Glavkosmos () is a Russian launch service provider and subsidiary of the State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos". In the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Glavkosmos was the prime authority for implementing cooperative agreements with foreign bodies, with activities including commercial utilisation of Soviet systems and flying foreign cosmonauts aboard Soviet spacecraft. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union and creation of Roscosmos, it has been concerned with converting military technology for use in civil applications as well as commercialisation of Russian space technology.

History

On 26 February 1985, the

Ministry of General Machine-Building The Ministry of General Machine-Building (; MOM), also known as ''Minobshchemash'', was a Ministries of the Soviet Union, government ministry of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1957 and from 1965 to 1991. The ministry supervised OKB, design bu ...

of the Soviet Union issued an order that formed the Main Department for the creation and use of space technology for the national economy and scientific research – Glavkosmos. Although it was originally envisioned to command all Soviet space activities, it worked more as a marketing and coordinating body than an executive agency. During the

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

reform movement of the late 1980s, Glavkosmos started offering commercial services for global customers, aimed primarily at competing with launchers based in the United States. The first commercial offering was presented at the Space Commerce '88 trade show in

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

, Switzerland. Most notably it featured the sales of the following launchers: Energia, with a payload of up to 100t to

Low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

(LEO);

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...

with a payload of up to 20t to LEO or 2t to GEO for 25 - ;

Tsyklon-3 The Tsyklon-3, also known as Tsiklon-3 and Cyclone-3 (known as SL-14 by the United States DoD), GRAU index 11K68, was a Soviet, and subsequently Ukrainian orbital carrier rocket. Overview Tsyklon-3 launching a Meteor-3 satellite at left A ...

for payloads up to 4t to LEO; a family of

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

rockets in the configurations for LEO, geostationary transfer and

Molniya orbit A Molniya orbit ( rus, Молния, p=ˈmolnʲɪjə, a=Ru-молния.ogg, "Lightning") is a type of satellite orbit designed to provide communications and remote sensing coverage over high latitudes. It is a highly elliptical orbit with ...

s as well as the Vostok launchers for 12 - . Glavkosmos also featured Kosmos rockets with the successfully completed launches of Indian

Aryabhata Aryabhata ( ISO: ) or Aryabhata I (476–550 CE) was the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His works include the '' Āryabhaṭīya'' (which mentions that in 3600 ' ...

and Bhaskara satellites. Other offerings included the sales of the Okean-O1 satellites or the use of space on the Foton satellites and

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

space station. During the conference several contracts were signed, including

down payment In accounting, a down payment (also called a deposit in British English) is an initial up-front partial payment for the purchase of expensive goods or services such as a car or a house. It is usually paid in cash or equivalent at the time of fin ...

s for three satellite launches for undisclosed customers, an option for a launch of the Aussat-2 on Proton, contract with Payload Systems Inc. for the experiments in

protein crystallization Protein crystallization is the process of formation of a regular array of individual protein molecules stabilized by crystal contacts. If the crystal is sufficiently ordered, it will diffract. Some proteins naturally form crystalline arrays, ...

on Mir and Kayser-Threde for microgravity experiments on the Foton satellites in 1989, 1990 and 1991. The United States imposed sanctions on Glavkosmos in May 1992, after it agreed in January 1991 to transfer technology for the production of KVD-1 cryogenic rocket engines to the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

. Today, the key objectives of the company are the promotion of the Russian space industry to the world markets and management of complex international space projects. One of the key international projects of Glavkosmos is a joint Russian-European program, Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre, in which Glavkosmos is the main contract integrator for all of the Russian rocket and space industry entities involved. Glavkosmos is also in charge of coordination with the French company

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

at all phases: Arianespace is responsible for launch operations and operates the

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationar ...

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...

and

launch sites at the

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

GK Launch Services

GK Launch Services is a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

established by Glavkosmos and

ISC Kosmotras The International Space Company Kosmotras or ISC Kosmotras () is a joint project, between Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, established in 1997. It developed and now operates a commercial expendable launch system using the Dnepr rocket. The Dnepr ...

in May 2017. Glavkosmos controls 75% of the company's stock, while Kosmostras controls 25%. GK Launch Services provides commercial rideshare launch services using the

Soyuz-2 Soyuz2 (; GRAU index: 14A14) is a Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicle and the seventh major iteration of the Soyuz rocket family. Compared to its predecessors, Soyuz-2 features significant upgrades, including improved engines and ...

launch vehicle, with their first fully-commercial mission conducted on 22 March 2021.

Directors

* Denis Vladimirovich Lyskov (2016-2018) * Dmitry Vladimirovich Loskutov (2018-2023) * Ilya Sergeyevich Tarasenko (since 2023)

References

External links

* {{authority control Commercial launch service providers Space program of the Soviet Union Russian companies established in 1985 Roscosmos divisions and subsidiaries Companies based in Moscow Ministry of General Machine-Building (Soviet Union)