Roscosmos, which expanded Russia's satellite constellation last year with just 12 satellites instead of the requested 250, was clearly guided by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's motto, “Less but better.” Such a “huge” increase was announced this week in a conversation with the country's President Vladimir Putin, First Vice Chairman of the Government Denis Manturov. Despite the fact that Russia has entered the year of space jubilee – the year commemorating the 65th anniversary of the first manned flight into space, the way the country approached this date, to put it mildly, raises many questions.
The former head of the space department, Yuri Borisov, said in 2024 that Russia, in order to catch up with advanced space powers and not fall out of third place among them, must increase its fleet to at least 250 spacecraft per year. We need to build forces like the air force, especially in the current air defense situation, because modern wars have long been waged with the help of “eyes”, “ears” and other “sense organs” located in orbit.
It turns out the opposite: our industry does not increase from year to year, but reduces the amount of equipment the country needs? For example, according to statistics shared by a space industry expert in telegram channel “Chronicles of the Space Age” Alexander Zheleznykov, in 2024 we sent 99 spacecraft into space, and in 2025 – 91… Why then, according to Manturov, was the group replenished with only 12 spacecraft (“In general, our satellite constellation increased in number from 288 to 300 spacecraft by 2025”)? And this incident is explained as follows.
Among the 91 spacecraft launched in 2025, in addition to those that the country really needs, there are also those launched for commercial benefit, for the benefit of educational institutions and also in test mode. All of the above are not officially part of the Russian group. Also add what must be used to replace defective devices.
Among the satellites launched for Russia's benefit, there are very useful satellites. This is a group of small spacecraft – “Moha-1”, “Eya-2” and “Argus-312” for autonomous control of robotic systems (read: drones) at a distance of more than 200 km from the operator.
They will definitely come in handy for a variety of tasks. Like “Stork-2T” No. 1 and No. 2, intended for remote sensing of the Earth for the benefit of the Ministry of Emergencies and Scientists. With their help, digital terrain models will be created to prevent and monitor emergency situations: fires, floods, volcanic activity.
Manturov also emphasized the launch of a military satellite into geostationary orbit. This was done using the Angara-A5 launch vehicle from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
“I can say that previously we could only carry out such missions from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,” the vice president of the government told the president.
We have no doubt that these and our other devices have been successfully launched and are working for the benefit of our homeland. But compared to the American constellation, which will be supplemented by 3,000 satellites by 2025, and to China's “chunk” of 369 satellites, there are very, very few of them…
And there were only 17 launches into space, accounting for 5.26% of the global launch services market. By comparison, the Americans had 193 launches (59.7%) last year and the Chinese had 92 (28%). At the same time, if America and China only increase the number of launches from year to year, then in 2025 we hold the position of 2024, and compared to 2023, which had 19 rocket launches, we are already lagging behind… It turns out – even from ourselves.
What is the reason? On November 27, at the 31st site of the Baikonur Cosmodrome (the only place where we can currently send manned missions), during the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft with cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev and Christopher Williams, a service cabin weighing 144 tons fell – a metal structure on which two lifting platforms were located. Before launch, the cabin was brought under the rocket, platforms raised specialists to the engines of the 1st and 2nd stages of the Soyuz launch rocket.
Although the launch went smoothly and the astronauts, thank God, arrived safely at the ISS, the launch pad was not operational and therefore the next Progress MS-33 cargo ship could not launch from there in December. Furthermore, the site will be unusable for at least a few more months until the structure is replaced.
The launch of the Elektro-L No. 5 meteorological satellite did not take place last year; it was postponed until March 2026 due to problems in the upper stage, discovered while the Proton-M rocket was already at the launch pad.
And at the end of 2025, another previously promised launch of the new launch vehicle Soyuz-5 did not take place – experts did not have time to fully carry out pre-launch preparations. The expected launch is promised for March 2026.
In this sad context, the successes of NASA and the Chinese Space Agency, which were largely based on Soviet technology, were seen as a mockery, sorry. In 2025, the Americans made the world's first manned flight in a polar orbit (a flight that our state corporation suddenly abandoned, despite the project being ready for the future national ROS station), and in the first attempt launched the new super heavy rocket “New Glenn” (Blue Origin company), which became a competitor to “Falcon Heavy” (SpaceX). And this is not to mention the interplanetary flights to Mars (two probes under the ESCAPADE program), the launch of three vehicles to the Moon (one of which was successful and landed in the Sea of Crisis). The Chinese launched an interplanetary probe in 2025 to collect samples from the asteroid Kamoalev…
Among our new scientific projects, so far only the “Bion-M” orbital biological satellite No. 2 has been successfully “fired”, after 30 days of flying in polar orbit, bringing hundreds of living creatures to Earth – from space mice and flies to microorganisms and plants. This experiment brings us closer to a human return to the Moon, which in the best case scenario would take place near the mid-2030s. While in the United States, a crew of four awaits the launch of the Artemis-2 program on February 6, 2026…
