The ambitious plans of the Russian authorities to dramatically increase the production of satellites and assemble the Sphere group of 500 devices for civil and defense needs into orbit have met with failure.
In Russia, there is an acute shortage of xenon, an inert gas that is used as ‘fuel’ for the on-board engines of satellites, allowing them to maneuver in space. This was announced by the director of the research and design bureau (OKB) ‘Fakel’ Gennadiy Abramenkov. The Moscow Times writes about it.
‘There is currently no xenon on the market, necessary for refueling,’ he said at a meeting of leading enterprises in the rocket and space industry and the chemical industry. Against the background of the shortage, prices for xenon rose sharply. And this ‘affects the economy of both individual units and the group as a whole,’ Abramenkov said.
As part of the ‘Sphere’ project, it was planned to launch into orbit the satellites of broadband access to the Internet ‘Skif’, communication devices ‘Express’, the satellite system of the Internet of Things ‘Marathon’, as well as satellites of communication, observation and remote sensing of the earth.
But instead of the initial plans of 500 devices, the project had to be cut three times – the Russian government approved the launch of 162 satellites.
In total, 1,000 xenon cylinders worth 35.4 billion rubles are needed to meet the needs of the Sphere, according to Smoloskip OKB. But Roskosmos does not have its own capacity for such volumes.
We will remind you that earlier Russia threatened to shoot down Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, which are helping Ukraine. The US has promised to respond to possible attacks.
