Roscosmos: Facts & Information about Russia's Space Agency

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The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research.

Roscosmos is headquartered in Moscow, with its main Mission Control Center in the nearby city of Korolyov, and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center located in Star City in Moscow Oblast.

History

In the early years, the agency suffered from a lack of authority as the powerful design bureaus fought to protect their spheres of operation and to survive. For example, the decision to keep Mir in operation beyond 1999 was not taken by the agency; instead, it was made 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.

2006–2012

The federal space budget for the year 2009 was left unchanged despite the global economic crisis, standing at about 82 billion rubles ($2.4 billion). In 2011, the government spent 115 billion rubles ($3.8 bln) in the national space programs.

The proposed project core budget for 2013 to be around 128.3 billion rubles. The budget for the whole space program is 169.8 billion rubles. ($5.6 bln). By 2015, the amount of the budget can be increased to 199.2 billion rubles.

Space station funding issues

Due to International Space Station involvements, up to 50% of Russia’s space budget is spent on the crewed space program as of 2009. Some observers have pointed out that this has a detrimental effect on other aspects of space exploration, and that the other space powers spend much lesser proportions of their overall budgets on maintaining a human presence in orbit.

ISS involvement:

Roscosmos is one of the partners in the International Space Station program; it contributed the core space modules Zarya and Zvezda, which were both launched by Proton rockets and later were joined by NASA’s Unity Module. The Rassvet module was launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis and is primarily used for cargo storage and as a docking port for visiting spacecraft

. The Nauka module is the last component of the ISS, launch was postponed several times, currently scheduled for the 1^st quarter of 2021. Roscosmos also provides space tourism for fare-paying passengers to ISS through the Space Adventures company. As of 2009, six space tourists have contracted with Roscosmos and have flown into space, each for an estimated fee of at least $20 million (USD).

Roscosmos also provides space tourism for fare-paying passengers to ISS through the Space Adventures company. As of 2009, six space tourists have contracted with Roscosmos and have flown into space, each for an estimated fee of at least $20 million USD.

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Science programs:

Future projects include the Soyuz successor, the Prospective Piloted Transport System, scientific robotic missions to one of the Mars moons as well as an increase in Lunar orbit research satellites.

• Luna-Glob Moon orbiter and lander, planned in 2021
• Venera-D Venus lander, planned in 2029

Rockets:

Roscosmos uses a family of several launches rockets, the most famous of them being the R-7, commonly known as the Soyuz rocket.

Space systems

“Resurs-P” is a series of Russian commercial Earth observation satellites capable of acquiring high-resolution imagery (resolution up to 1.0 m). The spacecraft is operated by Roscosmos as a replacement for the Resurs-DK No.1 satellite.

The launch of two satellites “Obzor-R” (Review-R) Remote Sensing of the Earth, with the AESA radar and four spacecraft “Obzor-O” (Review-O) to capture the Earth’s surface in normal and infrared light in a broad swath of 80 km with a resolution of 10 meters. The first two satellites of the projects planned for launch in 2015.

Gecko mating experiment

On 19 July 2014, Roscosmos launched the Foton-M4 satellite containing, among other animals and plants, a group of five geckos. The five geckos, four females and one male were used as a part of the Gecko-F4 research program aimed at measuring the effects of weightlessness on the lizards’ ability to procreate and develop in the harsh environment.

 

Written By- Violet Priscilla S

Edited By - Anamika Malik