spacetoday.net: Roscosmos leadership replaced

Posted: Fri, Oct 11, 2013, 8:29 AM ET (1229 GMT)
The Russian government has replaced the head and other senior officials of the space agency Roscosmos in the latest effort to reform the nation's space program. The Russian government announced Thursday that Oleg Ostapenko would take over as director-general of Roscosmos, replacing Vladimir Popovkin. Ostapenko, a former Russian Space Forces officer, had been serving as deputy defense minister. At least two other senior Roscosmos officials have been removed from their positions as well, according to Russian media reports. The moves come after top Russian government officials, including prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, had expressed their displeasure with the current state of Roscosmos and the need to reform the organization, which has suffered from a string of launch failures and other problems in recent years.