When summing up the results of 2004, Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov pointed out that, according to international analysts, "Russia accounted for 42.6% of all carrier rocket launches in the world last year." It is quite logical, therefore, that at the start of this year an agreement was signed between Roskosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) on the joint development of new transport systems.
However ambitious different countries' space plans may be, everything boils down to one thing: the spaceship in which cosmonauts or astronauts should fly or how a payload should be carried into space. Today, as interplanetary flights increasingly become a long-term goal in exploration, whereas current activities, primarily commercial ones, totally depend on carrier rockets, developing new means of space transport is a priority.
Indeed, this is exactly what we are witnessing: a real space rocket boom. And Russia is leading the way. George Bush issued instructions to his defense secretary and the NASA director earlier this year to devise a conceptual development for new heavy carrier rockets to be used in space exploration. On January 12, Japan successfully tested an improved booster for the H-2A rocket. The ESA, which includes 17 European countries, is modernizing the Ariane series and increases spending on developing new carrier rockets every year. Now Russia will be the ESA's main partner in this program. Even in Soviet times, Russia's space rocket development was a priority, often to the detriment of other areas in space exploration, for instance, the development of satellite systems.
As a result, despite meager space industry funding in the 1990s, something which has not entirely been reversed since the start of the new century, the capacities and the high quality of the country's rocket development have been enough to make Russia the world leader in the number of launches over thepast two years.
According to Mr. Perminov, after Russia with its 46.2% of the launches, comes the U.S. with 29.6%, leaving the Europeans (ESA) in third place with 5.6%. But the statistics are not the only thing that pleases Moscow. Russia's Soyuz rockets enjoy the highest global demand today. It accounted for 40% of the launches, while the Proton heavy carrier has maintained a stable 35%.
Besides, America's Futron Corporation, after studying the launch services market at the end of last year, recognized Proton as the most reliable rocket in the world. According to an official spokesman of the Khrunichev Space Center, "Russia's Proton has been recognized [by surveyed experts] as the most reliable and technological rocket in the world, and in the overall ratings this carrier was second only to American Atlas." The respondents in the survey included the chiefs of the largest world operators of satellite communication systems and satellite manufacturing companies, which together account for over a half of the space vehicles launched since 2000.
So, logic did not fail the Europeans when they were choosing a partner. Under the January 19 agreement signed between Roskosmos and ESA, joint work is to be conducted to develop cryogen multiple-use engines, reusable rocket stages and vehicles for multiple space transport systems.
Both Russia and America are pinning hopes on the latter in terms of future programs to research near-Earth and deep space.
In this connection, Russia, taking into account the technical experience of joint work on the Shuttle-Mir program and the International Space Station (ISS), recently confirmed a proposal to the US to unify future ships' systems.
"We have suggested making a Russian promising spaceship, Klipper, and a manned U.S. research ship fully compatible and interchangeable at all the main stages of space flights," Mr. Perminov said. In his view, "Russian and American spaceships could dock with one another for crewtransfer, refuel each other and rescue a crew in a foreign spaceship in an emergency."
It can only be hoped that common interests with regard to transport systems will allow both countries not only to model joint expeditions in future but also to work effectively on existing common research programs.
