In addition to writing for Aviation Week Network, Maxim holds a key position at Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine (www.ato.ru). In the past he was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications and earlier worked for the Moscow-based CAST defense think-tank.
Maxim has a degree on international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, and for several years worked at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The first commercial outing for Phazotron-NIIR's new active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar may have ended in failure, but rather than retrenching, the Russian company plans to further exploit the technology.
Russia will return to deep space exploration this year with a mission designed to return samples from Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. The Phobos-Grunt mission was initially scheduled for launch in 2009, but was postponed at the last minute–officially due to the need for additional testing. In mid-July the head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, announced that the launch will take place this November. “There will be no more slippages,” he stressed.
