Ukraine beats Russian space. Why the Russian Federation is defeated in orbit

Russia is losing the status of a large space state in front of the eyes and Ukraine has led to this hand, says David Ex be in a column for The Telegraph. It is reminiscent of blows to Ukrainian drones on Russian space objects, as well as sanctions that destroyed the Kremlin's orbital plans. Nine months after the start of full -scale aggression against Ukraine, Russia does not quite win.

On a monthly basis, it loses a thousand people and hundreds of units of armored vehicles, which it is not easy to replace, all in order to gain benefits, which is measured by several miles, if not several yards. However, Russia does not lose the war as a whole, as Ukrainians face even greater restrictions on live power and fire power. And yet there is one field of battle on which the Russians are in complete collapse - the orbit of the Earth.

One of the undervalued side effects of the war was the accelerated collapse of Russian cosmic power. The Russian space launch industry is undergoing pressure through foreign sanctions and reducing the client base. A less destructive, but no less disrespectful fact is that Ukrainian special services began to attack Russian space objects within the campaign of drones on the Russian industry. This is a deep turn for Russia.

There was a time, the 1950s and 1960s, when the Soviet Union was considered a leading world cosmic state. He had the best of heavy rockets for scientific and military use. Today, Russia is at risk of falling from Japan in one key indicator of space skill: annual orbital launches. In 2022, the United States successfully launched 84 rockets. China - 62. Russia - 22. Japan did not start any. Last year, the United States launched 109, China - 66, Russia - 19 and Japan - two.

This year, the Russians fail, and strong. As of August 13, Americans launched 94 rockets, the Chinese - 33, and the Russians - . . . eight. Only five more than Japan. Shortly after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and other countries began to impose sanctions on companies that are doing business with Russia, and Russia immediately responded with appropriate sanctions.

The problem of the Russian space industry, supported by Roscosmos, is that US and Europe sanctions cause more harm than Russian sanctions harm the US and Europe space industry. Two decades to 2022, the Russian industry sold orbital launches, seats in flight capsules at the International Space Station and back, as well as missile engines worth about $ 10 billion.

"These contracts have provided significant support for the Russian space industry," the Philadelphia Institute of Foreign Policy Research said. "Even if they did not allow Roscosmos to become a profitable corporation, they compensated for its losses. Therefore, without such contracts," Roscosmos "will inevitably be facing further financial problems. " These problems are manifested in reducing the number of launches. If you think that 2024 was bad for Russia's ranking among space states, wait 2025.

This is the year when the new Japanese startup plans to start orbital launches. The fact is not that Russia cannot build and run several satellites on several rockets. This is still the third space state in the world. Russian "inspection" of double -purpose spacecraft is of particular concern to American and European planning professionals. Space ships have opportunities that make them equally useful to check damaged Russian satellites or to attack US or European satellites.

But the launch of several double -use spacecraft (the latter in May) cannot change the downward trajectory of the Russian space industry. As if to emphasize the orbital collapse of Russia, the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine this summer has at least twice directed the percussion drones of a long -range radius of action on Russian space objects.

Within two weeks, since the end of June, the drones damaged the NIP-16 space communication facility in the Crimea occupied by Russia, as well as part of a large space research center in the cabbage ravine in the southeast of Russia. The damage caused by NIP-16 and the ravine cabbage was probably insignificant: Ukrainian drones have a range of action in hundreds of miles, but carry a small explosive load.