History – Glavkosmos

Company

Glavkosmos (Joint Stock Company) is a subsidiary of ROSCOSMOS State Space Corporation. The key objectives of the company are the promotion of Russian space industry achievements in the world market and management of challenging space projects. For more than thirty years, Glavkosmos has evolved from a ministry department to a global company which now plays an important role in the international activities of the Russian space industry.

Since the company’s foundation, we have accumulated an extensive engineering and scientific experience. However, Glavkosmos background is not just a technical heritage. First of all, it is a team of exceptional highly-qualified experts combining technical competencies with a spirit of space pioneers.

1985

Glavkosmos USSR, a Main Department for Production and Use of Space Technology in National Economy and Scientific Research, was established as a division of the Ministry of Engineering of the USSR. Its priority was to find partners for the commercial use of rocket and space technologies.

1986

The first commercial international projects

1989

Glavkosmos was granted a legal entity status by the Decision of the USSR Council of Ministers.

1990

Glavkosmos started coordination of international manned spaceflight projects.

1991

By the Government Decision, Glavkosmos USSR was removed from the structure of the Ministry of Engineering and started to work on the cost accounting basis as a State Cost Accounting Company. Later it became a part of the State Defense Committee of the Russian Federation (1993), and Ministry of Defense Industry (1996).

2001

Glavkosmos, a State Cost Accounting Company, was transformed into a Federal State Unitary Enterprise.

2012

Glavkosmos, a Federal State Unitary Enterprise, was transformed into a Joint-Stock Company. New activities: marketing and coordination of the secondary payload launches; support of Roscosmos international activities.

2012

Glavkosmos joined the Russia-Europe program “Soyuz at the Guiana Space Center” and became a Russian coordinator of Soyuz-ST-B international missions.

2016

Glavkosmos was given the status of an official provider of Earth observation data from the Resurs-P and Kanopus-V Russian satellite constellations.

2017

ROSCOSMOS State Space Corporation granted Glavkosmos with the status of a commercial operator of Soyuz 2 launches from Vostochny, Baikonur, and Plesetsk Space Centers.

JSC “Glavkosmos” today’s tasks:

Coordination of the international projects of ROSCOSMOS State Space Corporation;

Coordination of Russian enterprises for Soyuz-ST-B commercial launches in the Guiana Space Center (South America, department of France);

Integrated solutions in creating satellite systems of various application;

Being an operator of Soyuz 2.1 commercial launches from Vostochny, Baikonur, and Plesetsk Space Centers;

Turnkey solutions for Earth observation, telecommunications, space research and exploration;

Provision of Earth observation data from a Russian satellite constellation;

Projects in manned spaceflights;

Export of Russian space equipment;

Marketing research and analytics, training.