General Takes Agency's Helm
Russia replaced without
explanation its long-serving space agency chief on Friday and
appointed a top general to replace him, Russian media reported. For
the past 12 years Yuri Koptev has overseen Russia's space program
-- the sole launcher of missions to the International Space Station
since the United States grounded its shuttles in February 2003
after the Columbia disaster. The agency's new chief will be
Colonel-General Perminov, 58, previously commander of the army's
space division.
"Today Perminov was appointed head of the agency," Itar-Tass
quoted Koptev as saying.
The former boss said he had already cleared out his office at
the agency's headquarters. It was not immediately clear why Koptev
was leaving his post, but Interfax news agency reported an official
announcement about the change was expected next week. The switch at
the state agency came three days after Russian President Vladimir
Putin announced a government shake-up that slashed the number of
ministries.
The surprise move has NASA officials privately expressing
concern, worried about the impact on U.S.-Russian space relations,
already under strain due to the grounding of the U.S. space shuttle
fleet.
Until NASA's shuttles resume flying next year at the earliest,
all crews and supplies are being transported to the international
space station aboard Russian spacecraft. And if the station crew is
ever to reach the long-promised level of six people, the Russians
will have to double their launch rate –- although who is
going to pay for this has remained a contentious topic during
recent negotiations. Perminov may meet NASA Administrator Sean
O’Keefe as early as April 1, during a previously scheduled
visit to the United States.
Koptev was the first and to date the only head of the Russian
Space Agency, a bureaucratic organization set up in post-Soviet
Moscow to be the functional equivalent of the American space
agency, NASA. The then NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin played a
key role in Koptev’s acquisition of power over
semi-independent space organizations in Russia, such as the Energia
Space and Missile Organization that actually built and flew human
space vehicles. Once Koptev took control of the flow of cash from
foreign partners and from the federal government, he emerged as
winner in a power struggle with his rival Yuriy Semyonov of
Energia.
A day after the
announcement, Albert Condes, NASA’s newly-named deputy
assistant administrator for external relations, circulated an
internal memo commenting on what the changes meant for NASA.
“It is likely that there will be additional fall-out for
our relationship besides a change in the name and leadership of the
agency,” Condes writes in the memo. “While it is too
early to tell what may come, it is clear that General Perminov is
much less wedded to the human space flight program than Mr.
Koptev.”
Negotiations regarding who will pay for what aboard the
re-directed space station may also become more difficult, Condes
warned. “Based on his reported comments as Commander of the
Russian Space Forces, [he] is likely to take a more nationalistic
perspective on Russia's space program. ... The specific
implications of this for current programs of cooperation should
become more clear in the coming weeks.”
Of specific interest to NASA, continued Condes, “there are
significant changes regarding Rosaviakosmos.” It will
“no longer be a separate operating agency under the purview
of Deputy Prime Minister”, but is now to be subordinated to
the Ministry of Industry and Energy. Furthermore,
“Rosaviakosmos also lost the aviation part of its
portfolio” –- in recent years it had also been in
charge of Russia’s aviation industry, whose budget dwarfed
the funding allocated to space activities.
In April 2003, Perminov had told a Russian journalist that
carrying out his plans for developing the Space Forces was going to
help Russia "retain the status of a great space power and maintain
the balance of forces" in the world.
Perminov is not the first military flag officer to head a
national space agency. U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Richard Truly ran
NASA from 1989 to 1992. However, he had spent most of the previous
quarter century as an astronaut, with few recent responsibilities
in military space and missile activities.