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title: "Space policy"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_policy"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:30:40.309263+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Russia and Ukraine ===
Russia inherited its space programs in 1991 from its predecessor state, the Soviet Union. Russia's civilian space agency is the Russian Federal Space Agency and its military counterpart is the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. Ukraine's agency is the State Space Agency of Ukraine, which handles both civilian and military programs.
The Soviet Union became the world's first spacefaring state by launching its first satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957. The Soviet space program was active from 1955 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In the 1980s the Soviet Union was considered to be technologically behind the United States, but it outspent the United States in its space budget, and its cosmonauts had spent three times as many days in space as American astronauts. The Soviet Union had also been more willing than the United States to embark on long-term programs, such as the Salyut and Mir space station programs, and increased their investment in space programs throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the 1990s saw serious financial problems because of the decreased cash flow, which encouraged Roskosmos to improvise and seek other ways to keep space programs running. This resulted in Roskosmos' leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism. While scientific missions, such as interplanetary probes or astronomy missions during these years played a very small role, although Roskosmos has connections with Russian aerospace forces, its budget is not part of the defense budget of the country, Roskosmos managed to operate the space station Mir well past its planned lifespan, contribute to the International Space Station, and continue to fly additional Soyuz and Progress missions.
The Russian economy boomed throughout 2005 from high prices for exports, such as oil and gas, and the outlook for subsequent funding became more favorable. The federal space budget for the year 2009 was left unchanged despite the global economic crisis, standing at around 82 billion rubles ($2.4 billion). Current priorities of the Russian space program include the new Angara rocket family and development of new communications, navigation and remote Earth sensing spacecraft. The GLONASS global navigation satellite system has for many years been one of the top priorities and has been given its own budget line in the federal space budget.

=== India ===

The purpose of India's space program was outlined by Vikram Sarabhai (regarded as the father of the Indian space program):

There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose....we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society.
The Department of Space (DoS) is the Indian government department responsible for administration of the Indian space program. It manages several agencies and institutes related to space exploration and space technologies. The Indian space program under the DoS aims to promote the development and application of space science and technology for the socio-economic benefit of the country. It includes two major satellite systems, INSAT for communication, television broadcasting and meteorological services, and Indian Remote Sensing Satellites (IRS) system for resources monitoring and management. It has also developed two satellite launch vehicles, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), to place IRS and INSAT class satellites in orbit.

== See also ==

== References ==

== External links ==
European Space Policy Institute
Space Policy – Academic Journal
Space Policy Resource Websites
Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation
US Space Policy Archive – collected by the Center for Space Policy and Strategy
Space Security Portal at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research
Space Policy - Outer Space Policy, Politics and Law – Blog by Dr Jill Stuart