Russia to review aerospace industry reform project on September 4

The Russian government will consider a project to reform the aerospace industry on September 4, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote in his Twitter. "The Roskosmos aerospace agency submitted a plan to reform the aerospace industry. We'll review it on September 4," Rogozin wrote. On July 2, the mass media reported that the Russian President had set up a special commission to reform the aerospace industry, following another rocket accident in which a Proton-M booster carrying three Glonass-M satellite deviated from the trajectory immediately after the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, disintegrated in midair and exploded. At a large conference on August 5 which addressed the cause of the Proton accident, the Deputy Prime Minister called the situation in the aerospace industry 'critical' and raised the issue of pooling the technical resources of the aerospace and aircraft-making industries. "I believe we need to discuss the idea of consolidating what is done both in the aerospace industry and in aircraft-making," Rogozin said noting that in case a unified rocket and space corporation was founded, it was necessary to "determine the geography of its responsibility." Rogozin did not elaborate. He harshly criticized the Roskosmos administration for lack of coherent policy in arranging work. The idea to pool the potentials of the aerospace and aircraft industries is not new. Roskosmos's predecessor was the Russian Aviation and Space agency /Rosaviakosmos/, founded on the basis of the Russian Space Agency /RSA/ in May 1999. Roskosmos was founded in March 2004.