• On June 15th, the director general of the Roscosmos Russian state space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, told the audience at the GLEX-2021 space conference in St. Petersburg that the space tug ‘Zeus’ (pictured above) which has been under construction since 2010, is on schedule to make its first space flight in 2030. Rogozin called the search for extraterrestrial life and the monitoring of space-borne threats to the Earth the two most important tasks of the space tug.
• Once competed, Zeus will stop by Mars and Venus on its way to visit and study the outer planets and even distant stars. The space tug fitted with a nuclear reactor which will allow the ship to travel long distances. “[T]he most important task will be to discover and understand whether we are alone in space or there is another life,” Rogozin said.
• “Today, we have ensured the development of space monitoring programs, and this is of practical significance for how to avoid dangerous collisions in space,” said Rogozin. “But there is another, even more important task — how to protect our planet from uninvited collisions with space bodies that can destroy the civilization.” Rogozin noted that there exists no technology capable of diverting the trajectory of space objects approaching the Earth.
• Rogozin also emphasized the significance of international cooperation in space, calling it “the highest form of politics and ethics” in the relations between nations. The Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) is an annual event that has gathered representatives of scientific circles, governments and industries since 2012.
ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Russian nuclear-powered space tug Zeus, currently
Dmitry Rogozin
under construction, will be sent on a mission to search for life in deep space once completed, Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of the Russian state space agency Roscosmos, said on Tuesday.
The space tug fitted with a nuclear reactor is set to be used for missions to remote planets of the Solar System and beyond. It has been under development since 2010 and is expected to make its first space flight in 2030.
“Missions that will be sent to Mars, Venus and, in the future after the development of thermonuclear capabilities, beyond the solar system, the most important task will be to discover and understand whether we are alone in space or there is another life,” Rogozin said at the GLEX-2021 space conference.
The Roscosmos chief called the search for extraterrestrial life and the monitoring of space-borne threats to the Earth the most important tasks of world cosmonautics.
“Today, we have ensured the development of space monitoring programs, and this is of practical significance for how to avoid dangerous collisions in space. But there is another, even more important task — how to protect our planet from uninvited collisions with space bodies that can destroy the civilization,” Rogozin said, noting that there so far exists no technology capable of diverting the trajectory of space objects approaching the Earth.
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Article by James Stavridis April 12, 2021 (bloomberg.com)
• Russia and China are contesting the US militarily, from the Arctic to the Baltics to the South China Sea. A few weeks ago, the two nations agreed to build a joint research station on the Moon. In an online statement, the China National Space Administration said the base would be open to “all interested countries and international partners”. But if you look at recent Russian and Chinese space operations, they have a distinctly military bent. And the idea of general political and military cooperation between the two is gaining speed, from massive war games on the Siberian border to warship deployments in the eastern Mediterranean and the North Atlantic.
• Washington needs to understand the strategic approach being taken by both of these US rivals in space. The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the lesser-known Secure World Foundation have recently released reports highlighting a cluster of Russian activities that have caught the attention of the US intelligence community. These include significant antisatellite missile tests throughout 2020; flights of Russian spacecraft very near US spy satellites; tests of projectile launches in space; and fraying ties with the US in civilian and scientific space cooperation.
• As the supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, this article’s writer, James Stavridis, spent a good deal of time with the then-Russian ambassador to the alliance, Dmitry Rogozin. Rogozin went on to serve as deputy prime minister in charge of all Russian defense and space industries. Since 2018, Rogozin has been the head of Roscosmos, the equivalent of NASA. Given his strong defense background, Rogozin brings a military thrust to the Russian space program.
• Ten years ago, Rogozin told Stavridis that Russia’s military future was in space. In 2014, Rogozin mocked the US space program on Twitter as needing a trampoline to bring astronauts to the International Space Station. After a successful commercial launch by SpaceX in 2020, Elon Musk tweeted back, “The trampoline is working.”
• China doesn’t have the decades-long history that Russia has in the space domain, but the Chinese are accelerating rapidly. China had landed a lunar module on the Moon, returning soil samples. It launched a Mars probe that is currently orbiting the red planet. And it has plans to build a Moon base, along with Russia. All of this is part of an emerging “space culture” in China.
