The Soviet space programme was based first on the research of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In Soviet times, the entire space programme was subordinate to the armed forces. On 4.10.1957, the Soviet Union launched the unmanned Sputnik 1 satellite into orbit around the Earth using an R7 launcher. It became the world’s first satellite.

The Russian Space Force (VKS), established in 1992, constitutes the part of the Russian armed forces that is responsible for military space activities. In July 1997, these activities were transferred to the Russian Strategic Missile Force – as was missile defence. Air defence was organised under the Russian Air force. The Russian Space Force received its current form as an independent part of the Russian armed forces in 2001.

The main task of the Space Force is the early warning of nuclear missile attacks. Other tasks include satellite communications, satellite positioning and satellite remote sensing in their various forms. The Space Force operates, for example, the GLONASS positioning satellites. The Force also includes the “Third Missile Defence Army” and the “Missile Warning Division”, both of which have headquarters in Solnechnogorsk near Moscow. They operate, among others, the Qabala radar stations in Azerbaijan and the A-135 anti-missile missiles in the Moscow region. All objects moving in space are also tracked optically. The Optoelectronic Okno-S observatory (Okno = Window) is part of this activity. The tracking station is in Tajikistan.

Russia inherited most of the Soviet Union’s vast space infrastructure and has played a key role in the global space community ever since. It has a large number of satellites in orbit.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a joint project (begun in 1998) of the space administrations of the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Russia. There have been astronauts there since 2000. Until recent years, Russia has been the only ISS operator with a launcher capable of transporting people.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ISS has been one of the few remaining forms of cooperation between the Americans and the Russians. But Russia has announced its withdrawal from the ISS after 2024 and its intention to begin building its own space station. In August 2022, President Joe Biden approved U.S. participation in the ISS until 2030. The connecting flights have been operated by SpaceX, a company owned by Elon Musk. In March 2023, its Falcon 9 spacecraft took two American astronauts, one Russian cosmonaut and one astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to the space station.

LUNA 25, part of Russia’s lunar exploration programme, was launched into space on a Soyuz-2.1B rocket in August 2023. Its landing at the Moon’s South Pole failed, and the ship was destroyed. The project was a couple of years late, and, according to estimates, part of the reason has been the limited availability of Western technology due to the war against Ukraine.

According to the available data, Russia had nine Voronezh early warning radars in service in 2020, capable of tracking more than 100,000 space targets. The early warning satellite (Tundra) of the EKS/Kupol system aims at providing a comprehensive satellite constellation (9 satellites). Russia has 105 nuclear-warheaded ballistic missiles in service, UR-100N, designed for ASAT space defence missions. In addition, the technical possibilities of the S-400 and S-500 in the fight against space targets have been studied. The Narjad-V system has also been upgraded to test the Rockot rocket and the Briz-KM space component. The operations of the ASAT satellites of the Kosmos series demonstrate Russia’s capability for offensive space operations against satellites.

Over the past 20 years, Russia has developed the military’s ability to operate in space, such as using electronic warfare to prevent and disrupt the use of communications and navigation satellites and also directed energy weapons capable of destroying reconnaissance satellites.

Like China, Russia supports prohibition treaties to prevent the weaponisation of space, even though it considers space to be a natural area of operation and natural target with respect to warfare.