Yuri Borisov, Director General of the Roscosmos State Corporation, spoke about the new "Space" national project in an interview with RBC-TV. It was developed on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin.
According to the head of Roscosmos, the national project is already in the final stages of completion, and its main parameters have been agreed upon in the government. The document is "already ready for presentation to the president."
The main goal of "Space" is to create multi-satellite constellations jointly with private companies. This means that in the future, the number of satellite constellations in Russia will increase significantly during the implementation of the project: communication, remote sensing of the Earth, low-orbit, geostationary, highly elliptical.
Of course, this will require the development of advanced carriers, because the most important indicator is the cost of launching cargo into orbit. The lower it is, the better, and the greater the profitability and profitability of players in this market. You can develop a good line of satellites, but if you have expensive launch services due to the high cost of assembling the main launch vehicle, organizing launch services, then you lose all the margin. Therefore, a set of these measures, and the restructuring of the production model itself, the transition to conveyor production, are the components of the national project that should ensure the dynamic growth of our multi-satellite constellations. We really hope that our proposal will be heard. But everything depends, as you understand, on the financial and economic capabilities of the country. And I think that exactly as much will be allocated to this area as the country allows. But I believe that this is one of the priority areas for our economy today. [...] There are three scenarios. As always, we work with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy: minimal, optimal and maximal. Today it varies from 500 billion to 750 billion [rubles] with different proportions of budgetary and extra-budgetary funds.
Also in the interview, Borisov noted that attracting private traders will help the development of the space market. He cited the United States and other Western countries as examples, where 70% of all space services are created by private companies using multi-satellite constellations.
This process has only just started for us. In order for it to have the necessary dynamics, it is necessary to create conditions for private companies. They should understand where they will earn money, what is the profitability of these services. Because the services are high-tech, they require serious and long-cycle work organization. This is a very risky business for potential investors. But what makes them go into this market segment? The fact is that, according to forecasts, the space services market will grow dynamically by about 7–8% per year until 2035. This is a very serious growth. Space services today ensure the dynamic development of all sectors of the economy and, of course, the country's defense capability. This is what stimulates private companies to invest in satellite construction. This trend is global and sustainable. In the West, many companies, including Elon Musk, even have private spaceports, and a private spaceport has already appeared in China. I think that we will gradually come to this.
Earlier it became known that the Roscosmos State Corporation will soon receive the right to collect information about all spacecraft launched by Russian companies in Russia and abroad. This includes not only data on the technical parameters of satellites and their service life, but also information about what information these satellites transmit and to whom.
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