• Chinese efforts in space have an increasingly military feel to them as well. China has 363 satellites in space, second only to the U.S. (with more than 1,300). The Chinese have been conducting anti-satellite tests for nearly two decades, including missiles and lasers. They have devoted considerable effort to sharpening offensive cybertools that can go after US space assets. The Chinese have also fired more rockets into space than any other country for three years straight.
• As Russia and China come together to operate in the cosmos, their overall military and strategic cooperation will increase as well. The fledgling US Space Force must be part of a US response. America needs a small but elite US Cyber Force working alongside our allies, much as China and Russia intend to do. And Washington needs a coherent plan for private-public cooperation and to prioritize defense dollars for space.
• [Editor’s Note] The author of this article, retired Admiral James Stavridis, is intent on associating Russia with China’s CCP. And where is he now that he has retired from the US Navy? He is an operating executive with the Carlyle Group, a notorious bastion of the deep state elite trying to stoke a war between the US, China and Russia. China has invited “all interested countries and international partners” to join them in the development of a Moon base. After the deep state stopped utilizing Russian space rockets to bring Americans to the International Space Station in favor of their darling, Elon Musk, why wouldn’t Russia be interested in another Moon program? And didn’t the Russian navy just work with the US Navy to bottle up the Evergreen container ship ‘Ever Given’ in the Suez Canal, which reportedly contained not only trafficked humans but weapons of mass destruction?
What is really going on is a war between the deep state and non-compliant Alliance countries like Russia. Deep state shills like Admiral Stavridis only want to demonize Russia and stir up World War III to give the deep state a path to total control over the planet and the solar system. Unfortunately, Administrator Biden is also a deep state lackey who supports this evil agenda. It is up to the white hats in the US military to excise the deep state trolls from its ranks, completely remove the deep state from power, and set the planet on a course of peace and prosperity – including our expansion into space to stand alongside our space cousins – which the deep state has actively prevented since WWII.
Fmr Admiral James Stavridis
Russia and China are looking hard at how they should allocate defense spending to
Dmitry Rogozin
contest the U.S. militarily, from the Arctic to the Baltics to the South China Sea. Near the top of both national shopping lists are military operations and assets in space, and the most intriguing aspect of their decision to look to the stars is that they are going to do it together.
Most notably, the two nations agreed a few weeks ago to build a joint research station on the moon. In an online statement, the China National Space Administration said the base would be open to “all interested countries and international partners,” which sounds relatively benign. But if you look at recent Russian and Chinese space operations, they have a distinctly military bent. And the idea of general political and military cooperation between the two is gaining speed, from massive war games on the Siberian border to warship deployments in the eastern Mediterranean and the North Atlantic.
What should the U.S. be doing?
First, Washington needs to clearly understand the strategic approach being taken by both of these rivals, who are now peer competitors, at least in space.
We should begin with Russia, which has had a very long and successful track record in space operations dating back to Soviet times. The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the lesser-known Secure World Foundation have recently released reports highlighting a cluster of Russian activities that have caught the attention of the U.S. intelligence community.
These include significant antisatellite missile tests throughout 2020; so-called close aboard flights of Russian spacecraft very near U.S. spy satellites; tests of projectile launches in space; and fraying ties with the U.S. in civilian and scientific space cooperation. (The two nations have previously worked together closely, especially on the International Space Station.)
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• Sixty years ago on April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union made history by launching Yuri Gagarin into space on a Soyuz-made capsule. Moscow announced its intent to replace the Soyuz design in 2009, boasting that the new capsule would be “bigger, with more powerful engines and more comfortable than the Soyuz.” RKK Energia was even awarded a development contract for the project. But after a series of delays, the Soyuz-degined capsule continues to be used for trips to the International Space Station (ISS).
• The head of RKK Energia’s flight centre Alexander Kaleri, himself a veteran cosmonaut who flew several missions into space and spent months on the ISS and Mir space stations, admits the project is a long way from taking off. “The goal is to carry out a first pilot-less test flight by 2023. For now we are starting by testing models for the capsule, it’s a fairly long process.”
