Putin Celebrates Gagarin Flight Anniversary, Vows Russia will Remain a Leader in Space Amid Sanctions
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
On Tuesday, Russia celebrated the 61st anniversary of the Soviet Union’s launch of the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, with a presidential visit to a scandal-plagued spaceport, a pledge to stay the course in the face of international sanctions over the Ukraine invasion, and an initiative to fly a citizen of one of the nation’s closest allies into space.
“Everything that we’ve seen during our visit to Vostochny, all successes in space exploration achieved in recent years prove that our country retains its leadership in space industry, is one of the leaders in this area,” President Vladimir Putin said during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East.
The construction of the Vostochny spaceport is running years behind schedule and has been plagued by waste, fraud and abuse. The manager of one contractor who was accused of embezzling money was arrested driving a diamond encrusted Mercedes.
Russia has been struggling to keep pace with the United States and China in space. In recent years, Russia has fallen to third in the number of orbital launches conducted annually.
TASS reports that Putin made remarks during a joint press conference with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. The Russian leader has tasked the state-run Roscosmos corporation that controls the nation’s space program to arrange a spaceflight for a Belarussian citizen.
Wikipedia lists three cosmonauts — Pyotr Klimuk, Vladimir Kovalyonok and Oleg Novitski — who were born in Belarus when it was a republic of the Soviet Union. Klimuk was the first Belorussian in space when he launched aboard Soyuz 13 in December 1973. Kovalyonok, whose nationality is listed as Belorussian, retired in 1984 after three spaceflights. Novitski, who is listed as Russian, is an active cosmonaut who has spent more than 531 days in space.
TASS reported that Roscosmos and Belarus also plan to pursue several other space initiatives.
Speaking about the Earth’s remote sensing, Putin said that Russia had commenced a large-scale project for producing and launching special satellites “and for this purpose, Russia has integrated its scientific and industrial potential with leading Belarusian enterprises that have been renowned since the Soviet period for their competences in the manufacture of hi-tech equipment, complex optoelectronic and radio-technical systems.”
“Another important and landmark area of our interaction will be the joint creation of infrastructure that will guarantee the Union State an independent access to outer space. Workers and specialists of Belarusian companies and enterprises will shortly get an opportunity to participate in developing the town of Tsiolkovsky and the Vostochny spaceport,” Putin elaborated.
Putin vowed Russia would continue to carry out a vigorous space program despite Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine that have limited imports of key technologies. He said Roscosmos would pursue new spacecraft as well as nuclear propulsion.
Putin also pledged to restore a lunar exploration program that has been on hold since the Soviet Union launched the Luna 24 sample return mission in August 1976. The president received assurances from Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin that the Luna 25 lunar lander would be ready for launch by the third quarter of this year, TASS reports.
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced earlier today that it was ending cooperation with Roscosmos on the Luna-25, Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The space agency said it was busy securing rides on U.S. and Japanese spacecraft for some of the contributions intended for the Russian lunar missions.
Putin also pledged to better publicize Russian achievements in space.
“This is a very important issue. [Writer] Daniil Granin once told me that the government should pay more attention to this – to science in general and to high-tech industries such as space, too,” Putin noted. “We will create films, we will work on relevant literature – as practical tasks. We’ll popularize all this in schools,” he explained.
According to President Putin, Russia’s achievements in space are something we can and should be proud of, and “something that attracts talented young people to the industry.” “Of course, this is one of the most important fields,” he maintained.
Sources
- Russia to carry through all space exploration plans despite outside pressure, says Putin https://tass.com/science/1436369
- Putin tasks Roscosmos to organize space flight for representatives of Belarus https://tass.com/science/1436301
- Russia to restore its moon program, to launch Luna-25 spacecraft — Putin https://tass.com/science/1436337
- Putin sets sights on boosting popularity of space industry https://tass.com/science/1436593
22 responses to “Putin Celebrates Gagarin Flight Anniversary, Vows Russia will Remain a Leader in Space Amid Sanctions”
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Meanwhile, it looks like the Putin needs a new flagship. Wonder how the Russians are going to afford both their space program and a new military…
https://www.reuters.com/wor…
Russia says ammunition blast badly damages major ship in Black Sea fleet – Interfax
April 13, 20226:47 PM CDT
“A Ukrainian official earlier said the Moskva had been hit by two missiles but did not give any evidence.”
Yep, an ammunition blast…
It was damaged by an ammunition blast, alright, but the ammunition in question wasn’t Russian – except for the secondaries. If Moskva should be lost, she’ll be hard to replace. Only three of her class were ever built and the other two are assigned to the Pacific and Northern Fleets. And Moskva is/was fairly big – 12,500 tons. That’s more than 25% larger than a Ticonderoga or an Arleigh Burke.
