United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC)
Vladimir Putin signed Executive Order On Amending the List of Strategic Enterprises and Strategic Joint-Stock Companies, Approved by the Presidential Executive Order No. 1009 of August 4, 2004.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin confirmed plans on 04 September 2014 to consolidate Russia’s space industry under a single state-controlled corporation within a year. The United Rocket and Space Corporation, to be formed as a joint-stock company, will contain all organizations in the aerospace industry, with the exception of a few defense companies, he said. Plans for the restructuring were first announced in July 2013. Consolidation will help the government pursue a “unified technical policy” in the space sector as well as remove current redundancies and avoid potential ones, Rogozin said, adding that the new corporation would absorb 33 space organizations, including 16 enterprises. Initially 100 percent controlled by the government, the corporation will undergo an initial public offering (IPO) after two or three years, the deputy prime minister said.
Russia’s federal space agency, Roscosmos, will remain the corporation’s controlling executive body. It plans to increase its personnel from 190 to 450 people.
The federal government should also take a controlling share in Rocket and Space Corporation Energia as part of the consolidation, Rogozin added. The state currently had a 38 percent stake in Energia, which is the developer of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and one of the leading enterprises in Russia’s space industry.
Russia will create the United Rocket and Space Corporation by February 2, 2014, Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Deputy Head Igor Komarov said on 19 December 2014. The corporation to be created on the basis of the Space Instrument-Making Research Institute will become a full-fledged legal entity in 2015. Its development strategy consists of several stages. The first stage is consolidation to be completed by April 2015. The second stage is reorganisation: from 2014 through 2017, the corporation will restructure its capacities and create a management system. The third stage is development and growth (until 2020): the corporation will enter international markets and position Russia as a key player and leader in certain areas of space activities.
The purpose of creating the corporation is to solve the problems facing the Russian space industry, which include delays in the implementation of contracts, technical backwardness of enterprises, and the generation gap.
President Vladimir Putin on 02 December 2014 signed a decree ordering the creation of the United Rocket and Space Corporation. According to the decree, several federal state-owned unitary space enterprises will be reorganised into open joint stock companies to be fully owned by the federal government. Subsequently each of them will contribute 100 percent of shares minus one share to the new corporation’s authorised capital. The president instructed the government to ensure the implementation of the decree within two years and bring its acts in line with the decree within the next two months.
On April 28, 2014 a panel discussion was held at Skolkovo on 'Interaction between the rocket and aerospace industry and commercial cosmonautics during the structural reforms to the sector', involving the General Director of the United Rocket and Space Corporation (ORKK), Igor Komarov, and Sergey Nedoroslev, a member of the ORKK's Advisory Council. This opportunity to meet the directors of a corporation that was set up last year, with the aim of uniting the key production assets in the aerospace sector, attracted a huge amount of interest.
On 13 March 2015 Russia’s Engineering Union together with Roscosmos and United Rocket and Space Corporation held the first session of the Engineering Union’s Committee dedicated to the space activities and the development of the rocket and space industry. Igor Komarov, the head of Roscosmos, became the chairman of the Committee. Igor Komarov, the head of Roscosmos, said: "The industry has serious goals, and the efficiency and reliability of the products is one of the most important of them. The Engineering Union is an influential organization protecting the interests of the Defense industry enterprises. And the ‘'space” committee is particularly relevant now, during the industry reform."
The success of the reform, in many aspects, determines the understanding and support of the society's objectives. Therefore, one of the main tasks of the Committee is the clarification of the resolutions that are being implemented, the popularization of the working results of the rocket and space industry enterprises and of space activities in general.
On 14 July 2015 President Vladimir Putin signed the law establishing a sixth state corporation, Roscosmos, which is expected to improve the management of space systems and strengthen the country’s security. “The federal law aims at improving the management of space activities, preservation and development of scientific and industrial potential of the rocket and space industry organizations in order to strengthen the country's defense and security”, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The new corporation will also coordinate activities related to the GLONASS global positioning system, and manage and coordinate operations at the Baikonur and Vostochny cosmodromes. Roscosmos Corporation will also be in charge of selection and training of astronauts, as well as research and development work on issues related to human spaceflight, the statement added.
The new company is based on the Russian Federal Space Agency and the United Rocket and Space Corporation. It will replace the Russian Federal Space Agency which was established 23 years ago.
Roscosmos will be led by the CEO of United Rocket and Space Corporation Igor Komarov. The Supervisory Board will consist of five representatives of the President, five representatives of the government and the CEO. The law on its establishment was agreed by Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on June 1, according to the Russian President’s press service statement.
Five state corporations had been already operating in Russia, such as the Deposit Insurance Agency, Vnesheconombank, the housing and communal reform plan fund, the Rostec industrial company and Rosatom the state nuclear energy corporation. Another corporation, set up in 2007 for the construction of the Olympic facilities and development of Sochi was closed down after the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The former Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies was reorganized into the Rusnano joint-stock company in 2011.
RSCC and JSC United Rocket & Space Corporation (URSC) signed a cooperation agreement 12 October 2015. It is expected that working together will enhance the efficiency of utilizing the resources of RSCC and URSC in developing and operating state-owned civilian satellite communications and broadcasting systems. The agreement contemplates implementation of the single-contractor principle in projects involving the building, launching, and delivery into target orbit of civilian communications and broadcasting satellites. RSCC and URSC believe in the potential of such activities, considering the need for further enhancement of quality, economic efficiency and competitiveness of Russian space hardware and satellite services, among other things, in the context of economic constraints and the need to address the tasks of import replacement.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said 19 February 2014: "... space-system and spacecraft manufacture deadlines have often been delayed over the past few years. In fact, this has already become a common occurrence. We also fail to implement specific programmes needed to provide the entire range of space-launch market services..... has far fewer orbital spacecraft. In fact, it has several times less spacecraft in orbit than the United States does. Therefore, we are losing the race in such areas as mapping, cartography, remote sensing satellites, navigation, communications, etc. And these are the most profitable civilian space sectors. Today, the Prime Minister has therefore supported the idea of drafting a special Government decision that would stipulate rigid deadlines and penal sanctions for spacecraft manufacturers. This will allow us to meet specific timeframes and deadlines.
" ... we link some hopes and our serious expectations with current efforts to establish the United Rocket and Space Corporation because our Soviet-era space rocket industry seems to be rather bloated and technologically backward. Therefore, the United Rocket and Space Corporation has already been virtually established, and its CEO should be appointed soon. This corporation is expected to consolidate our space assets. Here is one example: the United States has four spacecraft manufacturers, while nine Russian companies work in the same field. No one needs this redundancy. On the contrary, it would be better to consolidate these assets, primarily the creative, research and development potential, to re-equip these enterprises and to enable them to manufacture spacecraft for the Russian Federation, and to sell them on a competitive basis."
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