‘Unfair competition’: Roscosmos blasts Pentagon’s ban on using Russian space launches & satellites

The Pentagon is trying to artificially limit the use of Russian launch vehicles on the international market, Roscosmos said, adding that the ban will negatively affect the whole industry of commercial space launches.

Russia’s space agency said it “condemns” the decision by the Department of Defense to forbid US companies from relying on Russian space rocket launches and satellite services starting from 2023.

Roscosmos “considers it yet another manifestation of unfair competition by Washington in the international space services market,” the statement read.

The Pentagon wants to destroy all the hard-won and maintained Russian-American relations in the area of space.

The move will not only affect Russia but also “may have a negative effect on international cooperation in organizing regular launches of spacecraft to target orbits on a commercial basis.”

Ironically, the ban could, in particular, affect NASA, which is still using Russian Soyuz rockets to deliver astronauts into space. The US lacks its own carrier after the shuttle program was shut down in 2011. Private companies SpaceX and Boeing were to deliver a replacement in 2017, but their spacecraft is still stuck in the testing phase.

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