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According to Kommersant, Glavkosmos, a Roscosmos subsidiary, will be given an authority to audit contracts of Roscosmos subsidiaries with foreign customers. The company will also act as the foreign trade activities a
gent for Roscosmos. The new top management of the Roscosmos State Corporation believes this approach will eliminate unnecessary competition between its subsidiaries on international markets.
According to Kommersant’s source, Dmitry Rogozin, the new director general of Roscosmos, is to be appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company.
Kommersant has been informed about the upcoming changes by two sources from within the Roscosmos State Corporation. The future of the company was discussed in a closed meeting at Dmitry Rogozin’s office, which resulted in a number of ‘policy decisions about the future responsibilities and appearance of Glavkosmos’. The company refused to comment officially, but Vladimir Ustimenko, head of the Roscosmos press-center, did confirm the upcoming changes: ‘We will be informing the general public about them as they are implemented’, he is quoted as saying.
Glavkosmos manages joint space projects with international partners. As a Roscosmos subsidiary it acts as the coordinator overseeing the implementation of Roscosmos’s international projects involving the Souyz-ST launches from Kourou as well as signing commercial Soyuz launch contracts.
According to the Kommersant sources, it has been decided to authorize Glavkosmos to act as the foreign trade activities agent for Roscosmos as well as entrust it with auditing commercial contracts signed with foreign customers by all space industry enterprises.
Up until recently Glavkosmos closely collaborated only with the Progress Rocket Space Centre (manufacturer of the Soyuz launch vehicles), while other large industry companies preferred to do business according to their own plans. Thus, RSC Energia worked directly with Boeing, the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center solicited orders for the Proton-M and Angara launch vehicles using its own US-based International Launch Services company etc.
The previous management did not interfere with this approach, but Mr Rogozin has obviously decided to change the rules of the game, believing that it is not a good idea for Roscosmos’s enterprises to compete on the international market as this might entail image and financial risks. From now on it will be Glavkosmos that will curate these activities.
In addition to that, Glavkosmos will become the operator of the Baiterek complex, one of the most high-profile international projects planned to be developed by an international consortium consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan and the UAE. All international representatives of Roscosmos will be responsible to Glavkosmos. The industry block of the corporation headed by acting first deputy Nikolai Sevastianov will strictly analyze all upcoming agreements and contracts in order to avoid their delayed performance.
‘We will be gradually abandoning the kind of approach where a contract had to be secured by all means. Our partners should feel assured that if we take up a job, we do it on time. These new decisions should lead to centralized procurement and increased control of the industry’, the Kommersant industry source is quoted as saying.
Glavkosmos will also take up the promotion of Russian-made rocket and space industry goods. According to Kommersant, Mr Rogozin insisted this be done following his visit to the Dubai Airshow 2017 where he expressed his frustration that another sector company had its exhibition stand separate from Roscosmos’s.
‘From now on this activity will be under the control of the State Corporation’, Kommersant ’s source in the top management of Roscosmos is quoted as emphasizing. According to the source’s information, Dmitry Rogozin himself will chair the company’s board of directors. It will be the first appointment for the director general of the State Corporation to the highest management body of a sector company.
