted and … repeatedly tested. And here – on you, which is not a general designer, then a rogue and a swindler. And, obviously, not in the interests of the industry, not in the interests of the Russian Federation.
There is a war going on. Global. Economic. Rigid. From civilian space, which is the best source of income, the Russians are being pushed out. Next in line are space achievements in the military sphere. So far, our rockets, which are on combat duty in space, have not rusted. Bye….
In the meantime, according to Dmitry Peskov, Rogozin “will be given a job in a timely manner,” which the presidential press secretary promised to report later.