Site news

Site map

Testimonials

About this site

About the author

Mailbox

ADVERTISE

SPONSOR

2021
status reports:

VKD-49 spacewalk

INSIDER CONTENT

VKD-50 spacewalk

INSIDER CONTENT

Zvezda in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

Air leak on ISS in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

FGB in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

Super-heavy rocket in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

Luna-Grunt in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

Nauka in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

Super-heavy SPG Variant 2

INSIDER CONTENT

Lunar program in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

ROSS assembly schedule

INSIDER CONTENT

2nd UM module

INSIDER CONTENT

ROSS

INSIDER CONTENT

Briz-L stage

INSIDER CONTENT

Luna-Glob

INSIDER CONTENT

Human space flight

INSIDER CONTENT

ISS in 2021

INSIDER CONTENT

Gateway

INSIDER CONTENT

Upgrading Soyuz-MS for post-2024 missions

INSIDER CONTENT

Extending ISS to 2030

INSIDER CONTENT

Amur-SPG

INSIDER CONTENT

RFA

INSIDER CONTENT

Arktika-M1

Venera-D in 2021

OneWeb-5

OneWeb-6

OneWeb-7

Soyuz rocket operations

VKD-48

INSIDER CONTENT

Pion-NKS

OneWeb-9

OneWeb-10

Do you participate in spacecraft development? Do you know the status of a particular mission? Please help us to keep this page up to date! (We respect confidentiality of all sources.) Contact: Anatoly Zak

Russian space program in 2021

On February 20, Head of Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin paid a visit to the Kremlin for a report to the president on the year-end status of the Russian space sector. In a public transcript of his exchange with Vladimir Putin, Rogozin said that 29 space launches had been planned for 2021, including missions postponed from the previous year, referring primarily to the OneWeb Internet satellites, but also to the long-delayed launch of the Luna-25 lander and the Obzor-R radar-carrying satellite. Two modules for the Russian Segment of the International Space Station, ISS, (Nauka and Prichal) were also promised to fly. Finally, one Angara-5 and two Angara-1.2 launchers were scheduled to continue flight testing of the new rocket family. According to Rogozin, the Russian civilian satellite constellation included 89 spacecraft at the time. In the meantime, as of August 2021, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, RVSN, promised to deploy 15 new ICBMs before the end of the year.

For missions in 2020 click here

A Proton rocket with the MLM-U Nauka module lifts off on July 21, 2021

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT!

The world's orbital launch attempts in 2021 (as of September 17, 2021 ):

The 2021 space launch score card (as of September 17, 2021 ):

*Failed launch

Planned Russian orbital launches in 2021:

October 5, 11:55 Moscow Time: A Soyuz-2 rocket to launch the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft (Production No. 749, ISS mission 65S) from Baikonur to the International Space Station, ISS.

During the early planning of the ISS flight manifest in 2014, the launch of the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft was planned for September 13, 2021, however in the provisional schedule prepared by Roskosmos at the end of August 2020, the launch of Soyuz MS-19 was slated for October 5, 2021.

At that time, the spacecraft was expected to carry three Russian cosmonauts: Anton Shkaplerov, Sergei Babkin and Mukhtar Aimakhanov, members of the 66th long-duration expedition to the ISS. (By the end of August 2020, Sergei Korsakov replaced Aimakhanov on the crew.) However, in 2020, Roskosmos and the Channel I of the Russian television also discussed sending an actress to the ISS with Soyuz MS-19 to shoot scenes for a sci-fi movie with a working title Vyzov (which in Russian language has a double meaning similar to English words "challenge" and "doctor's house call.") In October 2020, Channel I promised to start casting for the project. On May 13, 2021, Roskosmos announced that actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko had been recommended to be assigned into the primary crew, while Alena Mordovina and Aleksei Dudin to be their backups. On May 19, Roskosmos officially confirmed the crew with Anton Shkaplerov assigned to be the Soyuz commander and a flight engineer during Expedition 66 on the ISS. Oleg Artemiev was the commander of the backup crew. Peresild and Shipenko would return to Earth on Oct. 17, 2021, aboard Soyuz MS-18, accompanied by a professional cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky. Shkaplerov would remain aboard the ISS until 2022.

Four members of the visiting movie crew were scheduled to begin training in Star City on May 24, 2021, Roskosmos announced.

