Five assailants broke into the Moscow premises of a major space enterprise overnight and made off with money and jewelry worth $10,000 belonging to employees, officials said Thursday.
Alexander Bobrenev, a spokesman of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, said the robbers entered a facility that was not guarded by police and security officials, RIA-Novosti reported.
An unidentified police official told RIA-Novosti that the robbers entered the center's building located on Novozavodskaya Ulitsa in western Moscow and broke the doors of five offices. The robbers also threatened a secretary and an engineer, who happened to be
inside, before fleeing, the official said.
The Khrunichev center has participated in Russia's most sensitive and secretive space programs, including the Mir station and Zvezda, the Russian module on the international space station. The center also developed the Angara, the flagship rocket that carries satellites into orbit.
