Maksim covers aerospace developments in Central Asia for Aviation Week. He has worked for Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine and was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications after working for the Moscow-based CAST defense think tank.
Maksim has a degree in international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow.
Russia plans to spend about $1 billion to develop and flight test a partly reusable, methane-powered orbital launch vehicle known as Amur SPG (“liquid natural gas” in Russian) with a first stage designed to return to its launch site.
The successful mission of a Russian movie crew to the International Space Station (ISS) Oct. 5-16 suggests the state space corporation Roscosmos is poised to resume a space tourism program. But despite the busy delivery schedule at the end of 2021, new space travelers are likely to fly Russian ships no earlier than 2023.
