Putin approves merger plan to reform Russian space industry

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday to merge the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos with the United Rocket and Space Corporation, the Kremlin press service said in an online statement.

The newly-created corporation, named the Roscosmos State Corporation, would be the governing organ of Russia's space industry, overseeing operations in areas like research and development, space exploration, and international space cooperation.

Russian authorities expect the new organization to help consolidate relevant government and business structures, simplify operation and monitoring mechanisms, and solve existing problems in the industry.

A reform plan to modernize Russia's space industry was approved by Putin in January 2013, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev proposed this January to Putin the creation of a new organization in the space sector.

The reform of Russia's space industry became imperative in the wake of a string of launch failures recently.

On May 16, a Proton-M rocket failed to put a Mexican satellite into orbit and burnt up in the atmosphere.

An April mission, designed to send a Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, also failed due to the "unexpected design incompatibility" of a joint between the spacecraft and the rocket.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin once criticized Russian space organizations for the industry's ineffective management and excess capacity.

He called in May for the reform of the space industry, proposing measures that include a shift to fully-digitalized operations and tougher punishment for mission failures. Endite