Russia's space program in crisis?

Ever since the Cold War-era space race with the United States, Russia has taken immense national pride in its cosmic exploits. It was a Soviet satellite -- Sputnik 1 -- that was the first, in 1957, to break out of Earth's gravitational grip. 1960 witnessed the first living creatures make it into orbit and back again. Soviet space dogs, Belka and Strelka, are still widely celebrated for their achievement -- although the memory of the grey rabbit, 42 mice, two rats, and numerous flies that accompanied them on their extraterrestrial journey has faded. The following year, in 1961, a Soviet cosmonaut pipped the Americans into space. Yuri Gagarin became a household name and a potent symbol of what the Kremlin would have seen as Communist superiority over the West. More

(Source: CNN - Jun 4)