This year, Russia has set an anti-record for the number of space launches. In 2020, the country carried out only 17 launches. This was only at the dawn of astronautics, in 1957-1961, according to RIA Novosti.
A total of 114 launches were made in the world, of which 44 were American and 39 were Chinese. The head of the Institute of Space Policy Ivan Moiseev, that this situation is due not only to the pandemic, but also to a general decrease in the number of commercial launches using Russian rockets.
According to him, this trend has been going on since 2014. “This is mainly due to the loss of the international space launch market,” the agency quotes Moiseyev. Another reason for the anti-record, as noted by the expert, is the “traditional” postponement of launches under the Federal Space Program.
Earlier, the head of the state corporation “Roscosmos” Dmitry Rogozin said that for the year Russia has carried out twice as few launches as planned. “Under certain difficult circumstances, all economies of the world had to adjust their plans,” he explained.
