Russia Replaces Head of Space Industry, Whose Tenure was Marred by the 2023 Failure of Roscosmos’s Luna-25 Moon Mission

(Moscow, Russia) The Kremlin replaced the now-former head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, earlier today after a less-than-three-year tenure, marked by the failure of Russia’s first mission to the moon in 47 years in August of 2023.

Photo of the newly-appointed Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov – Russia’s former Deputy Minister of Transport – attending a session of the International Russia Expo forum and exhibition in Moscow, Russia on May 15, 2024, courtesy of The Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation via Reuters.

Per Reuters, in a statement, the Kremlin said that the previous head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, was replaced with Dimitry Bakanov, a deputy transport minister and former head of satellite company Gonets.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later on Thursday that the Kremlin had no complaints against Borisov and that his removal was a rotation, according to Reuters.

In August of 2023, the uncrewed Roscosmos Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon when attempting to land, marring Borisov’s tenure.

Despite that failure, Borisov had laid out ambitious plans for the coming years as Russia prepares to launch its own orbital space station, seeking to replace the International Space Station. Last year, Borisov approved a schedule under which the first two modules of the new Russian station would launch in 2027, according to Reuters.

Bakanov is the former head of a company called Gonets, which operates a Russian satellite communications system similar to the U.S. Starlink, but much smaller in size and used mainly for government purposes.