![Russia President Vladimir Putin and Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin shake hands during a meeting at the Konstantin Palace.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/GettyImages-962039264-800x535.jpg)
Mikhail MetzelTASS via Getty Images
It was at all times abundantly clear that the leader of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos from 2018 to 2022, Dmitry Rogozin, sought to kowtow to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now we have now an anecdote from Putin himself that highlights how much.
The story concerns a satellite constellation now often called Sfera (or Sphere, in English), a modestly ambitious constellation of 264 satellites. The Sphere constellation is meant to supply broadband Web service from middle-Earth orbit to Russia in addition to high-resolution Earth statement satellites.
As is common with Russian space projects, because they have an inclination to be poorly funded, the timeline for Sphere’s deployment has been delayed and its scope reduced. It also underwent an unscheduled name change. Prior to 2018, this satellite program was often called Ehfir (Ether), a reference to the invisible substance once thought to fill the universe and the medium through which light waves propagated.
“OK, then.”
Nonetheless that modified in 2018 when Putin was publicly announcing this system’s creation. He recently recalled this in remarks that were recorded by RIA Novosti’s Telegram channel. They were translated for Ars by Rob Mitchell.
“At first it was called Ehfir,” Putin said. “And at one in all my public speeches I used to be talking and said it was Sfera. I arrived on the Kremlin, and the previous Roscosmos head greeted me and said, ‘Vladimirovich, you said it was project Sfera, Sfera you said. That is what it’s, project Sfera.'”
Rogozin, who was listening to those remarks, acted immediately—presumably to save lots of his boss from embarrassment. After Rogozin said the constellation was named Sphere, Putin recalled that he asked how’s that? Rogozin replied that it had already been renamed Sfera, not to fret.
Laughing, Putin added, “So I didn’t even make it back and it’s already renamed to Sfera. So I said, well, OK then.” Rogozin confirmed the anecdote on his Telegram channel this week.
Despite the name change, this system only moved slowly forward. In line with a Roscosmos press release issued at first of 2022, the Sphere program was hampered by the necessity for “colossal government spending” on other projects, including coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, just weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine, which has had serious consequences for the country’s ability to take a position in an area program.
A paltry sum
Roscosmos said it was spending somewhat lower than $100 million on this system in 2021, and concerning the same amount in 2022. This hardly looks like enough funding to launch an ambitious satellite program. For instance, the OneWeb broadband constellation has fewer than 600 satellites, and it likely cost between $5 billion and $10 billion to get into orbit.
The constellation’s first Web satellite, Skif-D, did launch into orbit in October 2022. It was intended to function a testbed to exhibit capabilities as Russia plans development of the larger Sphere constellation. It is just not clear what the status of other Sphere satellites is, nonetheless.
Earlier this month on the International Astronautical Congress in Azerbaijan, the brand new leader of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, referenced the Sphere constellation. Now, he said, plans for the constellation will include the capability to supply direct-to-cell communications, which necessarily signifies that a few of these satellites will likely be very large.
It seems equally likely that the more ambitious elements of Sphere will, sooner or later in the long run, disappear into the ether.