Is Roscomos, the Russian Space Agency, being a bit silly, Mars?

Moscow Times, March 18th, 2025

A few days ago, in the Moscow Times it was announced that “Putin Envoy Dmitriev says he will hold talks with Musk about Mars Exploration. The envoy is Kirill Dmitriev, one of Putin’s oligarch friend, and head of the Russia Direct Investment Fund. Dmitriev made his pronouncement at the annual meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kirill Dmitriev and his companies were sanctioned in February 2022 by the United States Treasury. No US citizen can undertake diplomacy of any kind with a sanctioned person or entity without risking the scrutiny of the US Congress. There is also the Logan Act to consider.

Recently Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Dmitriev as his special envoy for international economic and investment cooperation, giving him a formal role in Russia’s negotiations with state to state negotiations with the United States.

Last month, Dmitriev took part in some of the first high-level talks between Russian and U.S. State Department officials since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These state to state talks were in Saudi Arabia and Turkye.

Kirill Dmitriev is presenting himself as a business bridge between Roscomos, Rosatom and Space X. But a reality check needs to be done here.

No one takes Roscosmos seriously anymore, not even the Europeans. The design of the Roscosmos mainstay spacecraft, Soyuz is over six decades old. It has been marginally modernized a half dozen times. The launchers for Soyuz and the Proton boosters are also a design that is nearly six decades old. The rockets can barely launch manned missions to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Sixty years ago there was a Space Race to the Moon. The Americans won that Space Race in the summer of 1969. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Roscosmos meekly withdrew from deep space manned exploration, deciding instead to focus on space stations in Low Earth Orbit. Now, even with LEO space stations, Roscomos is long in the tooth and perhaps four decades out of date.

It is obvious why Roscomos and Rosatom might want to piggy back on the work of other space companies and space agencies at the cutting edge of technology. There is a modern version to an old adage:

“BEWARE OF RUSSIANS OFFERING GIFTS!”

If Roscomos wants to earn the respect of Western space companies and space agencies they have to do more than just offer rubles. They have to show they can keep up with the rest of the world.

A few weeks back I challenged the 47th President of the United States to write his name on the face of the Moon, or risk having an open faced egg sandwich named after him.

In the way of this short article, I challenge Russian President Putin and Roscosmos to do the same or risk having a pickled herring New Year’s dish named after them.

Roscosmos should at the very least launch a Soyuz with two Cosmonauts aboard on a free return trajectory to the Moon and back to Earth. If the Russian Chief Designer Sergei Korolev had lived a few more years that is what he might have done in early 1968, before the Americans got to lunar orbit with Apollo 8 in December that year.

If Roscomos can launch a Soyuz with two Cosmonauts aboard on a free return trajectory to the Moon and back to Earth before the end of 2026, I am sure this will earn the respect of the rest of the world. This is the flight trajectory of NASA’s Artemis 2 manned mission.

As for Elon Musk, well if there is anyone who is good at doing ‘impractical things’ it is he. You know he won’t even take a ride to LEO in one of his spaceships. I doubt he would ever want to fly to Mars aboard his Starship … and we can clearly see why … Starship keep breaking apart and raining from the sky. Space X hasn’t even gotten to and safely back from LEO with their vaunted Starship.

After some confusion and cross talk, I am glad to see NASA is once again on track to launch Artemis 2. I bet NASA will do their free return trip to the Moon and safely back to Earth, long before either Space X or Roscomos can do the same. This past year, Space X had to cancel the privately financed Dear Moon mission for failure to meet technical and contractual measures.

My last comment is that the CNSA are wise enough to keep Roscomos and Rosatom at arm’s length, because they are even less trusting than the Europeans and Americans. The People’s Republic of China have long ago learned the hard way to … beware of Russians offering gifts.