Dmitry Rogozin: sanctions against Russian space program substitute their U.S. astronauts to the ISS
Дмитрий
Рогозин: Санкциями против российской
космической программы США подставляют
своих космонавтов на МКС
Russian
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that everything was just
tired of the sanctions that the United States continue to impose
against Russia. He wonders, do the Americans do not realize that the
sanctions are "boomerang" will affect them
29
April, 2014
At
a meeting with reporters in Simferopol Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Rogozin said that by introducing sanctions against Russia , the
Americans substituted its astronauts to the ISS, as any gun
restrictions affect U.S. residents.
"His
sanctions they, frankly, have already got, without even realizing
that the sanctions are" boomerang "hit on him by" -
the words of the Russian official Interfax.
In
particular, Rogozin mentioned rocket science, it is this area, he
said, the Americans want to "clean up." "If they want
to strike at Russian rocketry, they are automatically" boomerang
" substitute its astronauts to the International Space Station
", - says Dmitry Rogozin.
He also stressed in space sanctions hit not Russia, and the European Space Agency, which produces satellites element base in Russia. "And now these satellites are not wanted," - concluded the Deputy Prime Minister.
Earlier
today, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that in the near
future the United States may proceed to the fourth phase of sanctions
against Russia. This implies restrictions work with entire sectors of
the economy such as energy, financial and defense.
U.S. Space Restrictions on Russia May Strike Back
Moscow Times,
29
April, 2014
With
the latest restrictions on high-technology defense articles
and services announced Monday as part of new U.S. sanctions
on Russian officials and businesses over the conflict
in Ukraine, Washington is playing a dangerous game that may
wipe out two decades of closely cultivated commercial ties
between the Russian and U.S. space industries.
The moves
will have far-reaching implications for U.S. national security,
a high-level U.S. space industry leader told The Moscow
Times, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the issue.
Considering
that in 2013, Russian launch vehicles were used to transport
just under half of all commercial satellites into space,
the U.S. State Department may be jeopardizing national security
interests in the near term, since a number of the
satellites "may have Department of Defense-hosted payloads
on them or have national security customers," the industry
source said.
Moreover,
"about half of all U.S. military communications go through
commercial satellites. So there is a national security balance
that is being calculated … not only in terms of economic
fallout for U.S. companies and projects, but also national
security concerns," she said.
Never
at a loss for words, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Rogozin, who oversees the Russian space industry, mocked U.S.
policy, saying that "they do not understand that these sanctions
will boomerang back on themselves."
Rogozin
also tweeted that the "the U.S. should consider getting its
astronauts to the International Space Station using
a trampoline."
Проанализировав санкции против нашего космопрома, предлагаю США доставлять своих астронавтов на МКС с помощью батута http://russian.rt.com/article/29891
Cutting Russia Off
The export
restrictions, initially implemented in late March, prevent
the sale and shipment of any U.S.-built spacecraft —
including anything that uses U.S. components, such as most
European-made satellites — governed by the International
Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, "to the geographic
country of Russia and to Russian interests,"
the industry official told The Moscow Times.
The term
"Russian interests" is new to this round of export
license restrictions, the industry source said, and "unlike
other regulatory actions where there is a list and we know
exactly what it includes, this is a little interpretive,"
making it unclear exactly what this means for the industry.
Although
the license restrictions effectively prevent Russia
from purchasing Western space hardware, Moscow is free to pursue
commercial interaction with industries not regulated by ITAR,
such as China's space industry, providing further impetus for Russia
to pursue closer defense and space relations with China.
Last
week, Russian Federal Space Agency chief Oleg Ostapenko said that
Russia does not need Western space technology, and that their
industry was self-sufficient. He also pledged deeper cooperation with
China in space issues.
Wikicommons
A Proton-M
rocket preparing for launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Nikolai
Testoyedov, head of Information Satellite Systems, a major
Russian satellite maker, told Interfax on Monday that his
company is now pursuing what he called "ITAR-free" designs.
"We
have no doubts that within the framework of international
labor division we will successfully build spacecraft and platforms
for them that will be free from ITAR restrictions," he
said, adding that this could be done by developing domestic
technologies and tapping into European, Chinese and U.S.
hardware that is not covered by ITAR regulations.
Regardless
of the Russian ability to weather these restrictions,
the U.S. decision will be a significant blow to the
Russian commercial launch industry — a significant source
of nongovernment funding for the Russian space industry —
and therefore potentially opens the door to a Russian
reprisal against U.S. space efforts in the long term.
Russian Rocket Monopoly
Prime
among these vulnerabilities is the U.S. dependence on a
valuable Russian rocket engine — the RD-180 — that
currently surpasses the capabilities of anything produced
domestically. This engine is produced solely for export to U.S.
customers by Russia's Energomash, a subsidiary
of state-owned Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, which
also owns Sea Launch, one of the companies that will be hardest
hit by export license restrictions.
