Putin sacks Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov over National Space Center project uncertainty

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing Yury Borisov from his position as Director General of the State Corporation for Space Activities Roscosmos. The new Roscosmos chief is Dmitry Bakanov, the Kremlin press service said. Bakanov previously led a Roscosmos subsidiary in the field of satellite communications, the Gonets system.

A source familiar with the situation at Roscosmos told RBC that most employees were unaware of the personnel decision until Thursday morning.

"Everything happened in one evening," the source noted.

According to the source, the decision was made amid uncertainty regarding the National Space Center project in Moscow, which is being built on the territory of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.

"The cost of the construction is rising, which affects land allocation and future operational expenses," the source said.

Who is Dmitry Bakanov?

Dmitry Bakanov is 39 years old. He graduated from Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance with a degree in economics. He also holds a Ph. D. in Economics. From 2011 to 2019, he led Gonets Satellite System, first as president, then as CEO.

Gonets is a Roscosmos-affiliated operator for communications, broadcasting, and relay systems, designed to provide global-scale communications services. The system's development began in 1989.

In August 2019, Bakanov joined the Ministry of Transport, becoming Director of the Digital Transformation Department. In 2022, he was promoted to Deputy Minister of Transport.

Background on Yury Borisov

• Served as Deputy Prime Minister for over four years, overseeing defense industry and Roscosmos.
• Previously worked as Deputy Minister of Defense for nearly six years.
• Became head of Roscosmos in summer 2022, succeeding Dmitry Rogozin, who had led the agency since 2018.

In December 2024, Borisov said that a new national space project was in its final stages and ready for presentation to the president. He described plans for large satellite constellations, developed in collaboration with private companies, covering communications, Earth observation, low-orbit, geostationary, and high-elliptical satellites. The estimated cost ranged between 500 billion and 750 billion rubles, funded by both state and private investments.

Details

The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos, is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research. Originating from the Soviet space program founded in the 1950s, Roscosmos emerged following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It initially began as the Russian Space Agency, which was established on 25 February 1992 and restructured in 1999 and 2004 as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), respectively. In 2015, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) was merged with the United Rocket and Space Corporation, a government corporation, to re-nationalize the space industry of Russia, leading to Roscosmos in its current form.