Russia's Space Program After 2024

By Pavel Luzin

Russia’s space program suffers from a deficit of financial resources, limited access to advanced machine tools and space-grade electronics, a shrinking workforce, and low workforce productivity. These challenges force Russia to focus efforts on the military space activity and leave manned spaceflights and space exploration only to maintain its international status as a space superpower and sense of domestic legitimacy of authoritarian governance without any sustainable outcomes of the civil space activity itself.

Key Findings:

• Russia’s space program suffers from a deficit of financial resources, limited access to advanced machine tools and space-grade electronics, a shrinking workforce, and low workforce productivity.

• These challenges force Russia to focus efforts on the military space activity and leave manned spaceflights and space exploration only to maintain its international status as a space superpower and sense of domestic legitimacy of authoritarian governance without any sustainable outcomes of the civil space activity itself.

• Russia’s military space program is becoming more and more asymmetric. Russia—unable to develop advanced communication, navigation, and reconnaissance military space capabilities—is trying to rely on a horde of small, short-living but relatively cheap satellites mostly made from consumer and industrial-grade imported electronic components and on technologies of nuclear power to increase its counter-satellite electronic warfare capabilities.

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Pavel Luzin holds a doctorate in international relations from the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO). He is an expert on Russia’s politics, defense affairs, and global security.