Russian Ministry of Defense: Government / agency (Russia), launches, rockets and satellites

Industry / Companies / Russian Ministry of Defense

242Orbital launches

415All launches (incl. suborbital)

221Satellites in orbit

0Satellites built

2Rockets / spacecraft

Russian Ministry of Defense is a government organisation based in Russia, founded in 1991. Our records show 242 orbital launches, 221 satellites in orbit and 2 rockets or spacecraft.

Totals include the divisions, sites and subsidiaries listed under Structure below.

Divisions, sites and subsidiaries

Russian Space Forces 85 orbital launches · 72 satellites in orbit Russian Strategic Rocket Forces 82 orbital launches · 37 satellites in orbit Aerospace Defence Forces 75 orbital launches · 95 satellites in orbit

Products

Rockets and spacecraft

Name	Type	Status	First flight	Launches	To low orbit
Kosmos-3M	Rocket	Retired	1967	445 (22 failed)
Molniya-M	Rocket	Retired	1965	272 (13 failed)

Activity

Orbital launches per year

11121314151617181920212223242526

Last 15 years. Peak: 12 launches in one year.

Satellites in orbit

By platform

Uragan	59
Strela-3	33
Strela-3M	25
Unk	17
OO-MKA	9
Yantar'-Lotos	9
Strela-1 11F625	8
Meridian	7

Recent launches

Date	Mission	Vehicle	Site	Result
27 Aug 2026	BB	Yars	GNIIP	Success
12 May 2026	2026-S233	Sarmat	YAS	Success
16 Apr 2026	Unknown	Soyuz-2-1B	GIK-1	Success
3 Apr 2026	Meridian No. 21L?	Soyuz-2-1A	GIK-1	Success
5 Feb 2026	Unknown	Soyuz-2-1B	GIK-1	Success
8 Jan 2026	6 BB?	Oreshnik	GTsMP-4	Success
25 Dec 2025	Obzor-R No. 1	Soyuz-2-1A	GIK-1	Success
28 Nov 2025	15A28	Sarmat	YAS	Failure
22 Oct 2025	BB	Yars	GNIIP	Success
23 May 2025	Nivelir-L No. 5?	Soyuz-2-1B	GIK-1	Success
2 Mar 2025	Glonass-K2 No. 14L	Soyuz-2-1B	GIK-1	Success
5 Feb 2025	MKA-B 1 to 3	Soyuz-2-1V	GIK-1	Success

In the news

Recent headlines

Soyuz 2.1b Launches Russian Early Warning Satellite NASASpaceflight · 25 Nov 2021
Russia launches classified military satellite Spaceflight Now · 13 Sep 2021
Russia launches Soyuz 2.1v with Razbeg reconnaissance satellite NASASpaceflight · 10 Sep 2021

Matched by name; a headline may mention this organisation without being about it. All headlines.

Provenance

Where this comes from

This entry merges 1 source: GCAT (J. McDowell)
Verification status: single source, not yet reviewed by a person. How we build and check this data.

Launch and satellite data: Jonathan McDowell's GCAT (CC BY 4.0) and CelesTrak. Rockets, spacecraft and agencies: Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs and Wikidata. News headlines link to their publishers via the Spaceflight News API and RSS feeds. Records come from several sources and are matched automatically, so treat the directory as a research aid, not an authority. How the data is built and checked.