After a long ten-year silence, Russia is on the offensive again to reclaim her place in the space race. Russia, which plans to make an ambitious comeback for dominance over the space tourism industry; ambitious billionaires are challenging the United States and increasingly prominent China in the race.
After a 12-year hiatus, this month, Russia signaled a comeback by sending two cosmic adventurers, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant, to the International Space Station (ISS). Dmitry Rogozin, the space chief of Roscosmos company and former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, who was highly impressed and encouraged by this success, talked about the first steps that Russia will take in the space race.
“We are ready to fight”
Noting that Russia’s next steps within the scope of its space goals are a special module for visitors from Russia on the ISS, spacewalks outside the station and trips around the moon, Rogozin told reporters, “We will not give this niche to the Americans. We are ready to fight for it. ‘ he said. But today, there are new obstacles in front of Russia that did not exist before, which have emerged in the last ten years when it has been behind in the space race.
At the time, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had a monopoly on sending cashier enthusiasts into space. But that changed when the US agency NASA retired its shuttle for astronauts in 2011 and snatched every seat the ISS Roscosmos had to offer for the next decade. Things got even hotter last year when billionaire Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX carried out the first successful ISS mission. With a loss of $90 million per seat, this was a huge financial blow for the Russian space agency. The only hope of analysts for the agency, which later faced budget cuts, is to embark on space tourism in order to recover.
“The Russian space industry relies on consistent orders for these launches,” analyst Vitaly Yegorov noted in an interview with AFP. The price tag, estimated at $50-60 million for each seat, seems to cover the cost of building the three-person Soyuz spacecraft. However, officials also point out that space tourism is not just about money. Emphasizing that this is also about national prestige, Dmitry Loskutov, head of Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Roscosmos responsible for commercial projects, including tourism, says, “It makes young people interested in manned space flight. After all, this is the future.”
The space race is heating up
Russia, China, and the United States are currently the only countries capable of manned flights; however, the situation is getting hotter with many names involved in the game. Although it has yet to take any tourists to the ISS, Musk’s company SpaceX has sent an all-civilian crew into Earth orbit this year with the Inspiration4. On the other hand, Jess Bezos’ company Blue Origin and another billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic are also keen to join the race. The spacecrafts belonging to the companies of these two names also managed to complete their first voyages this year.
But Andrei Ionin of the Russian Academy of Cosmonauts; Noting that it is quite unnecessary and absurd to compare billionaires’ short, low-orbit flights to a mission that lasts for days to the ISS, he noted that this is no different than comparing the Ferrari and Renault market. Loskutov, who backed this idea, said that space travel is more a part of the “entertainment industry” than space travel. In addition, Loskutov noted that for an upcoming tourism mission, Russia is looking to expand offers, including a spacewalk. Moscow has announced plans for its own orbital station, which the ISS is set to retire in the next decade, while Rogozin said there may be a “separate tourist module” on board. Rogozin also mentioned that after 2030, Roscosmos is planning a trip around the moon; however, this falls far behind SpaceX’s goals, which plans to send eight people around the moon as early as 2023.
Another challenge Roscosmos faces in the sector seems to be to evaluate and meet the demand. Two of the most important of these seem to be that the Soyuz spacecraft is quite expensive and it takes at least two years to organize a mission. Loskutov reports that Russia has ordered a rocket for the next launch and instructed Rogozin’s agency to increase Soyuz production. On the other hand, it is extremely important that the candidates are willing to meet their health needs and participate in months of training and rehabilitation after returning to Earth. On this subject, Ionin said that there are not many candidates; however, he states that they do not need too many candidates anyway. Finally, Ionin states that Russia is ahead thanks to the Soviet design and the time-tested Soyuz, saying, “There is no threat to Roscosmos’s business over the next five to 10 years.”
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