Today space is one of the few areas in which Russian engineers and scientists remain competitive. The structure of the industry is such that the first fiddle in it is played by state agencies. Commercially crippled federal state unitary enterprises and joint stock companies controlled by the government occupy most of the Russian space market. In addition, there are few end-user oriented products in this sector. There are a number of segments, primarily associated with the ground-based use of space services, where a relatively large volume of sales is possible, but the competition is great here, supplemented by foreign players.
Most promising projects created by cluster member-companies have a long life cycle, whereas Skolkovo rules dictate that commercialization of the product should take about three years. In a cluster of space technology, due to the industry specifics, the early commercialization is often problematic.
A cluster has three areas of practical work with innovative companies. For brevity, we use the terminology that once came from the oil and gas industry. Firstly, upstream – that is all that is connected with the creation of space technology and provides integration of Russian start-ups into the “major” program for the development and use of space. The well-known model of the development of small and medium business in this segment, a partner of a number of Skolkovo companies and a model for Russia’s “small cosmonautics” is the British SSTL company, which once grew up from a small laboratory of the University of Surrey. An example of SSTL inspires, for example, “SPUTNIX” and “Dauria-Satellite Technology” Skolkovo residents. Before “Skolkovo” there was practically no work carried out in this direction in Russia.
The “Dauria-Satellite System” company is part of a newly formed “Dauria Aerospace” group of companies. It is developing multi-purpose small-size satellite constellations using stage-by-stage models of mastering critical upstream-technology (many of them are poorly developed in the Russian industry) from the simple import of components and technology to the screwdriver assembly and own production.
Secondly, downstream – the use of space activities results. These are projects in the field of geographic information systems, development of modern information receiving antennas, navigation applications and chipset, etc. All over the world small business participates very actively in the downstream projects, the atmosphere here is more market-oriented, but the competition is high as well.
Finally, the third direction of the cluster – support for technology and general solutions that can be used both in the aerospace and related industries. Here we have materials and production technologies – such as ultra-thin wire for cable networks, which one of the residents from the Krasnoyarsk Territory offers to produce. Among the most popular areas are the avionics, the creation of composite materials.
Of course, the main direction of the cluster operation is the space, but there are perspectives to reach other markets as well.
Not just space
The full name of the Skolkovo space business activity is “the Cluster of Space Technology and Telecommunications,” and, as they say in “Skolkovo”, one of the key issues of development is the logical accent: will the ‘astronauts’ focus on space technology and space as telecommunications or expand their activity to “simple” (no space) telecommunication and will support projects in areas such as mobile communications, the creation of integrated digital networks, linear and user equipment.
The cluster has another development vector – it is primarily the expansion of work, the attraction of additional startup residents in the area of not purely space, but aerospace technology as well.
As they tell in the cluster, until recently there was no development institution in Russia that would have been specifically engaged in the support of small and medium-sized businesses in the aerospace, would have been marking out “space” problems of non-state sector of the economy, and would have been participating in the discussion of the strategic future of Russia’s space. From this point of view, the practice of “Skolkovo” is unique: as space cluster leaders explain, today one of the main objectives is to create a comfortable environment for the private players, including the interaction with government agencies, and first of all with the Russian Space Agency. An expert working group is operating in the cluster, which includes the most competent, independent experts in various fields of space activities. This is the third year the group participates in all relevant battles and debates that will determine the fate of the Russian cosmonautic and space industry. So the task of the cluster is somewhat broader than just supporting “space” startups. It can be formulated as the creation of conditions for the development of national space business.
Projects of residents
To date, the cluster has received 409 applications for the status of a participant and the preliminary examination, and 108 teams got a positive initial response. Some of them, after receiving a positive response, are in no hurry to create own company (a prerequisite for becoming a member of the “Skolkovo” project), a few companies have joined the group of “astronauts” moving from other clusters. As a result, today there 101 resident registered in the cluster. Among them there are companies created by “people from the street” – private entrepreneurs like Andrew Artischev who came up with an ideal of a motorcycle helmet with the navigation system, making some turmoil recently on the Internet, but there are much less such participants in the space cluster, for obvious reasons, than in IT business. There is a group of offsprings from major Russian companies in the cluster as well. It’s either their subsidiaries or small firms, created by employees themselves – but still it comes to new sprouts on the trunk of a large aerospace tree. The third category, similar to the «industrialists», is members of academic institutions. For example, several structures operate in the cluster established by the Institute of Radio Electronics, a subsidiary of the Institute for Space Studies, etc. Finally, the fourth category is the foreigners. There are yet not many of them right now. One of them is the Russian Technology Office of EADS, the “daughter” of the French AMCAD company of radio electronics. Europeans dominate among the foreign participants. Americans and representatives of Asian countries, do not hurry up yet to join the “Skolkovo” space community.
Developments of the space cluster residents can be used in many different areas. Several subsidiary companies of the ScanEx Research & Development Center – one of the most significant private space companies in Russia – are successfully operating in it. For example, one is developing the technology of small satellites, the other – the development of a new generation of compact ground antennas for receiving information from space. Among other promising projects are: a robotic unmanned aerial monitoring complex with elements of artificial intelligence, star mappers for spacecrafts, satellite images processing software systems.
The cluster is represented by very different projects. One of the first teams that came and still remains in the cluster, offers a light-weight carrier-vehicle of the new generation; a subsidiary of NPO “Energomash” develops a new rocket fuel; the “Spektralazer” company realizes the project of creating a laser ignition system for rocket engines. Recently a Samara project joined the cluster with the idea of providing services to launch micro-and nano-satellites on the “Soyuz” launch vehicle.
Residents of the “Skolkovo” may qualify for grant funding. The Grant Committee has for example allocated 136 million rubles to LLC “New Energy Technologies” on a project to create miniature atomic clocks – in particular, to ensure the operation of space vehicles, smart power grids, and automatic control and security systems.
“Skolkovo” plans to attract to the participation in the space programs those, who by their own would have never entered it without support. First of all, these are small enterprises established on the basis of laboratories, research centers, and private companies – they found their subsidiaries specially for “Skolkovo” project”.
Small and medium
They feel it is required to involve the private sector in the area of space technology to the space cluster, including small and medium-sized businesses. For comparison, in the United States about 1% of the giant budget of NASA is allocated to support participation in space programs for small and medium businesses. On the one hand, these companies should account for part of the contracts, on the other – they need to fulfill a substantial part of the work in the contracts. Unfortunately, there is nothing like that in Russia, although the respective proposals have already been developed in the “Skolkovo”.
However, as they confess in the cluster, the participation of new players is limited by the commercialization of their inventions – the academic community in Russia got used to the long-term monetization schemes that do not fit into the cluster operation model. However, as they assure in the “Skolkovo”, the main mission of the cluster is to provide the very existence of the Russian cosmonautics in the future. We are still leading in most aerospace industries, but if American private companies of new generation come in the nearest future, it will be even more difficult for Russian companies to stand fast. Foundation for future competitiveness of the Russian space needs to be strengthened right now – this is a strategic task to be aimed at and resolved by the “Skolkovo” space cluster.
