The press secretary of the President of Russia said that this process is too expensive
MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov is convinced that the process of space exploration without the participation of the state with the involvement of only private investment is impossible.
"Of course, space exploration is virtually impossible without the leading role of the state. This is too expensive, too voluminous process and capital-intensive, " Peskov told reporters on Monday, answering the question whether it is possible for private space initiatives to appear in Russia without the participation of the state, similar to the suborbital flight of billionaire Richard Branson, which he made on Sunday.
Peskov stressed that the implementation of space projects exclusively on private money is "also a very rare example." "As a rule, private cosmonautics is somehow connected with quasi-support from the state. These are various forms of subsidies, loans, government orders, and so on, and so on," he explained.
Nevertheless, according to Peskov, " there will be more and more private investment in this area, and the applied nature of space exploration will also grow." "As this applied angle expands, the number of private investments will increase," the Kremlin representative expressed hope.
Peskov also noted that there is a private initiative in the space sector in Russia as well. "We are also a country where private investments have also been carried out for several years. You remember the "Sea Launch". There was a good share of private investment there, " the press secretary of the head of state gave an example.
About Branson's flight
Billionaire and founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson and five other employees of the company on Sunday made a flight to the edge of space, rising to an altitude of 86 km on board the Unity-22 spacecraft. The entire journey lasted for them about an hour, and the space passengers experienced a feeling of weightlessness for only a few minutes. The crew, in addition to the billionaire, included test pilots Dave Makai and Michael Masucci, Sirisha Bundle, who is responsible for research at Virgin Galactic, Colin Bennett, the company's lead engineer, and Beth Moses, the head of the astronaut training program.
Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin, in an interview with TASS, expressed the hope that Russian billionaires will also "start spending money" on the development of space technologies.
