Failed rocket launches cost Russia $542m between 2010-2018

Moscow  :  Russia has lost some 35 billion rubles ($542 million) owing to failed rocket launches between 2010-2018, the government said on Tuesday.

"There were 11 failed launches of spacecraft during this period," the Kremlin said in a statement, which outlined the cost of the failures. It said the figure was three times more than what was spent on insurance. 

Almost 20 billion rubles in damages were covered by insurance, but throughout the period there were several failed launches that had not been insured, Efe news reported.

As a consequence, Russia's space agency Roscosmos suffered damages of 10.5 billion rubles, according to the statement.

The government mentioned the breakdown of a Proton-M rocket in 2013 with three Glonass-M satellites, whose launch was not insured and entailed damages worth 5 billion rubles.

In the period that ends 2021, Roscosmos plans to launch a total of 56 spacecraft, including eight manned Soyuz capsules.