Russia's Space Program in Crisis After Decades of Brain Drain, Neglect

It might be the only country that can rocket humans into space, but Russia's once-great space program is being dragged back to Earth by decades of brain drain and financial hardship. "The Russian space industry is in an obvious state of crisis," said Asif Siddiqi, a professor at Fordham University in New York and an expert on Russia's space program. The latest sign that that the Kremlin's space program was creaking came on May 7, when a Progress M-27M unmanned spacecraft burned on re-entry over the Pacific. The incident put the International Space Station (ISS) at risk of being cut-off from Earth. The failure was not the worst in recent years: Russia has lost 15 spacecraft since 2010, with assembly mistakes blamed in most cases. More

(Source: NBC News - Aug 24)