By Vestnik Kavkaza
"It turns out that the filmmakers of "Armageddon" were right showing our cosmonaut Andropov in a fur hat on a space station eliminating flaws with a hammer”, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said speaking about the causes of the crash of the carrier rocket "Proton-M" in August. According to him, the first reason is that among the senior management of the space industry there are no experts who have experience in strategic planning management. "The Federal Space Agency has withdrawn from the important task of how to stimulate demand in the domestic market for space services", Rogozin believes. The second reason he mentioned is the fact that the scientific and technological advance is quite small. And finally, the third reason is unclear understanding of space activities and of the operating conditions of the industry itself.
Rogozin considers it unacceptable that the Federal Space Agency combine the functions of the customer and the manufacturer of spacecraft. Such a merger was, in his opinion, one of the causes of frequent accidents and determined the low quality of the equipment. In addition, Rogozin suggested bringing together manufacturers of spacecraft with the aviation industry.
Igor Volk, Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut, told VK about the problems of the space-rocket industry.
What, in your opinion, is the main problem of the space industry?
You know, the problem is that we have no control system in the state and in the industry. All this is the only reason. At the time, even Plato said that there must be a complex cybernetic system, in fact, he was the victim of his cybernetic system, and he said that everything should be managed and controlled. They were arguing with Aristotle about which system is better. Aristotle spoke about the legal system, and Plato – about the competent manager. Unfortunately, Plato is more correct than Comrade Medvedev. If there were a control system and feedback ... We have no feedback. There are violations, there are perpetrators, and no one takes action. In order to take action, the manager should have the same knowledge to be able to show where the wrong is, what is wrong and how to correct this issue.
If we really want to do something to stop the final collapse of the aviation industry, and hence the space industry, too, for this, from my point of view, of course we need to create the Ministry of Aviation. The space industry resulted from the aircraft at the time. Back in the Soviet Union, they were separated, there were the Ministry of Aviation Industry and the Ministry of General Machine Building. But then there was order both in the Ministry of General Machine Building and in the Ministry of Aviation Industry. Therefore, their activities comfortably fitted into a framework which it required by our government. Moreover, at that time still Russian Academy of Sciences operated in full force and served them from the point of view of fundamental research. So from my point of view this is the most optimal form. I believe that not creating the Ministry of Aviation Industry, we will finally lose the aviation industry, even though we have almost lost her. Now there are few pilots, and I have information that the graduates of aviation schools are not taken to any job because they are waiting for arrival of guest workers; probably they are more “profitable”.
Do friendships between the astronauts on Earth after they were in orbit remain?
Basically yes. But there can be just the opposite things. There are people who do not communicate with each other. There is an institute of biomedical problems. They have a huge number of psychologists. Naturally, all the astronauts who are trained and selected pass this system. Not only that, they write conclusions and say that it would be more correct from the point of view of physicians to send such and such crews. However, doctors do not make the decision; this is done by completely different people. As a general rule, the physicians are more correct.
Have you ever been to the Caucasus?
Of course! I served in the Baku Air Defense District. It was the best of times. I was the youngest and most handsome lieutenant in the Baku Air Defense District. What can we add? The only thing that was surprising, especially in the first year, was the following one: I did not see any clouds over Azerbaijan. It was a little upsetting. You can somehow miss clouds.
