Moscow:
The Kremlin eliminated the head of the Russian space agency on Thursday after a mandate of less than three years that was marked by the spectacular failure of Russia’s first mission to the moon in 47 years.
In a statement, the Kremlin said Yuri Borisov, who had directed Roscosmos since July 2022, had been relieved of his position. He did not declare a reason. It was replaced by the Deputy Minister of Transportation, Dmitry Bakanov, who before joining the government had been in charge of a satellite company.
Since the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go to space in 1961, Russia has proud of a main power in space exploration. But their ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when their Moon-25 mission did not crash against the moon surface while trying to land.
Borisov, despite that failure, had established ambitious plans for the coming years while Russia prepares to launch its own orbital space station. The new project will replace the International Space Station (ISS) aged where Russia has collaborated closely with the United States even after relations sink into crisis due to the war in Ukraine.
Last year, Borisov approved a schedule under which the first two modules of the new Russian station in 2027 would be launched. Russia has said that it plans to maintain a continuous crew presence in space and carry out scientific, economic and related projects related that were not possible in the Russian segment of the ISS.
The world powers compete not only to explore the space, but also potentially to display weapons there. With the imminent expiration in 2026 of the last important agreement between Russia and the United States that limits its number of nuclear weapons, each side accused the other plans to unleash an arms race in space.
Borisov, the outgoing boss, previously served as Deputy Minister of Defense under Sergei Shoigu, who was replaced last year by President Vladimir Putin and moved to a new role as secretary of the Security Council of Russia,
His replacement of Bakanov is the former head of a company called Gonets, which operates a Russian satellite communications system similar to the US Starlink. UU., But much smaller and used mainly for government purposes.
The company was the Russian partner in Oneweb, a global satellite communications project. Russia had planned to actively participate in a website, but retired in 2018 after the FSB Intelligence Agency said it was a threat to national security.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a union feed).
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