Roscosmos (the State Corporation for Space Activities) manages Russia's civil space program and much of its space industry. Established as the Russian Space Agency on February 25, 1992, after the Soviet Union dissolved, and reorganized as a state corporation in 2015, it inherited the infrastructure, design bureaus, and launch sites of the Soviet space program.[1]
The corporation operates the Soyuz crew spacecraft and the Russian segment of the International Space Station, one of the few areas where Russian-American cooperation has continued since 2022. Its robotic program has struggled: the Luna 25 lander crashed into the Moon in 2023, and follow-on missions have slipped to the late 2020s. Under director general Dmitry Bakanov, appointed in February 2025, Roscosmos is planning a national successor to the ISS, the Russian Orbital Station, with a first module targeted for 2028.[2]
Soviet heritage
Roscosmos descends from the program that opened the Space Age. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957, and Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. Valentina Tereshkova followed as the first woman in orbit in 1963, and Alexei Leonov performed the first spacewalk in 1965. These milestones defined the early Space Race with the United States.
Soviet robotic probes achieved the first soft landing on the Moon (Luna 9, 1966), the first lunar sample return by a robot (Luna 16, 1970), and the first landings on Venus. After losing the race to a crewed lunar landing, the program concentrated on space stations, flying the Salyut series from 1971 and the modular Mir station from 1986 to 2001, where physician Valery Polyakov logged a still-unbroken 437-day single flight. The R-7 missile lineage that launched Sputnik evolved into the Soyuz rocket family, which has flown more than 1,900 times, more than any other orbital launcher.[1]
Soyuz and the ISS partnership
Russia was a founding partner of the International Space Station and launched its first element, the Zarya module, in November 1998. Roscosmos supplies crew transport on Soyuz spacecraft, cargo on Progress freighters, and the propulsion used to maintain the station's orbit. Between 2011 and 2020, Soyuz was the only vehicle carrying any nation's astronauts to the station.
Russian crews continue to set endurance marks: cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko completed a record 1,111 cumulative days in space in 2024, more than any human in history. Launches use the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which Russia leases under an agreement running to 2050, while military and polar-orbit missions fly from Plesetsk and the newer Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East handles a growing share of civil launches.[1]
The ISS partnership has outlasted the collapse in wider relations that followed Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. NASA and Roscosmos continue to exchange seats, flying cosmonauts on American capsules and NASA astronauts on Soyuz, and in July 2025 the two agencies agreed to extend station cooperation to 2028.[3] In April 2026 Bakanov said the station's operation would run to at least 2028 and could continue to 2030, when the partners plan to deorbit it.[2] Roscosmos has stated that its new national station will initially be assembled while attached to the ISS Russian segment and separated before the complex is brought down.[4]
Luna 25 and robotic exploration
Luna 25, Russia's first lunar mission since Luna 24 in 1976, launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on August 10, 2023. Nine days later, an engine burn intended to lower its orbit ran long, and the spacecraft struck the lunar surface; Roscosmos confirmed the loss on August 20, 2023. The failure removed Russia from the race to make the first landing near the lunar south pole, which India's Chandrayaan-3 accomplished days later.
The follow-on missions of the Luna-Glob program have been repeatedly delayed. As of early 2026, the Luna 26 polar orbiter is planned for 2028 and the Luna 27 south pole lander for 2029-2030.[5] Cooperation with Europe on planetary missions ended in 2022, when the European Space Agency suspended Russian participation in the ExoMars rover mission. Roscosmos has instead aligned its lunar plans with China's CNSA under the International Lunar Research Station initiative.
Launch vehicles
| Rocket | Status | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Soyuz-2 | Active | Crew, cargo, and satellite workhorse |
| Proton-M | Being phased out | Heavy payloads to high orbits |
| Angara 1.2 / A5 | Active | Light and heavy military and civil payloads |
| Soyuz-5 (Irtysh) | In testing | Medium-lift replacement, flown from Baikonur |
The Angara family, developed to replace Proton with an all-Russian rocket flown from Russian territory, launches from Plesetsk and, since April 2024, from Vostochny. The new medium-lift Soyuz-5, a joint project with Kazakhstan, made a successful first test launch from Baikonur on April 30, 2026, flying a suborbital profile with a mass simulator.[6] A reusable methane-fueled rocket, Amur, remains in early development.
Current state and plans
Sanctions and the loss of Western customers after 2022 sharply reduced Roscosmos's commercial launch business, and Russia has conducted fewer than 20 orbital launches in most recent years, a fraction of its Soviet-era cadence.[1] The corporation's near-term priorities are maintaining its ISS obligations, restoring the lunar program, and fielding new hardware: Soyuz-5, the next Angara variants, and a new-generation crew spacecraft.
The centerpiece of its post-ISS planning is the Russian Orbital Station (ROS). Roscosmos and the RKK Energia design bureau presented the full assembly plan in April 2026, with the first module scheduled for 2028 and completion around 2034. In December 2025 the government approved placing the station in the same 51.6 degree inclination orbit as the ISS, easing the transition between the two outposts.[2][4]
References
- Roscosmos - Wikipedia.
- Russian Orbital Station to be fully deployed by 2034 - ROS chief designer - TASS.
- Russia's Roscosmos, NASA agree to extend ISS operations until 2028 - France 24.
- Russian Orbital Station - Wikipedia.
- Luna-Glob - Wikipedia.
- Russia's new homegrown Soyuz 5 rocket aces debut launch - Space.com.