Gazprom is selling its space toys to a mystery buyer, and it’s peak corporate comedy
In a move that screams "we have no idea what we are doing," Gazprom is offloading its fancy satellite factory and mission control center. Apparently, space is hard when you're busy running gas pipes, so they are dumping it all onto a mysterious new startup.
Gazprom is looking to dump its subsidiary Gazprom SPKA, which includes a shiny satellite assembly plant in Shchyolkovo and a mission control center, by the end of 2026. The buyer, a company called Novy Start, seems to have appeared out of thin air in March 2025, led by former Roscosmos deputy director Alexander Bloshenko . The goal is to consolidate satellite manufacturing outside the standard Roscosmos perimeter, using a massive investment plan that supposedly involves 600 billion rubles over the next eight years.
The facility being sold was only fully operational as of 2024, boasting the ability to churn out four heavy satellites or a hundred smaller ones simultaneously. Despite finally turning a profit of 1.4 billion rubles last year, the company is being treated like a bad investment in a corporate boardroom game of musical chairs. Dmitry Bakanov , the head of Roscosmos, previously pitched this consolidation to Vladimir Putin as the ultimate path to industry salvation.
Watching an energy giant try to pivot into an aerospace conglomerate only to immediately sell off the hardware is the kind of professional chaos usually reserved for failed tech start-ups. It perfectly captures the absurdity of trying to build a space empire while treating high-tech manufacturing like a stack of depreciating office chairs.
Source: Kommersant
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