Russia&CIS

In this week’s Space Cafè WebTalk, Dr. Bleddyn E. Bowen, Lecturer in International Relations, Space Policy/Warfare Expert at University of Leicester talked about his new book War in Space: Strategy, Spacepower, Geopolitics

The heads of the space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency (ESA) are scheduled to meet on 9 June 2020 via video conference in order to discuss cooperation on lunar exploration and the International Space Station (ISS).

In separate media appearances last week, Russian and Chinese diplomatic and military officials have criticised US – and allied – military space programmes and ambitions.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, has said that Russia is designing a new “orbital” station where crews will build deep space probes to explore the Solar System.

Russia and China are currently in talks to pool their resources for joint lunar operations, according to several Russian and international news media sources.

The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos is to develop a low-Earth orbit (LEO) space surveillance satellite that will help monitor space debris and should be launched by 2027, according to a senior Roscosmos official in remarks to the TASS news agency on 28 May 2020.

Sputnix, a Russian privately-owned satellite component manufacturer, has signed a memorandum with Mitsui & Co. Moscow, the Russian subsidiary of Japanese company Mitsui & Co., on 25 May 2020.

A senior official from the Russian state space corporation, Roscosmos, has indicated that Russia is open to discussions with the United States regarding Russia’s role in the Artemis lunar programme – in particular the Lunar Gateway mission – within the framework of NASA’s proposed Artemis Accords.

The TsNIIMash rocket and spacecraft scientific center has confirmed the destruction in the earth’s orbit of tanks of the Russian Fregat-SB upper stage, the press service of Roscosmos space agency told TASS on Sunday, 10 May 2020.

Yevgeny Mikrin, the head of Russia's human spaceflight program, has died, the country's space agency Roscosmos announced on 5 May 2020. The statement did not specify a cause of death, but a report in Space.com indicates Mikrin had tested positive for Covid-19 last month.