Audit Reveals $1.8 Billion Financial
Violations at Russia's Space Agency (Source: Moscow Times)
Russian auditors have uncovered 92 billion rubles ($1.8 billion) in
financial violations committed by federal space agency Roscosmos last
year, the head of Russia's Audit Chamber, Tatyana Golikova, said
Friday. The Audit Chamber, a government spending watchdog, released its
annual report on Friday detailing investigations into misspending by
Russian government agencies and ministries.
Golikova singled out Roscosmos as one of Russia's worst offenders,
saying: "At first, I didn't believe my inspectors, because the value of
the financial violations identified [at Roscosmos] was 92 billion
rubles," news agency TASS reported. The violations included inefficient
use of funds, misuse of appropriated funds, and violations in fiscal
reporting methods, according to Golikova. (5/24)
Russian Space Program Costs Soar 30%
Over Sanctions (Source: Space Daily)
The total costs of Russia's Federal Space Program have increased 30
percent because of Western-imposed sanctions, Roscosmos Statistics
Secretary Denis Lyskov said Thursday. "In the current economic
conditions, Roscosmos has ended up in a difficult situation. We had to
completely overhaul the entire space program because of these figures,"
Lyskov said. (5/25)
Some 100 Russian Space Industry
Officials Fired Over Three Years (Source: Tass)
Some 100 officials working in the space industry have been fired or
become defendants in criminal cases over the past three years, Deputy
Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on the Rossiya-1 TV channel. He said
"these are managers who were caught stealing" or made violations when
implementing instructions of the country’s leadership. (5/25)
First Suspect Under House Arrest Over
Embezzlement in Russia’s Space Sector (Source: Tass)
Moscow’s Basmanny court ruled on Monday to place under house arrest a
director general of a firm that was involved in embezzlement schemes of
the Khrunichev Space Research & Production Center, a core company
of Russia’s space industry. "The court satisfied a motion of the
investigator on placing Dmitry Dyakonov under house arrest until June
25," the court’s spokesperson said.
Dyakonov, the head of Ecopravo firm that worked under a contract with
the Khrunichev company, has been charged with embezzlement or
misappropriation of funds carried out either by an organized group or
in a large-scale amount. According to media reports, Dyakonov signed a
contract with Alexander Ostroverkh, a deputy of the then-head of the
Khrunichev company, on providing auditing and legal services to it and
received 22,000 euros per month plus 5% from the sums. (5/25)
Source Says Russian Rocket Crash
Caused by Human Error (Source: Tass)
The results of the work of the commission investigating the causes of
the Proton-M carrier rocket crash that occurred on May 16 will be
reported to the government on Friday, May 29, a Russian space and
industry source said. "The commission will complete its work and report
the results to the Russian government on May 29," the source said.
According to him, the emergencies commission working at the Khrunichev
Center (Proton manufacturer) has exposed a number of violations in the
carrier rocket production. "This is, undoubtedly, a human error. The
fault occurred in the rocket manufacturing process," he said. (5/25)
Russia, China to Unify Space
Technologies for Manned Lunar Missions (Source: Tass)
Russia and China have begun joint work with the aim to devise a set of
unified standards to be used in manufacturing space technologies,
including those crucial to a future manned mission to the Moon, a space
industry source told TASS on Monday.
"The sides have agreed to begin cooperation beyond low-Earth orbits,
including manned lunar programs. The mode of such cooperation and its
guidelines are still to be negotiated," the source said. The two sides
will analyze issues of standardization in the sphere of manned flights.
They will develop standards for docking units, electrical connectors
and spacecraft atmosphere. A special working group will be set up for
that purpose, the source added. (5/25)
Blue Origin May Build New $220m Rocket
Factory in Florida (Source: The Manufacturer)
Private spaceflight company, Blue Origin, has expressed interest in
expanding its rocket production in Florida. The company, which is owned
by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, has reportedly been vying for at
least $8m in local-level incentives in order to build a new rocket
manufacturing complex very close to the Kennedy Space Center.
Competing for these financial incentives in secret under the name
‘Project Panther’, Blue Origin’s plans for the site were revealed by
Senator Bill Nelson last month. Documents filed with the local
government indicate that Blue Origin plans to invest $205-220m in the
project which will reportedly employ around 330 people. Click here. (5/25)
What's Behind the Dream of Colonizing
Mars? (Source: New Yorker)
Stephen Petranek envisions a multistage settlement program. The first
pioneers on Mars, not unlike the American frontiersmen, will have to
struggle to survive. Just to have drinking water, they’ll need to plow
up the planet’s soil—known as regolith—melt down its ice, and distill
the results. To breathe, they’ll have to separate the water into
hydrogen and oxygen, then mix the oxygen with an inert gas—argon,
perhaps—which they’ll get from, well, somewhere.
Eventually, Petranek imagines a shift in the balance. Instead of
adjusting to life on Mars, humans will adjust Mars to their needs. They
will reëngineer the atmosphere and warm the planet. As the regolith
thaws, ancient streams will flow again and life will flourish along
their ruddy banks. More and more people will be drawn to Mars, until
there will be whole cities of them. Click here.
(5/25)
Google Lunar XPRIZE Deadline Extended
to End of 2017 (Source: XPRIZE)
XPRIZE and Google have officially confirmed a further extension of the
$30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE. We continue to see substantial
progress from our teams, and after months of discussion, we have
decided to provide additional time for teams to plan and make
arrangements for a future launch. Securing an available window with a
launch provider is a calculated logistical process that can be many
months in the making, in some cases more than a year, so an extended
schedule will benefit our teams a great deal as they move towards
taking the next step in the competition. Click here.
(5/25)
New Study Reassesses Habitability of
Exoplanets Around Multiple Star Systems (Source: America Space)
One defining scientific revolution of our generation is undoubtedly the
discovery of thousands of exoplanets around other stars, which has
transformed our view of the Solar System from being the only one in
existence in a vast and immense Universe, to being just one between
millions or even billions in our home galaxy alone.
This plurality of worlds has forced scientists and non-scientists
alike, to ask the next big question: how many of them harbor planets
that could sustain life? In the absence of hard evidence, this topic
has been the subject of a multitude of theoretical studies throughout
the years, with many of them often reaching a variety of different
conclusions.
A new research based on data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope offers
a new insight into this fascinating subject, by presenting evidence
that many of the extrasolar worlds that have been previously deemed as
being potentially habitable, might actually not fit the bill. Click here. (5/25)
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