
Putin dissolves Roscosmos, will restructure it as a state-run corporation - curtis
http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/28/roscosmos-abolished/
======
mikeyouse
There's been a sad habit of the Russian state nationalizing industries,
reforming them as state-run corps, handing the reins to one of Putin's friends
and then looting them of anything valuable. This doesn't bode well for the
Russian space program.

To add a bit more value to my shorter post, here is a partial list of the
extreme corruption in industries that Putin's government has gifted to friends
of the President;

Russian Railways: [http://www.reuters.com/article/russia-capitalism-railways-
sp...](http://www.reuters.com/article/russia-capitalism-railways-special-
repor-idUSL3N0O93GR20140523)

Gunvor Energy Trading:
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8175406/...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8175406/WikiLeaks-
Putins-secret-billions.html)

Bank Rossiya: [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/world/europe/it-pays-to-
be...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/world/europe/it-pays-to-be-putins-
friend-.html?_r=0)

Gazprom:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazprom#Establishment_of_gover...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazprom#Establishment_of_government_control_.282005_-_2006.29)

Etc. etc. As a final comparison.. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver cost
~$1.7B Canadian.. The Sochi Olympics cost upwards of $51B.

The scale of graft is staggering.

~~~
skylan_q
_then looting them of anything valuable_ Those were the oligarchs who came to
power in the 90's. He turned against them shortly after he became president
and is currently consolidating power for himself in a very, very large country
that's had petty competing centers of power since the collapse of the USSR.

~~~
mikeyouse
There was obviously the big wave of privatization and corruption after the
USSR fell, but lately it's been re-nationalization and pseudo state corps
financed by state banks.. The companies take large loans from the government
banks, steal most of the money through contracts with various shell corps and
then get bailed out. A wholly different but very serious problem.

------
avmich
> After all, the rise of ambitious US competitors like SpaceX could put a
> damper on Russia's surprisingly lucrative spaceflight business.

Could put a damper, yes. But the reasons are mostly Russia own internal
problems, not stiff external competition. SpaceX does superb technical work
for each dollar spent, but they still have a road to travel to reach technical
achievements of even Soviet Union 1980-s level. And it's hard to compete with
government-subsidized, R&D-already-recouped and massively manufactured tech.

Not that SpaceX doesn't go there. In fact, they demonstrate very good
technical and economical results. It's just too different - USSR Academy of
Sciences focused work of decades on, say, material science and Energomash-
level of first stage engine perfection. SpaceX has a huge boost in
reuseability area and much more modern technologies - they just have a lot to
catch up to. Yet at the same time Russia - could - enjoy both the wealth of
institutionalized rocketry knowledge and quite inexpensive workforce - in
exactly those technical areas which are required for space which could be hard
to beat - even to Elon Musk.

It's really sad state of affairs in Russia - and unfortunately space isn't the
only one area suffering.

------
peter303
US private spaceflight companies buy lots of Russian engines. I dont know if
it is through Roscosmos.

~~~
rebootthesystem
I don't know if "lots" is the right word, but ULA pretty much depends on
buying RD-180's. If it wasn't for Congress lifting the restrictions they'd be
out of the game.

If you ask me, if you are a rocket company and don't make your own engines you
are not a rocket company. External forces can instantly turn you into an
expensive fuel and liquid oxygen tank manufacturing company that can't launch
a paperclip into orbit.

The smartest thing SpaceX has done, perhaps by accident or genius, was to
design and manufacture their own engines. Well, their own everything in their
case.

ULA charges USD $400 million for a launch and SpaceX under $200 million (I
think it's $160). One is a perfect example of what happens when private
enterprise and capitalism go to work and the other is representative of
anything government touches, funds or insists on keeping alive despite
reality. The same mechanism that gives you billion dollar websites and a
myriad of programs that do nothing but burn money a N times what a more
effective private effort could accomplish.

You can launch three SpaceX rockets for the price of one ULA. And now that
they are landing them and will start to re-use them the equation might
approach a ridiculous case of perhaps 10 launches for every 1 from ULA.

If you want to really understand where things are, watch this:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HADsoywAEuU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HADsoywAEuU)

You really have to grok this before understanding the entire picture.

What Russia does doesn't matter any more. Nobody is going to be able to
compete with what Musk and his team have created. I am not sure most realize
how much of a game-changer this will be.

~~~
mikeyouse
Hilariously, SpaceX lists prices for their launches on their website.. For a
4.85MT payload to geotransfer orbit, they charge $61.2M.

[http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities](http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities)

