President Vladimir Putin dismissed Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov, the Kremlin said Thursday, after a tenure of two and a half years marked by ambitious plans and major setbacks at the Russian space agency.
Borisov was replaced by Dmitry Bakanov, a former deputy transportation minister and head of the state-backed satellite communications company Gonets.
The Kremlin said it had “no complaints against Borisov” and described the reshuffle as a “planned rotation.”
“The corporation needs dynamic development, which is why these personnel changes are taking place,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
A former deputy defense minister under Sergei Shoigu, Borisov was appointed to lead Roscosmos in July 2022, months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isolated it from Western space programs.
Under his tenure, Russia’s first independent Moon exploration mission in decades ended in failure when the Luna-25 probe crashed in August 2023. The space agency also faced corruption scandals, the loss of satellites and other spacecraft, as well as a lack of innovation and international partnerships.
Borisov had approved plans to launch the first two modules of a Russian space station in 2027 after the European Space Agency cut cooperation with Moscow on Moon and Mars missions. While Russia has pledged to remain on the International Space Station until 2028, its long-term role in space remains uncertain.
Bakanov, the incoming Roscosmos chief, previously led Gonets, which had a joint venture with satellite internet startup OneWeb until Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) scrapped the project in 2018 over espionage concerns.
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