The second chief of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos has been sacked after just two and a half years.
Russia’s space chief Yuri Borisov has been replaced by former Roscosmos staffer and former deputy minister of transport Dmitry Bakanov, Ars Technica reports.
The news comes less than three years after Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s former highly abrasive and unpredictable space head, was replaced by Borisov. Borisov has proved to be a far more predictable agency leader than Rogozin, though that clearly wasn’t enough to hang onto the role.
While we have no idea why Borisov was sacked, there are plenty of unverified rumors swirling, as Ars reports, from a failed intermediate-range ballistic missile test last year to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Borisov’s 43-year-old son.
Especially following Russia’s extremely costly invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s space efforts have stagnated, suffering a lack of private investment, brain drain, and slowing commercial markets, in Ars‘ analysis.
The country is still looking to launch its own orbital space station to replace the International Space Station. Late last year, Roscosmos threw its weight behind NASA’s plans to destroy the International Space Station starting in 2030.
But whether the first two modules of the new station will launch as soon as 2027, plans that Borisov announced in 2024, remains to be seen. The war in Ukraine has severed many of Russia’s ties to its international space partners, forcing it to forge its own way.
The company’s efforts to land an uncrewed spacecraft on the Moon also failed in 2023, marking a major setback for Roscosmos’ ambitions.
Bakanov was the head of a company called Gonets, a small satellite communications system that was mainly used for government purposes, Reuters reports. Gonets represented Russia in the global satellite comms project OneWeb, but the country pulled out in 2018, citing possible risks to national security.
Could Bakanov’s appointment be a sign that an international arms race in space is heating up? According to Reuters, the last agreement limiting the number of nuclear weapons between the US and Russia is set to expire next year, which could set the stage for a race to deliver nuclear weapons into orbit. The two world powers clashed at the United Nations last year over a proposed ban on nuclear weapons in space.
In short, we can only guess as to why Borisov was axed. But given the turbulent years the space agency has been through already, Roscosmos is in dire need of new energy.
Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is currently getting plush government contracts for his own company while aiming his sights at regulators from within the White House — putting the US space program on a very different trajectory.
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