Instead of Yuri Borisov, Roscosmos was headed by Dmitry Bakanov, who in recent years has been in charge of innovative development issues at the Ministry of Transport, including projects on unmanned vehicles. Borisov, under whom a series of trouble-free rocket launches continued, set the bar high. What do experts expect from the new head of Roscosmos and what tasks will he have to solve first?
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday dismissed Yuri Borisov from the post of Director General of Roscosmos and appointed instead 39-year-old Dmitry Bakanov, who previously served as deputy Minister of Transport.
Bakanov is a graduate of St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance, PhD in Economics. During his studies, he worked as a financial analyst in various organizations, and since 2008, at Sitronics OJSC (one of the largest technology companies in Russia), he worked his way up from a specialist in the internal control and audit department to head of the procurement department.
Prior to joining the Ministry of Transport, Bakanov led the Gonets satellite system from 2011 to 2019. Gonets is a single operator for Roscosmos communication, broadcasting and retransmission systems. Bakanov was actively involved in innovative development issues at the Ministry of Transport, including projects on unmanned vehicles.
In 2019, the future head of Roscosmos headed the department of digital transformation, and in the spring of 2022 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Transport. Since 2023, he has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of GLONASS JSC.
Yuri Borisov has been the head of Roscosmos since July 2022, replacing Dmitry Rogozin. Until January last year, Borisov was also the special representative of the President for international cooperation in the field of space. Before joining Roscosmos, Borisov worked as deputy chairman of the government for four years, responsible for the defense industry and Roscosmos, and before that he was Deputy Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for almost six years.
As the Kremlin explained, "there are no complaints against Yuri Borisov." "The rotation is underway, the corporation needs to develop dynamically," said Dmitry Peskov, the president's press secretary. According to an RBC source, most of the employees of the state corporation did not know about the personnel decision until Thursday morning and "everything happened in one evening."
The State Duma believes that the personnel changes at Roscosmos are related to a request for major changes in the industry. According to Denis Kravchenko, first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Economic policy, the corporation needs "a young, energetic, ambitious and at the same time mature professional leader."
Kravchenko is well acquainted with Bakanov, because in the past he worked with him in the same team. "He was one of the progressive leaders of an industry company that was developing quite actively at that moment," the deputy said.
Kravchenko calls Bakanov's new appointment justified. "In this position, he will have to answer the challenges that the Russian rocket and space industry and Russia as a whole face today, because achieving the technological sovereignty that the president is talking about is impossible without success in space exploration," the deputy stressed.
Bakanov's tasks include the construction of new launch vehicles, more efficient satellite assembly, and a large–scale expansion of the space group. "I hope that Bakanov will be able to find a balance between private companies and state-owned enterprises, distribute the load and functionality between them. This will make it possible to make a breakthrough in the industry," Kravchenko said.
The expert community also emphasizes that Bakanov will have to deal with a wide range of tasks that directly affect Russia's national security.
"Regardless of who becomes the head of Roscosmos, the main list of tasks does not change," emphasizes scientific journalist Mikhail Kotov. "We need a dense satellite constellation responsible for voice communications. It should also work in the circumpolar regions," the source continued. "Satellite groupings are needed over the entire territory of Russia for remote sensing of the Earth and broadband Internet access."
Alexey Anpilogov, President of the Foundation for the Support of Scientific Research and the Development of Civil Initiatives "Foundation", agrees with this. According to him, the implementation of the Sphere project, the Russian equivalent of the Starlink satellite constellation of American entrepreneur Elon Musk, "will provide broadband Internet access, as well as Earth sensing."
He also pointed out the importance of implementing the project to create the Russian Space Station (ROS). "The location of the existing International Space Station (ISS) in orbit is determined by the operating time of the Russian segment. At the moment when Russia decides to leave the ISS, the project will be in a state of crisis and is unlikely to overcome it," the source believes.
According to the expert, under the new head, Roscosmos will not limit itself to exploring the Moon and near-lunar space, but will also return to interplanetary research.
"It's not for nothing that in the 20th century Venus was called the "Russian planet." It was the USSR that provided the exploration of this extremely interesting and turbulent world in our Solar System. There are still tasks of exploring Mars, small space bodies, as well as giant planets. Solving these problems will advance science and the development of civilization as a whole," the analyst argues.
Another key task for Bakanov will be military space, in particular the development of "satellite inspection and interception systems." "I am optimistic about the future of Russian space. In my opinion, Russia has overcome the crisis that everyone predicted in the 2000s and is moving forward confidently," Anpilogov shared.
According to Kotov, there are other complex tasks on the agenda for the full functioning of satellite groups. "We need convenient terminals, a network of ground stations, control points, and missiles that can launch grouping devices and deploy them point–by-point if some of them are lost," the expert added.
According to him, it is also necessary to expand the grouping of satellites for the GLONASS navigation system. Kotov particularly noted the importance of the project to develop a reusable two-stage launch vehicle Soyuz-7 (formerly Amur-LNG, Soyuz-LNG) of a medium class powered by an RD-0169 methane engine. "We also need big and applied science, import substitution, and the Internet of Things," the expert believes.
As for Borisov's achievements, Anpilogov believes that a lot has been done in two and a half years. In 2023, 18 space launches were carried out, which made it possible to achieve the figure of 116 trouble-free launches in a row. Last year, the Angara-A5 heavy-class rocket was launched. "Our new rocket has left the test period and is slowly entering the zone of permanent operation," the expert emphasized.
In addition, under Borisov, Roscosmos returned to exploring interplanetary space. The launch of the Luna-25 automatic interplanetary station, although unsuccessful, added motivation. "The previous experience has been critically evaluated, and now the corporation is working on two stations that should fly to the Moon in the near future," Anpilogov said. Finally, Borisov solved "planned tasks", among which, for example, replenishment of the GLONASS group.
"Ten years ago, there were jokes that new satellites had joined the Pacific Group, hinting that a rocket carrying spacecraft had crashed somewhere. It's a thing of the past now.
Satellites are regularly deployed in order to replace those that have already de-orbited or lost their service life," the specialist said.
Anpilogov drew attention to the difference between the approaches of Roscosmos and SpaceX, led by Musk. "The American company aims to launch another prototype as soon as possible in order to test it in flight. Whether it exploded or not is a matter of the third order. Russian specialists conduct various bench tests, and then, having made sure of the reliability of the product, launch it with a payload," the analyst explained.
According to Kotov, Bakanov can find a common language with Musk. "Any head of Roscosmos can be Musk's interlocutor, if they have something to talk about and if they are not hindered by political and other tensions," the speaker believes.
Anastasia Kulikova,
Andrey Rezchikov
