Russia Falls Behind In Annual Space Launches For First Time Ever (themoscowtimes.com)

From a report on the Moscow Times: This year, for the first time in history, Russia has fallen behind the United States and China as the world's leading launcher of space rockets. Russia will finish 2016 with just 18 launches, according to open source data, compared to China's 19 and America's 20 launches. Alexander Ivanov, deputy chief of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, said on Nov. 29 that the launch rate has decreased because Moscow's space strategy has changed. Currently, it's top priority is reviving existing and aging satellite groupings. But there are other reasons Russia's launch rate may be falling behind. Since the 1957 launch of Sputnik, the world's first satellite, Russia has been the undisputed leader in annual launch rates -- a figure that spoke to the general health of its space program and aerospace industry. At the peak of the Soviet space program, Russia often launched around 100 rockets a year. Since 1957, Russia has launched over 3,000 rockets -- roughly twice as many as the U.S. But with the Russian economy in crisis, space budgets have plummeted. Funding for the next decade of Russian space activity stands at just 1.4 trillion rubles ($21.5 billion), a figure that was only finalized after three rounds of cuts to proposed funding, which began at 3.4 trillion rubles ($52.3 billion). The U.S. space agency, NASA, received a budget of $19.3 billion in 2016 alone. To make matters worse, Russian rockets are becoming uncharacteristically undependable.

Comments

Not worried

[sjbe]

Yeah, I get it, butthurt Americans are mad that they can no longer send men into space.

Umm, actually most of us aren't all that worried about it. Those of us who care know we've got programs in the works to revive our ability to put humans into space and we knew there would be a bit of a gap. It will get resolved soon enough in all likelihood. The rest simply don't care at all. Maybe a few folks get bent about it but they're a tiny minority.

Re:Not worried

[nucrash]

As long as we continue to develop these programs, I think we have a pretty good shot at having two space worthy programs within the next two years. Our private space program has been developing for some time and several companies are getting in on the action. At some point, the US might be be the go-to country for LEO travel. Right now this is dependent on the Trump Administration and their decision to move forward with the existing programs or adapting the existing programs. If they recklessly abandon them as some administrations have done in the past, we could be begging India or China for a ride in the near future.

SpaceX still has some work to do yet, but I see Boeing as also being a competitor and with the Sierra Nevada team chasing them to try and get in on the action, the potential of having at least two out of three programs getting us to ISS and possibly prolonging or building the next ISS.

NASA still has the SLS to look forward to and move us into manned deep space. Even if that only ends up putting us on the Moon, it will be a good program for research that might put us in the rightful lead of the world as far as space exploration. I feel Russia is superior in longevity and actual logged manned space travel but NASA leads in exploration overall. I would like to see the US take the manned travel crown too.