Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has a signed a government directive consolidating the country’s space industry assets in to a single corporation, the United Rocket and Space Corporation (USRC).
In his meeting with Russia’s deputy prime…
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has a signed a government directive consolidating the country’s space industry assets in to a single corporation, the United Rocket and Space Corporation (USRC).
In his meeting with Russia’s deputy prime ministers on 3 February, Medvedev stated: “Under this directive, the new corporation will take over 10 integrated structures comprising 48 different organisations and 14 companies. The corporation will be 100% owned by the state.”
The move follows President Vladimir Putin signing an executive order in December to establish USRC through consolidating the country’s main developers and producers of space rockets and satellite equipment.
Its creation is the result of an investigation into the troubled Russian space industry following a series of Proton rocket failures. As part of its damning assessment, the commission set up for this investigation found that the national space agency, Roscosmos, had only launched 47.1% of the required number of satellites into orbit between 2010 and 2012.
Explaining the need for the USRC, Medvedev said: “This industry needs to be overhauled to meet the requirements of our armed forces and space programmes with the required types of aerospace technology, and to improve ground infrastructure, in particular, creating space centres, which are very complex facilities technologically.
“I hope that the optimisation of this industry in accordance with the Presidential executive order and the directive that I have signed will create the necessary conditions for the industry’s development.”
Following the signing of the directive, the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) will start drafting several documents on assessing the value of the shares and corporatisation of the state aerospace enterprises.
According to Igor Komarov, deputy head of Roscosmos and the man widely tipped to be appointed head of USRC by mid-2014, these state enterprises are expected to be converted into 100% federally owned open joint stock companies. The next stage, which is likely to take place in 2015, will see the government contribute 100% of the stock of these enterprises, minus one share, to the USRC’s authorised share capital. This will technically be defined as payment for additional shares floated by USRC following the expansion of its authorised share capital.
