‘Squeezing us out of the market’: Russia’s space agency chief rules out any cooperation with Musk & ‘direct competitor’ SpaceX

The general director of Russian space agency Roscosmos has accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of attempting to squeeze it out of the market by operating at a significant loss, calling cooperation between the two “hardly possible.”

Speaking at the Youth Orbit conference on Tuesday, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin explained that the state organization would not work with Musk.

“It is hardly possible for our organizations to have any cooperation with SpaceX, because they are our direct competitors,” Rogozin said.

According to the space agency head, SpaceX is likely making losses that are subsidized by funds from the Pentagon and other American government agencies, making them hard to compete with because there is no “fair fight.”

Until last year, the American space program relied on Roscosmos rockets to send its astronauts to space.

Musk and Rogozin have a long relationship, and regularly communicate in the public eye, often on Twitter. Last month, the Russian space chief invited the SpaceX founder to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a space launch facility located in Kazakhstan but leased by Russia. Musk is yet to publicly accept the offer.

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