Ukraine war: SpaceX, rivals get a lift as industry ‘boycotts' Russian Soyuz rocket

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Russia’s Soyuz rocket has carried people and payloads to space for decades, a workhorse that has amassed a record of reliability as the most launched in spaceflight history. Yet in the span of a few weeks, the Soyuz’s prospects have been severely diminished in the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine. The nation’s moves to rework commercial contracts, halt deliveries and effectively seize property from Western customers has shaken the industry’s faith in Russia and its signature rocket.

“The Russian government just killed the commercial potential of Soyuz,” said Caleb Henry, a senior analyst at Quilty Analytics, a research and advisory firm. “Russia’s action threatens to permanently remove Soyuz from the list of globally used launch vehicles.”

While the rocket had already been facing rising competition from new launch vehicles, the latest moves accelerate the shift away from Soyuz, opening the door for U.S. and European firms such as SpaceX, Rocket Lab USA Inc. and Arianespace SA. Potentially billions of dollars in contracts could be up for grabs to send commercial satellites into orbit, ferry cargo to the International Space Station or help mankind explore the cosmos.

Rocket Lab said it’s already assessing options to speed its newest rocket to market to fill the gap left by Soyuz. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp., signed a deal to provide launch services later this year for OneWeb, a high-profile satellite operator partially owned by the U.K. government that has used the Soyuz.

Arianespace, which marketed and launched the Soyuz commercially as Europe’s medium-lift rocket, can shift Soyuz customers to its Ariane 6 rocket in 2023, Chief Executive Officer Stephan Israel said Tuesday at the