Glavkosmos (russian: Главкосмос) is a subsidiary of the Russian State Space Corporation

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

. On 26 February 1985, the Ministry of General Machine Building of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

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

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

imposed sanctions on the company in May 1992, after it agreed in January 1991 to transfer technology for the production of

KVD-1 KVD-1 was an upper stage LOX/LH cryogenic engine developed by the Isayev Design Bureau (now KB KhIMMASH) of Russia in the early 1960s. It is a modified version of the RD-56, developed for a never-completed cryogenic upper stage of the N1 (rocket) ...

cryogenic rocket engines to the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

. In Soviet times, Glavkosmos was the prime authority for implementing co-operative agreements with foreign bodies, with activities including commercial utilisation of Soviet systems and flying foreign cosmonauts aboard Soviet spacecraft. After the breakup of the Soviet Union and the creation of the

Russian Federal Space Agency The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

it is concerned with converting military technology to civil applications and commercialisation of Russian space technology. Nearing the dawn of the Soviet Union Glavkosmos started offering commercial services for global customers, aimed primarily at competing with the US launchers. The first commercial offering was presented at the Space Commerce '88 trade show in

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...

, 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 orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

(LEO);

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...

with a payload of up to 20t to LEO or 2t to

GEO Geo- is a prefix derived from the Greek word ''γη'' or ''γαια'', meaning "earth", usually in the sense of "ground or land”. GEO or Geo may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''GEO'' (magazine), a popular scientific magazine ...

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. Tsyklon 3 rocket body debris accounts for more than 500 pieces of ...

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

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

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 an ...

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 an Indian mathematician and astronomer of the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. He flourished in the Gupta Era and produced works such as the ''Aryabhatiya'' (which ...

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'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

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

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

s for three satellite launches for undisclosed customers, an option for a launch of the

Aussat-2 This is a list of the satellites operated by Optus, an Australian telecommunications company. The satellite communications facility is located at Belrose on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Optus' satellites are divided into 4 classes A, B, C and D. As ...

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, lik ...

on Mir and

Kayser-Threde Kayser-Threde GmbH based in Munich, Germany is a systems house specializing in applications in manned and unmanned space missions, optics, telematics, crash test data acquisition, and process control for the rail sector. On September 1, 2014, Breme ...

for microgravity experiments on the Foton satellites in 1989, 1990 and 1991. Today the key objectives of Glavkosmos 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 Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre (also known as Soyuz at CSG or Arianespace Soyuz) was a European Space Agency (ESA) programme for operating Soyuz-ST launch vehicles from Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG), providing medium-size launch capability ...

, where Glavkosmos is the main contract integrator for all the Russian rocket and space industry entities involved. Glavkosmos is in charge of coordination with the French company

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

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

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...

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, an ...

and

launch sites at the

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (french: links=no, Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximatel ...

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 acces ...

established by Glavkosmos and

ISC Kosmotras The International Space Company Kosmotras or ISC Kosmotras (russian: ЗАО Международная космическая компания “Космотрас”) is a joint project, between Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, established in 1 ...

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 Soyuz-2 (GRAU index 14A14) is a modernized version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage bo ...

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

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)

GK Launch Services

See also

References

External links