The hype didn't come out. Why Russia is not participating in the race for the rich in space

And & nbsp; wants, and & nbsp; spades

July 11 & nbsp; British & nbsp; Branson & nbsp; & mdash; 71-year-old creator of dozens of companies and & nbsp; record holder of & nbsp; flights on & nbsp; balloons & mdash; I saw the Earth from a height of 86 km. 57 year old American Bezos & nbsp; & mdash; owner of the internet empire Amazon and & nbsp; richest man in the world & mdash; delayed by & nbsp; of several days. But on July 20, he climbed for a few minutes in real space, above 100 km. Bezos sold the only free space on his ship for $ 28 million. The & nbsp; auction, which determined the name of the lucky one, brought together 7.6 thousand people from & nbsp; 159 countries. & Nbsp;

Russian company CosmoCourse planned to throw tourists even higher: to & nbsp; 180 km. A dollar billionaire also backed the idea, only from the Russian Forbes list. Several years ago, he expressed a wish to invest $ 150 million in space. But who is this person and how much he actually spent on & nbsp; is not known for sure. His project did not go beyond the drawings.

The official version of the closure of CosmoCourse & nbsp; & mdash; legal barriers that did not allow to coordinate the missile system with the & nbsp; Ministry of Defense and & nbsp; to obtain the authorization of the authorities to & nbsp; your cosmodrome in & nbsp; Nizhny Novgorod region. But the & nbsp; Virgin Galactic and & nbsp; Blue Origin, created by Branson and & nbsp; Bezos, also didn't work right away. The founder of the first went to & nbsp; his dream of 17 years, the second & nbsp; & mdash; 21. Virgin rocket plane testing twice resulted in crashes and the death of testers. Why are the richest people in the West going to the end and forcing people to speak about themselves with admiration, and our people are investing in the space anonymously like themselves? Were they embarrassed or even afraid of it?

“ Russian billionaires want to be like on Branson and Bezos … But for these owners, the space is & mdash; passion, childhood dream, and for our & mdash; football club type toy, & mdash; two different approaches are evaluated by an expert of the aerospace industry, associate professor of RANEPA Pavel Gribov … & mdash; A space project cannot be made for the hype, as they say now. It is a methodical, arduous and long process. Russian businessmen are not ready for this, but they want to try. Therefore, investments are not announced so as not to be embarrassed. At the same time, $ 150 million, which was to be invested in & bdquo; CosmoCourse & ldquo ;, & mdash; modest money, which is just enough to get started. & # 39; & # 39; & nbsp;

It's just not interesting

For power, of course, it's a shame: Russia has again lost leadership abroad in the field where it was a pioneer. But, if we put the emotions aside, is it worth worrying about? And & nbsp; if you are seriously worried then about & nbsp; what?

“ From a technical standpoint, the plans for Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are not difficult. This is a repeat of the technologies tested 50-60 years ago, & nbsp; & mdash; notes the head of the Institute for Space Policy Ivan Moiseev . & nbsp; & mdash; If the tourist rocket and launch complex of & nbsp; were included in the state program for the creation of new technologies, so & bdquo; Roskosmos & ldquo; such a task would be accomplished. But the state is not interested in space tourism. To pay for a flight lasting one and a half hours, under & nbsp; obligate only a very rich person, who are few in & nbsp; our country.

Space tourism pioneers from abroad will sell tickets all over the world. Virgin Galactis has been reserving places on its ship for several years now. A ticket to weightlessness costs $ 200,000 to $ 250,000. 600 people have already bought it. Or only 600 people, considering that this number is not enough for the amortization of the project. Is there at least one tech company in & nbsp; Russia able to reach the & nbsp; global level and & nbsp; years waiting for the return of the money invested? Certainly not, according to business experts.

“ No one is going to compete with world stars like Brason, Bezos or Mask . Large private companies in Russia, in principle, have little interest in promoting technology in other countries, & mdash; Gribov notes. & mdash; Almost all of our Forbes list members earn money in the Russian market or use Russian raw materials. And hardly any of those who have gone overseas have created any well-known projects there. & # 39; & # 39; & Nbsp;

The climate here is different

Generally speaking, in order to participate in the private business-rulers race, you must first raise your own private businesses. And & nbsp; they do not grow in the & nbsp; Russian climate. Space in our country has been monopolized by the state since Soviet times. The industry employs no more than 30 non-state companies. These are small businesses that don't have a serious production base, and clearly they don't do the weather. “ A team that doesn't have its own workshops, machine tools, test benches cannot build a space complex. She will have to place orders with & bdquo; Progress & ldquo ;, the Center. Khrunichev and other state-owned enterprises, & nbsp; & mdash; said Moiseev.

CEO of CosmoKurs; Pavel Pushkin says: possible entrepreneurs of & nbsp; & laquo; Roscosmos & raquo; made it clear that they would slow down work on the rocket for tourists if a larger and more expensive state mission arrived. To avoid this risk, CosmoCourse was going to build its own factory. But in the & nbsp; Russian situation and & nbsp; this is manilovism. “ Is Putin authorized it? And & nbsp; who made your investor spend the money? & Raquo; & nbsp; & mdash; asked Pushkin to & nbsp; one of the & nbsp; meetings. Read between the lines: Without government approval and support, a visible space project is impossible.

The largest player in the private space sector in Russia & mdash; S7 Space, member of Vladislav Filev's aerospace group. It owns the Sea Launch floating spaceport, built in the 1990s by an international consortium that included our company Energia. In 2016, Filev bought Energia this platform for 150 million dollars, and now it is set up in Primorsky territory. To start the launches, & nbsp; S7 Space you have to build your own rocket and find customers. The state approves this plan, but so far it has not taken a single step forward.

“ We turned to the government today to bring certainty, & mdash; S7 Space CEO Yevgeny Yelin described the situation the other day. & mdash; If the state needs such an infrastructure & mdash; it should not be a museum, but for launches, & mdash; as they make us a proposition: when is it supposed to start, what is supposed to start. And make a deal on it. If there is no need, this is also an answer, then we will already act one way or another based on our own considerations. ' ; & # 39;

Which Russian space is losing

“ I hope one day our billionaire oligarchs start spending their money not on regular yachts and vanity fairs, but on the development of space technology and space knowledge and the raquo;, & nbsp; & mdash; & mdash; after Branson leaked, Roscosmos boss tweeted Dmitry Rogozin. “ This is now out of the question, & nbsp; & mdash; of course Moiseev. & nbsp; & mdash; For entrepreneurs to invest in space, they need either direct benefits or gains from positive public relations. Foreign billionaires receive these gains, as bright space projects & nbsp; & mdash; part of their big tech business, including the airline, internet, or auto industry. And & nbsp; in Russia there are no companies of this scale and type, and & nbsp; & nbsp; incentives to create them from a private company either. Too much negative news is being generated by our space industry, which is in & nbsp; a prolonged seizure.

And & nbsp; ultimately, it's not bad that there aren't entrepreneurs with Russian names among Branson's competitors and & nbsp; Bezos, and & nbsp; that space services for businesses and the public are underdeveloped. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture receives images of crops for free, but agricultural companies do not use them because they cannot decipher them. Government structures cannot look to the end user of spatial information. And & nbsp; this is not possible without the participation of private companies. & # 39; & # 39;

Источник aif.ru

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