THEY DON’T WANT WORD OF THEIR ORION PROJECT TO LEAK OUT: Russia tells its space reporters to stop reporting on the space program. Well, sadly, it’s nothing that interesting:

The reality is that the Russian space corporation is run by a political figure and friend of Putin’s, Dmitry Rogozin, who appears to be using it to enrich himself.

Roscosmos pays its employees very poorly, and as a result overall quality appears to be decreasing, with several recent launch and spacecraft failures (with horrific attempts at deflection). Overall, a once great space nation has seen its status fall from an undisputed leader to an also-ran behind the United States, China, and even some US companies.

Perhaps it is not difficult, after all, to understand why Putin and Rogozin would not welcome domestic coverage.

Corruption and coverups are less exciting, but par for the course in crony-state dictatorships.