Russia leads on the market of space launches, sharing 45% of it, says the head of Russian Federal Space Agency. However, experts say that Russia may lose the title of leading space power without serious modernization of the space industry.
      
      2006 saw 24 Russian rocket launches – together with Ukrainian “naval launch” the country shares 45% of world space launch market. The USA rank second with 18 rockets and 28% of the market, the third position is occupied with China and Japan (6 launches) and European Union is fourth (5 launches).
      
      In 2007 Russian space industry expects 35 billion rubles of funding and about 20 launches of space rockets. American shuttles stop flying in 2010, and CEV manned space ship starts flights only in 2014. Thus, 4-year gap belongs to Russian “Soyuz” rocket carriers.
      
      However, scientists of China, Japan and India are currently working on rocket carriers, which are much more up-to-date than Russian are. Russian space industry definitely requires some modernization to keep the leading position in space exploration.
      
      Source: BBC