• The new capsule’s grand designs have fallen victim to funding problems and bureaucratic inertia. Russian space expert Vitaly Yegorov says the lengthy development is hardly surprising given “the technical difficulties, Western sanctions against the Russian space industry, and a lack of funding” for the space program. With the Soyuz still flying, there is also no “acute need” for a replacement, Yegorov says.
• Other projects have also stagnated, including the next generation Angara-A5 rockets meant to carry Russian space capsules, which have been in development since the 1990s but have launched only twice in test mode, in 2014 and 2020. The Nauka laboratory module intended for the ISS began assembly in the 1990s, but has also suffered a string of failures.
• Despite these setbacks, Dmitry Rogozin – a nationalist politician and former diplomat now in charge of Russian space agency Roscosmos – continues to make bombastic claims about future projects. He has announced ventures to bring back samples from Venus and a rocket capable of making 100 round trips to space and back.
• After Russia pulled out of the US-led Lunar Gateway project to put a new space station in lunar orbit starting in 2024, Moscow and Beijing announced plans in March for a rival space station, but without a timetable or budget. A former Roscosmos official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is clear that Rogozin’s projects are pie in the sky. “[H]is promises extend into the 2030s, when neither of them will be in power,” the official said.
• Russian space expert Vadim Lukashevich said the problem for Roscosmos is that when it comes to scientific projects, Putin’s mind is not on space exploration. Rather, the Kremlin’s attention is fixed on military ventures. “The priority for the Kremlin is military projects, especially the development of missiles,” he said. “Putin talks about new weapons and missiles,” Lukashevich says, including hypersonic weapons that can strike an enemy like a “meteorite”.
• While Russian defense spending has grown significantly in the last two decades, Roscosmos has seen its budget falling year by year. Last year, Rogozin announced that Roscosmos’ 2016-2025 total budget of $18.4 billion US was being cut by ten percent for the last five years.
• And as Russia’s space industry stalls, its competitors, including now the private sector, are moving forward. Last year, Russia lost its monopoly over ISS launches to Elon Musk’s reusable Space X rockets. But Roscosmos is wary of partnerships with private companies, fearing this could siphon away the “state space budget and contracts”.
• Meanwhile, the Russian space industry is beset with corruption, including multiple scandals over the construction of the new Vostochny launchpad in the Far East. “There is hardly any space company left whose officials have not been replaced or arrested,” laments a former Roscosmos staffer. “Today the industry is run by newcomers without training in space technologies.”
• [Editor’s Note] Don’t be so sure that Russia is languishing in advanced space technology. Some believe that Russia is the epicenter of the Alliance space program, working with benevolent Galactic Federation extraterrestrials to quietly develop modern spacefaring craft like the corvettes reported by Corey Goode to have harassed the deep state’s ‘pumpkin seed’ craft attempting to leave earth orbit over Antarctica in January 2016. Putin is a leader of the Alliance, and prefers to let the deep state think they are “lagging behind”. But since the Alliance is currently kicking the deep state’s ass in space, everyone is now aware of Russia and the Alliance’s capabilities in spite of hit pieces like this one.
Sixty years after the Soviet Union made history by launching Yuri Gagarin into space
Yuri Gagarin
on April 12, 1961, Russia continues to have lofty extraterrestrial ambitions, but its ability to realise them is more down to earth.
Project after project has been announced and then delayed, as grand designs fall victim to funding problems or bureaucratic inertia. The Kremlin’s attention meanwhile is fixed on military ventures rather than space exploration.
A case in point is the project to replace Russia’s ageing Soyuz capsule, a workhorse that has been ferrying astronauts into space since the 1960s and continues to be used for trips to the International Space Station.
Alexander Kaleri
First announced in 2009, the project to replace the Soyuz has been repeatedly pushed back. Even the name of the proposed capsule has changed multiple times, from the “Federation” to the “Oryol” (Eagle) and then a proposed smaller version called the “Orlyonok”.
Vitaly Yegorov
RKK Energia, the firm that builds the Soyuz, was awarded a development contract for the project.
Standing in a museum at Energia’s offices celebrating Soviet space accomplishments, the head of the firm’s flight centre Alexander Kaleri boasts that the new capsule will be “bigger, with more powerful engines and more comfortable than the Soyuz.”
But Kaleri, a veteran cosmonaut who flew several missions into space and spent months on the ISS and Mir space stations, admits the project is a long way from taking off.
