Putin fires space chief

AFP : Anatoly Perminov will be replaced as head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos after a series of high-profile mishaps. Vladimir Popovkin, currently first deputy defense minister, will replace him. Although Perminov had reached the maximum age for state employees, there have been clear indications of government frustration with Roskosmos’s performance for some time. The latest manned launch for the International Space Station was delayed in March, less than a month before the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first spaceflight. In February, the Geo-IK-2 military satellite was rendered useless for defense when it was put into the wrong orbit. And in December, a fuel miscalculation caused three navigation satellites for the new Russian GLONASS system to crash into the ocean off Hawaii instead of reaching orbit. In February, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov issued a scathing assessment of Roskosmos’s performance, saying that the GLONASS mishap was characteristic of its problems and that any repeat satellite failure would be unacceptable. Perminov has served as Roskosmos chief since March 2004.