These
engines are used to power the first stage of the Atlas
V rocket, the workhorse of the U.S. launch fleet, which is
frequently called upon to lift U.S. Air Force, National
Reconnaissance Office and NASA payloads into orbit.
Although
the U.S. has about two years worth of RD-180 engines
stockpiled on American soil, it is vulnerable to a
potential Russian ban on their export. U.S.-made engines are
nowhere near as capable as their Russian counterparts, and there
is currently no competitor in development. Calls have recently
been made on Capitol Hill to pursue a crash program
to develop a U.S.-made RD-180 to no avail.
Concern
that the RD-180 supplies are unreliable is buttressed by the
fact that last year, the Russian Security Council openly
discussed implementing an export ban on the engines
in light of their value to the U.S. military
and intelligence community, but with no Russian domestic demand
for the RD-180s, no action along these lines has been taken.
Last
week, Ostapenko said that Russia had no intention of halting
exports of the RD-180, but stressed that the status
of these exports depended on U.S. actions.
If
Russia bans exports of the RD-180, it will be a harsh blow
to U.S. national security interests.
Two Key Players
The danger
comes from the impact that the license restrictions will
have on the two major U.S.-Russian joint ventures responsible
for selling Russian commercial launches on the
international market: International Launch Services, based in Reston,
Virginia and Sea Launch, based in Long Beach, California.
The U.S.
government has limited these companies' access to Western
customers by restricting exports on high-technology defense
articles and services to Russia and "the occupied
territory of Crimea" by restricting the issuance
of new export licenses and moving to restrict existing
ones, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a
statement on the agency's website Monday.
U.S.
launch providers such as United Launch Alliance and SpaceX have
fully booked launch schedules for the next two years, and will
not likely have the production capacity to meet a surge
in demand.
Wikicommons
A Sea
Launch Zenit rocket blasting off from its floating launch pad
on the Pacific Ocean at the Earth's equator.
The export
restrictions followed a Canadian government decision last week
to pull a maritime services satellite from launching
aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan in June.
Meanwhile,
International Launch Services, or ILS, which sells commercial
launches of the venerable Proton-M rocket, said that no changes have
been made to their launch manifest.
"ILS
has all the necessary U.S. State Department authorizations
in place to execute manifested launches through 2016. New
licenses will be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis by the
U.S. State Department," spokeswoman Karen Monaghan told
The Moscow Times by e-mail.
"ILS
is actively reaching out to key U.S. government decision-makers
in order to inform them of the importance of Proton
to the U.S. and international commercial satellite market,"
Monaghan said.
If
ILS is cut off from Western launch customers, it will likely be
able to stay afloat despite the U.S. export restrictions
by virtue of its exclusive contracts with Russian companies
such as Gazprom Space Systems.
Its
survival prospects may not even ultimately be tested. Monaghan said
ILS has not yet received any indication from the U.S. State
Department that its existing export licenses are being revoked, and
stressed that the company is pursuing its launch manifest as planned.
Sea
Launch, on the other hand, is significantly more vulnerable.
Since
its creation in 1995 as a joint venture between Russia's
Energia, the U.S.' Boeing and two other companies, Sea
Launch has successfully launched its Ukrainian-built Zenit-3SL rocket
31 times from its floating launch pad on the equator.
However,
in recent years the company has fallen on hard times.
2014 was intended to be a make or break year for the
company after its operations were temporarily suspended when it
suffered a launch failure in January 2013.
The crisis
in Ukraine has not only jeopardized Sea Launch's access
to Western customers, it has also brought about a serious
supply chain problem pending a complete breakdown in commercial
relations between the Russian and Ukrainian space
industries — a scenario that would spell an end
to Sea Launch.
"Our
rocket stages are manufactured in Ukraine using approximately 70
percent Russian components … so to the extent that
the Russian-Ukrainian conflict escalates, the ability
to get hardware out of our supply chain would potentially
come into question," said Peter Stier, vice president
of sales and marketing at Sea Launch.
The Zenit
3SL rocket is manufactured by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau
and Yuzhmash machine works in Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine,
but 70 percent of its components are manufactured by Energia
in Moscow.
"Certainly
in the long run cooperation between Ukraine and Russia is
essential for us, for our company, in order
to survive," said Stier.
RSC
Energia has poured significant funding into Sea Launch, having
rescued the troubled joint-venture from bankruptcy in 2010
and becoming the 95-percent majority owner of the
company.
It
is important to recall the rationale for all of this
interdependency, the space industry source said.
"There
was an original concern about the space sector and space
capabilities being captured by the right countries at the
end of the Cold War, and that those were not being diverted
for economic gain to other more harmful customers. I think
that is still an abiding concern," the source said.
Due
to an editing error, an earlier version of this story incorrectly
cited Interfax reporting that export license restrictions had lead to
the cancellation of Luxembourg and Turkish communication satellites
slated to launch aboard International Launch Services Proton-M
rockets from the Baikonur Cosmodrome this summer. It has also been
updated with comments from ILS clarifying that none of their launches
have been cancelled as a result of U.S. State Department export
license restrictions.
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