Russia could retain its previous market share of launches of heavy rockets and not give it to Elon musk, if in 2014, has reduced the cost of commercial launches "Proton-M", said in an interview with RIA Novosti’s former Director General (2005-2012) and chief designer (2009-2014) of the center of Khrunichev (manufacturer of the rocket "Hangar" and "proton") Vladimir Nesterov.
"When Russia began to impose sanctions, which did not apply to commercial launches, it was necessary to look more carefully as to marketing and financial policy. We could quite happily this market save. Elon Musk offered his launch services for $ 60 million, and we could come to this price with greater reliability run. Because in 2014 the dollar has doubled. We absolutely could drastically reduce the price and not give the to Elon musk to take the whole market", – said Nesterov.
He recalled that earlier missiles "proton" commercial orders started to eight times a year. In 2020 the only launch of this rocket will be with the Russian satellites. The last date a purely commercial launch "Proton" took place in October 2019.
Since the beginning of 2000-ies Russia for a long time was the leader in number of space launches, including commercial launch services market. On a rocket "proton-M" and "Union", as well as other Russian carriers accounted for more than 50% of all commercial launches in the world. In 2012, there was the first decline the number of starts, and after 2014, Russia’s share has gradually subsided since 2013, she orders the beginning of the "otest" American SpaceX.
