Space industry of Russia

Funding of the space program declined by 80% and the industry lost a large part of its work force before recovery began in the early 2000s.

As of 2013,[update] a major reorganization of the Russian space industry is underway, with increased state supervision and involvement of the ostensibly private companies formed in the early 1990s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The space industry of the Soviet Union was a formidable, capable and well-funded complex, which scored a number of great successes.

Spending on the space program peaked in 1989, when its budget totaled 6.9 billion rubles, amounting to 1.5% of the Soviet Union's gross domestic product.

The Russian Federation inherited the major part of the infrastructure and companies of the Soviet program (while others, such as Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, became Ukrainian), but found itself unable to continue the appropriate level of financing.

To an extent, this continued during the first years of the agency, which suffered from a lack of authority while the design bureaus fought to survive in the difficult environment.

Wages were also cut: for example at the leading rocket engine producer NPO Energomash, the average monthly salary during this time was 3,000 rubles ($104).

[8] The space industry's physical infrastructure declined greatly, and this was symbolised by a roof collapse in 2001 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome which destroyed the Buran shuttle which had flown the one and only flight of the program in 1988.

The rocket's manufacturer Lockheed Martin initially bought 101 RD-180 engines from Energomash, earning the company $1 billion in hard currency.

[11] In the early 2000s, during Vladimir Putin's presidency, the Russian economy started recovering, growing more each year than in all of the previous decade.

[15] As a result of a series of reliability problems, and proximate to the failure of a July 2013 Proton M launch, a major reorganization of the Russian space industry was undertaken.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said "the failure-prone space sector is so troubled that it needs state supervision to overcome its problems.

It is the country's main human spaceflight contractor, the lead developer of the Soyuz-TMA and Progress spacecraft and the Russian end of the International Space Station.

A large experience gained by the Russian propulsion industry on all types of rocket engines but in particular in oxygen hydrocarbon propellant and staged combustion system.