Vladimir Kondrashov

Associated Press

In this file photo taken on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017, The Proton-M rocket booster blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Six decades after Sputnik opened the space era, Russia has struggled to build up on its Soviet-era space achievements and space research now ranks very low among the Kremlin's priorities.

Russian Space Program Has Problems

It's been 60 years since Sputnik, what have they done since?

Russian Emergency Ministry employees investigate the wreckage of a crashed plane at the Rostov-on-Don airport, south of Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 20, 2016.

Plane's Black Boxes Badly Damaged

Aviation experts on Sunday began examining the black boxes from the FlyDubai flight that crashed amid high winds at an airport in southern Russia, killing all 62 aboard.