Sevastyanov was a scientist-turned-businessman who developed the Yamal communications satellite for Gazprom. Kaskol, a minority shareholder of RKK Energia, replaced Semenov as head of the company with Sevastyanov in 2005. The intent was to rationalize the company and make it profitable. Some progress was achieved on this, but the projects Sevastyanov tried to market - mining helium-3 on the Moon for future nuclear fusion power plants, and the Kliper replacement for Soyuz - did not find investors. In 2007 Kaskol moved to replace him in turn with Lapota, with a background in military star wars programs.