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The Soviet space program (Russian: Космическая программа СССР, romanized: Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
- The Age of Soviet Exploration Begins
- Disaster in Soviet Space
- After The Space Race
- The Mir Years
- Regime Change
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
The history of Russia's space efforts starts with World War II. At the end of that huge conflict, German rockets and rocket parts were captured by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Both countries had dabbled in rocket science before that. Robert Goddard in the U.S.had launched that country's first rockets. In the Soviet Union, engineer Sergei Kor...
Disaster struck the Soviet program and gave them their first big setback. It happened in 1967 when cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when the parachute that was supposed to settle his Soyuz 1capsule gently on the ground failed to open. It was the first in-flight death of a man in space in history and a great embarrassment to the program. Proble...
In addition to its planetary probes, the Soviets got very interested in orbiting space stations, particularly after the U.S. announced (and then later canceled) its Manned Orbiting Laboratory. When the U.S. announced Skylab, the Soviets eventually built and launched the Salyut station. In 1971, a crew went to Salyut and spent two weeks working aboa...
The most successful space station built by the Soviet Union flew from 1986 through 2001. It was called Mir and assembled on orbit (much as the later ISS was). It hosted a number of crew members from the Soviet Union and other countries in a show of space cooperation. The idea was to keep a long-term research outpost in low-Earth orbit, and it survi...
The Soviet space program faced interesting times as Union began to crumble in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Instead of the Soviet space agency, Mir and its Soviet cosmonauts (who became Russian citizens when the country changed) came under the aegis of Roscosmos, the newly formed Russian space agency. Many of the design bureaus that had dominated...
Learn how the Soviet Union competed with the U.S. in the space race, launched the first man and woman in space, and built the Mir space station. Discover how the program evolved after the regime change and became part of the International Space Station.
Apr 16, 2021 · The Soviet Union did not have many of the same technological advances enjoyed by Nasa – but that didn’t stop them leaping ahead of the Americans into space. Here’s how.
Feb 22, 2010 · Learn how the U.S. and the Soviet Union competed in space exploration during the Cold War, from the launch of Sputnik to the moon landings. Explore the causes, events and achievements of the space race with photos and videos.
Only after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. did Russia create a civilian organization for space activities. Formed in February 1992, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) has acted as a central focus for the country’s space policy and programs.
Learn how the Soviets launched Sputnik, sent the first man and woman in space, and orbited the moon, but failed to land on it before the Americans. Explore the causes and consequences of their hesitation, indecision, and leadership failures in the Cold War space race.
Oct 1, 2020 · On Oct. 12, 1964, the Soviet Union launched the first multiperson mission, Voskhod 1, which launched three Russian cosmonauts into space. The crew included Vladimir Komarov (commander),...
