Russia&CIS

Kazakhstan and Russia have recently concluded one of their periodic renegotiations of the Russian lease of the Baikonur Cosmodrome located on the Kazakh steppe, and the workhorse of Russia’s launch schedule, with significant implications for Kazakhstan’s space ambitions, according to analysis provided by Anna Gussarova in the Eurasia Daily Monitor …

The Ukrainian national space agency, the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU), is proposing to build a space launch centre in northwest Australia according to a report published in The West Australian newspaper. The SSAU is proposing that the Western Australian State and Australian Federal Government provide a commercial lease …

The proposed national space programme of Ukraine for 2018-2022, and prepared by the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU), could be submitted to the government for consideration in April 2018, according to a source in the Ukrainian space and rocket industry, reports Interfax-Ukraine. “At present, the agency has completed the …

Precious Payload, the brain child of Andrey Maskimov and Andrei Rebrov, is aiming to transform the way in which small satellite operators secure their launches. As we heard at Satellite 2018 this year, small satellites are being hit by a launch bottleneck and are mostly reduced to piggybacking on larger …

The recent InSpace Forum held in Moscow demonstrated progress in cooperation and dialogue between Russia’s state-run space companies and its fledgling New Space sector, reports Anastasiya Svarovskaya. The InSpace Forum 2018 held in Moscow on 21 March 2018 considered ways for the business sector and the state to cooperate in …

The Azeri ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Shahin Abdullayev, has told reporters that Azerbaijan seeks to enter into cooperative agreements with Saudi Arabia in satellite technology, petrochemicals, energy, agriculture, and tourism. “We launched two satellites and we reached advanced levels in this sector. We aim to be among the top producers …

Saudi Arabia is thought to be footing the financial bill for a hypersonic spaceplane concept capable of launching small satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) being developed by Ukrainian space company Yuzhnoye, according to Russian space journalist Anatoly Zak writing in Popular Mechanics. According to Zak citing sources, the Yuzhnoye project …

In Spring 2017 Glavkosmos, a leading company representing the interests of the Russian space industry on the international market, announced the creation of an operator of commercial launches called GK Launch Services, which will utilize the Soyuz-2 rocket launched from Russian-based cosmodromes. We talked to Alexander Serkin, CEO of the …

In part three of a three-part feature, Vitaly Egorov describes Russia’s modern posture in space and the challenges and possible ways of development of the national space industry. In this third and final part, Vitaly looks at how commercial alternatives can help fulfill Russia’s space ambitions and honour its heritage.  Commercial Alternative …

In part two of a three-part feature, Vitaly Egorov describes Russia’s modern posture in space and the challenges and possible ways of development of the national space industry. This second part looks at how space exploration is often associated with extremely ambitious goals. Which one will Russia choose for the next …