Space exploration in 2019 (original) (raw)

Russian space activities in 2019

At the beginning of the year, Roskosmos promised 45 launches of rockets and missiles built by the Russian industry within the Roskosmos State Corporation in 2019. They included plans for 32 launch attempts to deliver spacecraft into orbit. However, these numbers did not include test firings of submarine-based missiles. Around five or six military orbital launches were promised from Plesetsk and as many as 19 from Baikonur. In November 2018, the Russian emergency agency, MChS, also announced plans for launches of six remote-sensing satellites, including radar-carrying spacecraft before the end of 2019. The Ministry of Defense also promised to deploy 31 Yars and Avangard launchers, four Tu-95 cruise-missile-carrying aircraft and the Knyaz Vladimir submarine with Bulava missiles during 2019.

For missions in 2018 click here

Russian orbital assets included 91 spacecraft as of May 14, 2019, according to Roskosmos. There is no independent confirmation of the operational status of some satellites and others officially listed as part of the constellation were known to be inoperable or crippled. In December 2019, Roskosmos said that Russian orbital assets included 92 civilian, scientific and navigation satellites. According to ISS Reshetnev, in December 2019, the Russian orbital assets (military and civilian) included 163 satellites, including 104 spacecraft developed by the company.

Year-end results

In reality, by the end of 2019, Russia made 25 orbital launch attempts, but remarkably, all of them were successful, discounting a non-fatal anomaly during the launch of Egyptsat-A. Even more remarkable, 2019 became only the third year after 2003 and 2001 without launch accidents for the Russian space program during the entire post-Soviet period. In the three space decades of the USSR, not a single year, except for 1957, went without a launch failure.

Still, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel on December 27 said that Russia was able to complete only slightly more than 50 percent of the planned space launches in 2019. Borisov also pointed out that only six out of 19 planned facilities at the new Vostochny spaceport had been declared operational and 20 billion rubles allocated for the project remained unspent. According to Borisov, a meeting in Sochi at the beginning of the month, chaired by the Russian president, reviewed the status of the Russian military space assets and resulted in the formation of a commission charged with reporting to Putin not later than January 20, 2020, on the causes for lagging schedules. Various catch-up measures were also in the works, Borisov said.

However Head of Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin explained the unfulfilled launch schedule "first of all" by late delivery of foreign-produced OneWeb satellites which required the postponement of multiple launches of Soyuz-2 rockets. Rogozin also cited tough US sanctions on the supplies of space-grade electronics to Russia as the reason for delays with the nation's military payloads. He also mentioned "organizational" problems and admitted that some commercial payloads had gone to Roskosmos' foreign competitors providing launch services.

Also, using a Twitter account, which is attributed to a space robot, but clearly under Rogozin's control, Roskosmos fired back at Borisov. "In any other country, the leadership of a company that outperformed the results of the previous year by 25 percent would be thanked and not publicly bad-mouthed," the "robot" wrote. (Russia performed 20 launches in 2018.) This was not the first time that Rogozin publicly rebuked his boss in the government.

In 2019, Russia also announced launches of five ICBMs and five submarine-based missiles. Rogozin cited the launch of 12 military missiles, but during a traditional meeting with the Russian president on the eve of Cosmonautics Day on April 10, 2020, Rogozin said that a total of 10 military rocket systems produced by companies within Roskosmos conducted launches in 2019.

The world's orbital launch attempts in 2019 (as ofJune 9, 2025 ):

*Spacecraft failed immediately after the separation from the launch vehicle;

**Spacecraft entered wrong orbit and failed to complete some of its mission objectives

The 2019 space launch score card (as ofJune 9, 2025 ):

(1*) - number of failed launches

For missions in 2020 click here

This page is compiled by Anatoly Zak; Last update:June 9, 2025

Page editor: Alain Chabot; Last edit: April 30, 2011

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