[FPSPACE] RKK Energiya fights

[Dmitry Pieson]

Some background follows (those are my newsletter submits).

All the best

Dmitry Pieson

Roscosmos Proposes new President for Energia

On March 11th Russia’s Federal Space Agency had officially announced
nomination Nikolay Sevastianov as the candidate for Rocket and Space
Corporation Energia President position. This move will possibly have the
far-reaching implications for the future of the country’s rocket and space
industry.

Energia, former Sergey Korolyov’s design bureau, is Russia’s major
contractor for the manned space program. It builds Soyuz and Progress
spacecraft and is responsible for the Russian flight operations, as opposite
to the Western practice when this function is usually performed by the
governmental space agencies’ centers. The originality of Energia’s position
is resulting from the fact that it is the only non-state owned large rocket
and space contractor in Russia. During Boris Eltsin tenure, the enterprise
was privatized to form the joint stock company where the state now controls
38 percent of stakes, as opposite to Khrunichev, Lavochkin and other major
contractors that are state-own Federal State Unitary Enterprises 100-percent
owned by state and controlled by the Federal Space Agency.

The special status was won for Energia mainly due to the personal charisma
and top-level ties of its present General Designer and President Yuri
Semyonov, who will turn 70 on April 20th. Semyonov also played the major
role in initiating what would later become known as Sea Launch project
bringing together his colleagues from Boeing and Yuzhnoe design bureau of
Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, Semyonov’s home enterprise that he had once leave
for Energia position. The other jewel of Semyonov tenure that began in 1989
after previous Energia head, Valentin Glushko, died, is mastering of the
communication satellite business and introduction Gascom affiliate jointly
with Gasprom, Russia’s natural gas giant monopoly. Nikolay Sevastianov was
assigned Gascom head, and Energia acted as the major contractor for the
Gasprom-ordered Yamal-100 fixed service geostationary satellites based on
the unpressurized satellite bus, the novelty that was never before flown in
the Russian space program. In 1999 two Yamal-100’s was launched; in 2003,
two Yamal-200’s would follow. Now Nikolay Sevastianov, 44, is actively
pushing the plans for deploying the communication and remote sensing
constellation to serve both Gasprom and free market customers, while Energia
promotes Victoria unified satellite bus that was used in Yamals and will
become, for instance, the core for the first Belarus BelKA spacecraft
planned for the late 2005. However, the tension between Yuri Semyonov and
Sevastianov were reported in the early 2000’s that would lead to the larger
independence of Gascom from its founding company.

Roscosmos had suggested Nikolay Sevastianov to take the key position at
Energia as part of the Agency’s broader policy of splitting the design and
management functions in the industrial enterprises controlled by the state.
Earlier former Anatoly Perminov’s deputy Georgy Poleschuk was assigned
General Director of Lavochkin association, while the former General Designer
and General Director Konstantin Pichkhadze would keep only the General
Designer position. The same process is under way at most of the
state-controlled rocket and space industries. For joint stock company RSC
Energia, splitting the President and General Designer’s positions would mean
effectively the same. Officially, Roscosmos had proposed Sevastianov
candidature the yearly Energia’s stockholders' meeting that is planned for
this March. Semyonov’s tenure as President is effective this year, and
formally the prolongation would require changing the corporate chapter due
to the age limitation.

The situation with Energia management is of the special meaning also due to
the continuing reforming of the country’s defense industry, including rocket
and space enterprises. Earlier this year President Vladimir Putin had
explicitly supported creation of the single Joint Aircraft Company (OAK, Ob’
edinennaya Aviastroitelnaya Kompaniya) that would include all
state-controlled aircraft industries, including once competing MiG, Sukhoi,
Tupolev and others. If this kind of horizontal integration effectively
prohibiting any domestic competition would prevail in the space and rocket
industry as well that is likely for now, the powerful non-state highly
diversified player like Energia would play a very significant role proposing
the ‘second option’ for the internal tenders in the major space application
fields. Nikolay Sevastianov’s background makes him possibly a good
candidature for leading Energia in this new situation, but potential
‘conflict of generations’ would ruin most of the Energia’s gained
advantages.

Later

Rocket and Space Corporation Energia of Korolyov, Moscow region, had
officially announced that two candidatures are nominated for the corporation
’s President position. Energia, Russia’s only major space corporation that
is not completely state-owned, has to get the new President by the end of
May, when today’s Yuri Semyonov tenure will expire. Two nominees are again
Yuri Semynov who will turn 70 by the moment of the voting, nominated by
Energia stockholding employees together controlling about 30 percent of the
voting stock, and Nikolai Sevastianov, 44, nominated by the Kaskol group
minor stakeholder with 3.18 percent. However, earlier Sevistianov nomination
was supported by Russia’s Federal Space Agency that rules 38.22 percent of
the shares on behalf of the country’s Government. In accordance with the
Charter of the joint-stock company, S.P.Korolev RSC Energia President is
elected for a five years term of office at the Corporation stockholders
meeting, with annual confirmation of his authority at the Board of Directors
meetings.

Still Later

Energia Proposes Cargo Supplement for Clipper

On Thursday RSC Energia deputy general designer Nikolai Bryukhanov had
officially presented the new Energia’s project for the orbital logistics.
Parom (The Ferry Boat) is an unmanned space tug aimed to compliment the
crew-delivery Clipper to build the new generation space transportation
system. It is planned to keep unmanned Parom reusable orbital transfer
vehicle in the 200 km base orbit where it would dock with the ‘passive’
heavier cargos delivered there by any capable enough launch vehicle. The
cargo containers would also carry additional fuel and possibly spare parts
for Parom refueling and repairs. After the docking Parom would use its
engines to deliver the cargo container to the ISS or any other orbital
location. The cargos would be unloaded to the station by the crewmembers,
and Parom would deliver the empty container to the upper atmosphere to
re-enter and destroy.

According to Bryukhanov, using reusable Parom tug rather than expendable
Progress-class cargo spacecraft allows the cost efficiency large enough to
make the moneyback period as small as two years for the planned system. It
is planned to use Soyuz, Progress and Clipper design heritage to build
Parom.

While the design was so far funded by Energia’s own funds, Russia’s Federal
Space Agency is reportedly ‘promising the support’ for the project. However,
the planned top management ‘revolution’ at Energia. The shareholders’
meeting that has to vote for the new President is planned for May 28th.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org
> [mailto:fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org]On Behalf Of Rui C. Barbosa
> Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 2:19 AM
> To: FPS
> Subject: [FPSPACE] RKK Energiya fights
>
>
> Hi!
>
> Has anyone checked the Energiya site lately
> (http://www.energia.ru/english/index.html)? Can any of our
> russian friends
> (or someone else) explain what is going on with all those statements?
>
> Regards!