Due to the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian space industry remains isolated. The aggressor State considers China as its main partner. But it will not save.
Russia is getting closer to the Celestial Empire in matters of cosmonautics
The situation of Russian cosmonautics in connection with the war in Ukraine is becoming increasingly tense. International sanctions have affected the supply of any high-tech products to the Russian Federation. And creating something that works in orbit requires electronics.
Even the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, admitted that, despite all attempts to support its own electronic industry, it cannot create everything they need. It is not enough even to build the devices used, not to mention the prospects. Moscow hopes very much for China’s help in this matter and considers it as the main partner.
Until now, China is not helping Russia to avoid sanctions. The war with Ukraine has not been condemned there, but they are not in a hurry to help the aggressor. It seems that they are not ready to quarrel with the whole world because of their northern neighbors. In January, the United States already imposed sanctions against the main Chinese organizations involved in space — China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). Therefore, it is quite possible that the Chinese support of Rogozin’s department will be limited to the sale of microchips.
Russia’s international cooperation in space
In recent years, Chinese-Russian cooperation has been gaining stronger. Agreements were concluded on cooperation between the Chinese Chang’e-6, Chang’e-7 and the Russian Luna-27 missions, a common data processing center from the Luna and deep space was created, and a common lunar station project was proposed.
However, the failure of the Russian space agency to do something on its own calls everything into question. Why does China need such a helpless partner in such a responsible industry? Most likely, in the future, there will be bargaining between Russia, China and the United States over who will cooperate with whom.
Recently, the aggressor state had almost the same level of cooperation with the European Space Agency. However, after the sanctions were imposed, Russia refused to launch its “Soyuz” rockets from the Kourou cosmodrome, and the Europeans refused to cooperate on ExoMars. The rest of the common projects remain doubtful.
According to Spacenews .com
