MOSCOW: Russia’s space agency on Monday said the break with the West following Russia’s offensive in Ukraine had cost it nearly 180 billion rubles ($2.1 billion).
As part of sanctions against Moscow following the start of Russia’s campaign, Western countries broke off partnerships with Roscosmos in the space sector.
“The termination of contracts by unfriendly countries cost Roscosmos 180 billion rubles,” Andrei Yelchaninov, deputy head of the Roscosmos agency, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
One of the collaborations what was halted was the cooperation on a planned joint mission to explore Mars with the European Space Agency.
Roscosmos also suspended launches of its Soyuz rockets from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
Yelchaninov said the agency planned to make up for the lost revenues by doing more business with countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
“As for the returning to the volume of exports we had before sanctions, we are setting this target,” he said.
“But this is a long-term project, since competition is strong on all these new markets. But if we penetrate the markets correctly, the prospects are very good.”
Russia’s space sector has struggled with financing problems, corruption scandals and setbacks such as the loss of the Luna-25 lunar module in August 2023.
