Russian+space+program

The Soviet space program consisted of a number of projects within the Soviet Union. it was mostly a military program, and most information was classified. it went down with the fall of the Soviet Union with Russia and Ukraine forming their own space programs. Russia continued its program by creating the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, now known as the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA) or in Russian: Федеральное космическое агентство России Federal'noe kosmicheskoe agentstvo Rossii. Commonly known as "Roskosmos"), RKA, or RSA,.

The theory of space exploration was well established in the Russian Empire before the First World War due to the writings of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a soviet astronomer during the late 1800's. Like the Soviet space program before it, the Russian Space Agency has always had a lack of funding. This held back the russian's efforts, such as the Soviet attempt at a moon mission, and later cooperation with the International Space Station. The 1990's saw an even more decreased cash flow, which led the agency to improvise and seek other ways to keep space programs running. This resulted in Russia playing leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism. While scientific missions, such as astronomy missions during these years, played a very small role.



The RKA Logo in russian. (image from: Russian space agency website)