General Takes Agency's Helm

Russia replaced without explanation its long-serving space agency chief on Friday and appointed a top general to replace him, Russian media reported. For the past 12 years Yuri Koptev has overseen Russia's space program -- the sole launcher of missions to the International Space Station since the United States grounded its shuttles in February 2003 after the Columbia disaster. The agency's new chief will be Colonel-General Perminov, 58, previously commander of the army's space division.

"Today Perminov was appointed head of the agency," Itar-Tass quoted Koptev as saying.

The former boss said he had already cleared out his office at the agency's headquarters. It was not immediately clear why Koptev was leaving his post, but Interfax news agency reported an official announcement about the change was expected next week. The switch at the state agency came three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a government shake-up that slashed the number of ministries.

The surprise move has NASA officials privately expressing concern, worried about the impact on U.S.-Russian space relations, already under strain due to the grounding of the U.S. space shuttle fleet.

Until NASA's shuttles resume flying next year at the earliest, all crews and supplies are being transported to the international space station aboard Russian spacecraft. And if the station crew is ever to reach the long-promised level of six people, the Russians will have to double their launch rate –- although who is going to pay for this has remained a contentious topic during recent negotiations. Perminov may meet NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe as early as April 1, during a previously scheduled visit to the United States.

Koptev was the first and to date the only head of the Russian Space Agency, a bureaucratic organization set up in post-Soviet Moscow to be the functional equivalent of the American space agency, NASA. The then NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin played a key role in Koptev’s acquisition of power over semi-independent space organizations in Russia, such as the Energia Space and Missile Organization that actually built and flew human space vehicles. Once Koptev took control of the flow of cash from foreign partners and from the federal government, he emerged as winner in a power struggle with his rival Yuriy Semyonov of Energia.

A day after the announcement, Albert Condes, NASA’s newly-named deputy assistant administrator for external relations, circulated an internal memo commenting on what the changes meant for NASA.

“It is likely that there will be additional fall-out for our relationship besides a change in the name and leadership of the agency,” Condes writes in the memo. “While it is too early to tell what may come, it is clear that General Perminov is much less wedded to the human space flight program than Mr. Koptev.”

Negotiations regarding who will pay for what aboard the re-directed space station may also become more difficult, Condes warned. “Based on his reported comments as Commander of the Russian Space Forces, [he] is likely to take a more nationalistic perspective on Russia's space program. ... The specific implications of this for current programs of cooperation should become more clear in the coming weeks.”

Of specific interest to NASA, continued Condes, “there are significant changes regarding Rosaviakosmos.” It will “no longer be a separate operating agency under the purview of Deputy Prime Minister”, but is now to be subordinated to the Ministry of Industry and Energy. Furthermore, “Rosaviakosmos also lost the aviation part of its portfolio” –- in recent years it had also been in charge of Russia’s aviation industry, whose budget dwarfed the funding allocated to space activities.

In April 2003, Perminov had told a Russian journalist that carrying out his plans for developing the Space Forces was going to help Russia "retain the status of a great space power and maintain the balance of forces" in the world.

Perminov is not the first military flag officer to head a national space agency. U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Richard Truly ran NASA from 1989 to 1992. However, he had spent most of the previous quarter century as an astronaut, with few recent responsibilities in military space and missile activities.

FMI: www.rosaviakosmos.ru/english/eindex.htm