Insurance of Soyuz Spacecraft Matter of Roscosmos, Insurers - Kremlin

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th October, 2018) Insurance of the upcoming launches of the Soyuz-2.1b and the Soyuz-FG spacecraft is a matter of Russia's space agency Roscosmos and insurance companies, and Kremlin hopes for a successful settlement of the situation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, a source in the Russian space industry told Sputnik that the launches of the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle with the Glonass-M spacecraft on November 3 and the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the Progress MS-10 cargo spacecraft on November 18 might not take place within the specified time, if Roscosmos fails to insure civil liability of the launches before these dates.

"This topic is not discussed in the Kremlin anyway, it is the issue of Roscosmos and insurance companies. We have seen reports on this issue, but we hope that this situation would be resolved by the company itself.

This is a matter of companies," Peskov said.

Also on Wednesday, Russian public procurement website revealed the lack of insurance companies' bids to insure the risks related to the upcoming launches of Soyuz-2.1b and Soyuz-FG.

On October 11, the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle failed to take the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft with the new crew of the International Space Station (ISS) into space. This became the first failure of a manned space launch in modern Russian history. Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague managed to eject in a rescue capsule and make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan unharmed. The launch was insured by Russia's Soglasie Insurance Company in the amount of 4.65 billion rubles ($70 million) and then reinsured by high-ranked Russian and Western insurance and reinsurance companies.