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Rogozin: No clear policy to develop space industry

Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin rejected the arguments by those who considered low wages one of the reasons for the crash

MOSCOW, August 5 (Itar-Tass) - Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Russia has no clear policy to develop the space industry.

“There are no specialists who have experience in strategic planning to develop the space industry and ensure its reliability,” Rogozin said at a special meeting devoted to the Proton-M crash.

At the same time, the Vice-Premier rejected the arguments by those who considered low wages one of the reasons for the crash. “They [wages] will be low when the big number of enterprises works on the same tasks,” he added.

Rogozin recalled that the functions of a client, a maker and an operator had not been divided yet. “There are no key political purposes in the space industry: what we want and what global political and pragmatic tasks we set,” the vice-premier said.

“Much has been written, but never has come to anything in the end,” he said.

Rogozin said the Proton-M rocket had crashed due to the lack of labor discipline, criminal negligence and the casual attitude from the Russian Federal Space Agency.

“This is the standard rocket. What is new in it?” he said. “How can you install sensors wrong? The whole process is regulated,” Rogozin said, adding that the Roskosmos leadership had removed itself from the development of the space infrastructure on the Earth and “considers rockets launches the key task”.

Till the yearend the Russian Federal Space Agency hopes to make four or five launches of a Proton rocket. The first launch with a foreign satellite is planning to be held in September.

On July 2, the Proton-M rocket with the three Glonass-M satellites launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. However, the rocket changed its flight direction, started to fall and exploded.

According to Roskosmos, the rocket crashed due to the wrong installation of angular rate sensors, which helped monitor the rocket’s attitude in space. Earlier, Lopatin said, “The Khrunichev Centre installed three sensors out of the six ones.” “The sensors can be installed wrong by using physical force while sensors themselves were in good order,” he added.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted.

On July 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin set up a special commission to reform the aerospace sector. The commission is led by Vice-premier Dmitry Rogozin.

On August 2, the government press service reported that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev issued a reprimand to Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin for the improper execution of duties.