The CEO of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Bakanov detailed the county’s space program in an interview with Tass ahead of the first-ever Space Week, running in Russia from April 6-12.
“The national project comprises eight federal projects, each of which focuses on a specific area of space development. The first is navigation and communications, communications systems, and the development of the GLONASS system. The second is Earth remote sensing, observing our planet from space—optics, essentially photography from space. The third is the creation of carrier rockets and the operation of spaceports. The fourth is manned spaceflight. The fifth is deep space and the lunar program. The sixth is space nuclear energy. The seventh is modernizing industry to the most advanced standards. The eighth is human resources for space. In other words, each of these areas is very significant,” he said.
Bakanov said he would not consider any one of these areas as more important than another. “It’s like choosing which of your children you love more—your son, your daughter, your older one, or your younger one,” the head of the state corporation said. Elaborating, he said, “There’s always been this romantic image surrounding manned space exploration. But without communications and images from space, we simply can’t do anything now. Take away space navigation, GLONASS, disable navigation in phones and cars—no one can imagine life without these services anymore. It’s also impossible to imagine modern life without meteorology and terrain mapping. All of this is accomplished using space capabilities,” Baknov noted.
