At this pace, it appears that the country’s space program is on pace for the fewest number of Russian or Soviet space launches in a year since 1961. That was when Yuri Gagarin went to space at the dawn of the human spaceflight era.

Wow, that certainly puts this slowdown in perspective. Not a great era for the Russian space program. I hope we get to see the Amur rocket and Russian Orbital Station fly at some point (and that SSTO sounds intriguing), but Russia seems to be losing steam. SpaceX and China have left them in the dust, and even Rocket Lab has completed more launches so far this year. “New Zealand outlaunches Russia” was not on my bingo card for this year.