Competing holding companies to be set up in Russian space industry

KOROLYOV, June 10 (Itar-Tass) - Competing holding companies will be
set up in the Russian space industry, Vladimir Popovkin, the director of
the Russian Federal Space Agency /Roscosmos/ told a news conference at the
Space Mission Ground Control Center in Korolyov near Moscow after a
successful docking of a Soyuz manned spacecraft with the International
Space Station.
"We'll view integration from the angle of the purposes that will be
implemented in manned space flights in the short term and also in more
distant a future," Popovkin said, adding that this concerns in part the
development of ground infrastructures.
"At least two holding companies will be created in each area," he
said. "They'll compliment each other and compete with each other likewise."
Vitaly Lopota, the CEO of the Russian space rocket manufacturer
Energiya said earlier this week Popovkin had suspended the formation of a
holding company on the basis of Energiya along the previously planned
pattern.