Angara-A5 rocket
“The goal is to carry out a first pilot-less test flight by 2023. For now we are starting by testing models for the capsule, it’s a fairly long process.”
Soyuz capsule
Stagnating projects
Russian space expert Vitaly Yegorov says the lengthy development is hardly surprising given “the technical difficulties, Western sanctions against the Russian space industry and a lack of funding” for the space programme.
With the Soyuz still flying, there is also no “acute need” for a replacement, he says.
Other projects have also stagnated, including the next generation Angara-A5 rockets meant to carry Russian space capsules, which have been in development since the 1990s but have launched only twice in test mode, in 2014 and 2020.
Vadim Lukashevich
The Nauka laboratory module intended for the ISS, which began assembly in the 1990s, has also suffered a string of failures that have prevented it from entering orbit.
Despite these setbacks, Dmitry Rogozin — a nationalist politician and former
Dmitry Rogozin
diplomat now in charge of Russian space agency Roscosmos — continues to make bombastic claims about future projects.
He has announced ventures to bring back samples from Venus and a rocket capable of making 100 round trips to space and back.
After Russia pulled out of the US-led international Lunar Gateway project — a space station in lunar orbit whose first modules are to be launched in 2024 — Moscow and Beijing announced
Vladimir Putin
plans this March for a rival space station, but without a timetable or budget.
A former Roscosmos official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is clear that Rogozin’s projects are pie in the sky.
The Roscosmos chief promises President Vladimir Putin “that they will go to the Moon, Mars or Venus,” the official said. “But his promises extend into the 2030s, when neither of them will be in power.”
Russian space expert Vadim Lukashevich said the problem for Roscosmos is that when it comes to scientific projects, Putin’s mind is not on space exploration.
“The priority for the Kremlin is military projects, especially the development of missiles,” he said.
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• Following new research published in the journal Nature Astronomy of British and American scientists’ discovery of phosphine gas in Venus’ clouds, suggesting the possibility that there might be extraterrestrial life in Venusian clouds (see yesterday’s ExoArticle here) the chief of the Russian space agency ‘Roscosmos’, Dmitry Rogozin, contended that prior research by Russian scientists has indicated that Venus is inhospitable to life.
• “Our country was the first and only one to successfully land on Venus,” Rogozin told the audience at the 2020 HeliRussia exhibition. “The [Russian] spacecraft gathered information about the planet. [I]t is like hell over there.” He assured the audience that, as such, Venus is a “Russian planet”.
• While the Russian space agency still plans to carry out the Venera-D mission in cooperation with the United States this coming decade, Roscosmos announced plans to launch an independent Russian expedition to Venus as well, without international cooperation.
• ‘Breakthrough Initiatives’, a program funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner in association with SETI, announced that it will fund a study into the possibility of life in Venus’ clouds, led by Sara Seager from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Venus is a “Russian planet,” the head of Russia’s state space agency said Tuesday following new research that suggests there could be life on the
Dmitry Rogozin
second planet from the sun.
The research, published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Monday, details British and American scientists’ discovery of phosphine gas in Venus’ clouds and puts forward possible theories for its origin, including that of extraterrestrial life.
Speaking at the 2020 HeliRussia exhibition, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said prior research by Russian scientists indicated that the planet is inhospitable to life.
“Our country was the first and only one to successfully land on Venus,” Rogozin said. “The [Russian] spacecraft gathered information about the planet — it is like hell over there.”
Roscosmos also announced plans Tuesday to launch an independent Russian expedition to Venus “without involving wide international cooperation.” The expedition will take place in addition to the previously planned Venera-D mission, which is being carried out in cooperation with the United States.
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ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Russian nuclear-powered space tug Zeus, currently
“Missions that will be sent to Mars, Venus and, in the future after the development of thermonuclear capabilities, beyond the solar system, the most important task will be to discover and understand whether we are alone in space or there is another life,” Rogozin said at the GLEX-2021 space conference.
What should the U.S. be doing?
Sixty years after the Soviet Union made history by launching Yuri Gagarin into space
Venus is a “Russian planet,” the head of Russia’s state space agency said Tuesday following new research that suggests there could be life on the