The Moskva (formerly named Slava) is nearly 30 years old and obsolete. Her size was dictated by the above top deck external canister launchers for 16 large supersonic SS-N-12 Sandbox anti-shipping missile. The cruiser class was basically mobile missile launch platforms for attacking USN carriers.
It been suggested that the Slava class cruisers is likely to more susceptible to catastrophic damage with the external Sandbox canister missile launchers and the supposedly aluminum superstructure due to excessive top weight. Also the relatively small 500 crew complement means there isn’t much damage control capability.
The Slava class’s primary air search radar system isn’t that good against modern surface skimming anti-shipping cruise missiles. There is only 2 long range fire control radar for the long range surface to air missiles.
But it is big and impressive, and Putin likes big and impressive ships, which is why he returned the Moskva to service. This must make him angry, very angry, indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Yeah, they are big ships but not impressive.
Putin can have the obsolete Moskva or a mid size destroyer as the Black Sea Fleet flagship. He choose to give the Moskva a minimal service life extension. The old Moskva is cheaper to operated than a modern destroyer.
Unlike Marvin the Martian, Putin is getting more deranged not angry with every new unfavorable event.
True, Marvin is actually a nice guy when he’s not trying to blow up the Earth.?
Maybe Putin will replace it with the Nuclear Battle Cruiser Admiral Nakhimov which should be out of the dry dock soon. Now that would be a nice target.
Speaking of targets it appears that the Russia Navy has suddenly decided to move away from the coastline of Ukraine…
The ship was clearly hit by Ukrainian kinetic. Other Russian ships have changed their steaming pattern and Russian Awacs has moved into the Black Sea
I would note two things (these are my own views )
First this reflects a general incompetency in the Russian military. troops/sailors have little it seems trust in their equipment, their units or their commanders. I suspect as soon as she was hit people started leaving her.
If we wanted to. we could take moscow
Second. This is probably a chalk up for White Cloud.
about 5 minutes before the missile was fired a NOSS 4-3 completed a nearly 80 degree pass over the black sea. White Cloud probably narrowed the CEP to under 200 feet, since I suspect the Russian was radiating like a Christmas tree
after that. it was easy 🙂 Fly safe
True. But the rest of the combatants in the Russian Black Sea Fleet are quite a bit smaller and even older. Given the truck-mounted portability of Neptune missile batteries, none of the remaining Black Sea Fleet ships will be able to come within gun range of the coast and even coming within sight of land would likely prove fatal.
https://www.bbc.com/news/wo…
If it doesn’t sink it will take them years to rebuild it, assuming they have a shipyard to do so and the money. It was the pride of the Black Sea Fleet so this is payback for the AN-225.
IIRC the shipyard that build the Slava class of cruisers is in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. If there is a superstructure fire aboard the Moskva than it is likely not repairable.
Putin will rebuild it, even if its a burned out hulk, not because it makes sense, but because of Russian pride. Hopefully the Ukrainians will hit it again.
Maybe he’ll raise it and put a wave motion cannon in its bow—-nah…that’s been done.
Well it sank, so it definitely was not repairable. I wonder how many of the Admirals will be getting an all expenses paid trip to Siberia, courtesy of Putin…
https://apnews.com/article/…
Russian military’s damaged Black Sea flagship sinks
By ADAM SCHRECK
April 14, 2022
“The loss of the warship named for the Russian capital is a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital.’
As a side note, this will be a big boost to the Ukraine aerospace industry since the Neptune cruise missile is available for export. Imagine, a truck, with a crew of less than a dozen, was able to sink the biggest warship in the Black Sea Fleet.
It appears that the pre-conflict suggestions that the Slava class is quite fragile appears to be corrected. Think the cruiser took on too much sea water from the fire damages and keeled over in rough seas.
As per tradition. The Neptune missile battery crew will get mention in dispatches and be given medals and monetary rewards.
this is the future of surface ships. few of them will survive any sort of anti ship missile…including the CVNS
We’re addicted to building the CVNs — they’re so incredibly useful in peacetime and with relatively minor or distant conflicts, and they cannot be unaccounted for by anyone, but that’s also why they’re such fat juicy (valuable) targets and now so vulnerable
they also feed the MIC 🙂
They’re not particularly vulnerable and are getting less so, not more so, as time goes by.
CVNs are a lot bigger and tougher than Moska was. And they don’t operate solo.
and there wont be 2 missiles launched at them. it wont matter the AEGIS defense will crumble in 10 minutes
There won’t be dozens either. Neither Russia nor the PRC has any realistic ability to smother a CVN and her escorts in missile fire by surprise. Your evaluation of Aegis’s ability to resist attacks is probably about on a par with your predictions of quick Russian victory in Ukraine.