The Russians today announced a reorganization of their space industry.
The Russians today announced a reorganization of their space industry.
An obvious attempt to deal with their increasing production and quality control problems, this proposal has both good and bad parts to it.
The good part is an immediate and significant raise in pay:
The government also ordered a 50-percent salary increase for all employees in the space industry, Popovkin said. Salaries currently average 37,500 rubles ($1,200) a month, he said.
The low salaries in their space industry have been cited as one reason the industry is suffering. Smart engineers, both young and old, can make much more money working elsewhere. This pay increase might help bring quality people back to the industry.
The bad part of this reorganization is how the Russian government is merging and centralizing the control of its many aerospace companies.
A structural reform of Russia’s space industry will see its numerous enterprises united into five or six large holdings, Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said on Monday. The reform should make the troubled industry more manageable, Popovkin said after a governmental meeting in Moscow.
As the article notes, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of government funds the many former government aerospace agencies were forced to go private, producing “130-plus enterprises developing vastly different ownership structures and with many becoming de-facto independent of the [Russian space program],” This reform will nationalize these private companies.
While centralizing control might seem like a good way to improve management, in the end it will not work. It will instead destroy competition, which will in turn starve innovation and eliminate any incentive to lower costs. I can’t see how doing this will make Russian rockets more appealing to the commercial launch market.
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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The Russians today announced a reorganization of their space industry.
An obvious attempt to deal with their increasing production and quality control problems, this proposal has both good and bad parts to it.
The good part is an immediate and significant raise in pay:
The government also ordered a 50-percent salary increase for all employees in the space industry, Popovkin said. Salaries currently average 37,500 rubles ($1,200) a month, he said.
The low salaries in their space industry have been cited as one reason the industry is suffering. Smart engineers, both young and old, can make much more money working elsewhere. This pay increase might help bring quality people back to the industry.
The bad part of this reorganization is how the Russian government is merging and centralizing the control of its many aerospace companies.
A structural reform of Russia’s space industry will see its numerous enterprises united into five or six large holdings, Federal Space Agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said on Monday. The reform should make the troubled industry more manageable, Popovkin said after a governmental meeting in Moscow.
As the article notes, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of government funds the many former government aerospace agencies were forced to go private, producing “130-plus enterprises developing vastly different ownership structures and with many becoming de-facto independent of the [Russian space program],” This reform will nationalize these private companies.
While centralizing control might seem like a good way to improve management, in the end it will not work. It will instead destroy competition, which will in turn starve innovation and eliminate any incentive to lower costs. I can’t see how doing this will make Russian rockets more appealing to the commercial launch market.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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