The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (Роскосмос), is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research. Roscosmos inherited the bulk of the vast Soviet space program following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Established in 1992 as the Russian Space Agency, its modern form resulted from a 2015 merge with the United Rocket and Space Corporation, re-nationalizing the space industry of Russia. Roscosmos is headquartered at the National Space Centre in Moscow; Mission Control Center and Star City are located in Moscow Oblast. Its cosmodromes, jointly operated with the Russian Space Forces, comprise Baikonur in Kazakhstan, the world's first and largest spaceport, Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk, and Vostochny in Amur. Its director since February 2025 is Dmitry Bakanov. Roscosmos utilizes four rockets: the heavy-lift Proton-M and Angara A5, medium-lift Soyuz-2 variants, and small-lift Angara-1.2. Roscosmos constructed seven modules of the Russian Orbital Segment on the International Space Station (ISS), founding the station with Zarya in 1998. It inherited the Soyuz program, the most flown crewed spacecraft in history. Its derivations, most recently Soyuz MS and Progress MS, service the ISS. Roscosmos extended operations aboard Mir, the first modular space station, ten years beyond its design life; its last crewed mission departed in 2000. The Russian Orbital Station is planned to be constructed from the ISS's Nauka module alongside the ISS deorbit from 2028. Roscosmos is developing the medium-lift Soyuz-5 and partially reusable methalox Soyuz-7. The Luna-Glob program aims to succeed Soviet missions to the Moon. The Luna 25 lander failed in 2023, future plans include an orbiter, polar landers, and a sample return. Mars missions Mars 96 and Fobos-Grunt failed, while its joint mission with the European Space Agency (ESA), Trace Gas Orbiter, entered orbit in 2016; its Venera-17 orbiter/lander Venus mission launch was postponed beyond 2034. Roscosmos plans crewed Moon missions, developing the Orel spacecraft, Yenisei super heavy-lift rocket, and planning the International Lunar Research Station, with the Chinese space program and 11 other countries. Reactions to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine isolated the agency internationally: Roscosmos ended the Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre program with ESA, and its supply of NK-33 and RD-181 engines to the US Orbital Sciences Antares rockets; ESA suspended cooperation on the ExoMars program.
Name Roscosmos began as the Russian Space Agency, established 1992 and restructured in 1999 and 2004 as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), respectively. In 2015, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) was merged with the United Rocket and Space Corporation, a government corporation, to re-nationalize the space industry of Russia, leading to Roscosmos in its current form.
History
The Soviet space program did not have central executive agencies. Instead, its organizational architecture was multi-centered; it was the design bureaus and the council of designers that had the most say, not the political leadership. The creation of a central agency after the reorganization of the Soviet Union into the Russian Federation was therefore a new development. The Russian Space Agency was formed on 25 February 1992, by a decree of President Yeltsin. Yuri Koptev, who had previously worked with designing Mars landers at NPO Lavochkin, became the agency's first director. In the early years, the agency suffered from lack of authority as the powerful design bureaus fought to protect their own spheres of operation and to survive. For example, the decision to keep Mir in operation beyond 1999 was not made by the agency, but by the private shareholder board of the Energia design bureau. Another example is that the decision to develop the new Angara rocket was rather a function of Khrunichev's ability to attract resources than a conscious long-term decision by the agency.
Crisis years The 1990s saw serious financial problems due to the decreased cash flow, which encouraged the space agency to improvise and seek other ways to keep space programs running. This resulted in the agency's leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism. Scientific missions, such as interplanetary probes or astronomy missions during these years played a very small role, and although the agency had connections with the Russian aerospace forces, its budget was not part of Russia's defense budget; nevertheless, the agency managed to operate the Mir space station well past its planned lifespan, contributed to the International Space Station, and continued to fly Soyuz and Progress missions. In 1994, Roscosmos renewed the lease on its Baikonur cosmodrome with the government of Kazakhstan.
2000: Start of ISS cooperation On 31 October 2000, a Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:53 a.m. Kazakhstan time. On board were Expedition One Commander William M. (Bill) Shepherd of NASA and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko of Roscosmos. The trio arrived at the International Space Station on 2 November, marking the start of an uninterrupted human presence on the orbiting laboratory.
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