If the August 2020 schedule worked as planned, Soyuz MS-19 would become the first crew vehicle docking to the nadir (Earth-facing) port of the UM Prichal module added to the Russian Segment of the station less than a month earlier. At the time, the Soyuz MS-19 mission was expected to last 174 days and land on March 28, 2022. However, in the November 2020, draft of the ISS flight manifest, the docking destination for the Soyuz MS-19 mission was shifted to the MIM1 Rassvet module. The mission's launch date (October 5) and its docking destination on the Rassvet module was confirmed in the official ISS flight manifest approved by Roskosmos on Feb. 3, 2021. At the time, the mission was expected to last for 174 days, until March 28, 2022.

With the start of the active launch campaign, the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft undergone autonomous tests of its Kurs-NA rendezvous radio system inside anechoic chamber at Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 19, 2021. In the following week, tests continued with powering up of the ship's various systems, Roskosmos announced on August 25. On the same day, specialists from Yuzhny branch of the TsENKI infrastructure center completed the assembly of the first and second stages of the Soyuz-2-1a rocket for the mission at Site 31, according to Roskosmos.

On August 31, Roskosmos announced that the Chief Medical Commission of the Cosmonaut Training Center recognized all members of the Soyuz MS-19 crew and their backups as healthy for space flight.

The vacuum testing of the Soyuz MS-19 was concluded on September 10 and around the same time, the primary and backup crew completed their formal training for the mission with traditional qualification exams.

On September 15, specialists in Baikonur performed testing of the ship's solar panels, exposing them to an array of electric lights. At the same time, the installation of hardware and personal equipment inside the Habitation and Descent Modules was in final phase, Roskosmos said.

The primary crew of Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft during training in July 2021, left to right: Yulia Peresild, Anton Shkaplerov and Klim Shipenko.

October 14: A Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat-M rocket to launch the 11th OneWeb mission from the Soyuz launch pad, 1S, in Vostochny. The mission, originally scheduled for launch on September 14, used a time slot officially reserved for the the Luna-Glob mission, which had no real chance to fly in 2021.

On August 11, Roskosmos announced that the specialists of the joint team of the Vostochny space center branch of the TsENKI ground infrastructure center and NPO Lavochkin removed the Fregat upper stage for the mission from its storage and installed it in the processing rig inside the Spacecraft Processing Building, MIK KO, of the center's processing complex. On September 1, Roskosmos said that pneumatic and electric tests of the Fregat had started on August 12 and were expected to be completed by September 6. By that time, the launch was scheduled for October, according to Roskosmos. Fregat was transferred to the fueling station around September 7. The loading of propellant and pressurized gases aboard the upper stage was scheduled to be completed on September 29, according to Roskosmos.

The active launch campaign for the 11th OneWeb mission began in Vostochny on August 11, 2021, with the installation of the Fregat upper stage in its processing rig.

October 28: A Soyuz-2-1a rocket to launch a Progress MS-18 cargo ship (Production No. 447, ISS mission 79P) from Baikonur to the International Space Station, ISS. During the early planning of the ISS flight manifest in 2014, the second Russian cargo mission of 2021 was planned for April 16, 2021, however in the provisional schedule prepared by Roskosmos at the end of August 2020, the launch of Progress MS-18 was planned for August 18. By November 2020, the start of the mission slipped to October 28.

At the time, the vehicle was expected to dock to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module, SM, and remain in orbit for 334 days, supporting 65th and 66th long-duration expeditions aboard the ISS.

The Soyuz-2-1a rocket for the mission was delivered to Baikonur in the middle of August 2021. On September 1, Roskosmos announced that Progress MS-18 had been taken out of storage inside processing complex at Site 254 and installed in its testing rig, where specialists conducted visual inspection of the spacecraft in preparation for electric checks scheduled to begin on September 2.

November 8: A Proton-M/Briz-M rocket to launch the Ekspress-AMU3 and Ekspress-AMU7 communications satellites from Baikonur. (The launch date as of June 2021.) The Proton-M and Briz-M vehicles for the mission departed the production plant at GKNPTs Khrunichev in Moscow for Baikonur during the night from March 15 to 16, 2021, along with a three-stage Proton-M rocket assigned for the launch of the MLM Nauka module.

November 17: A Soyuz rocket to launch a Progress MS-19 cargo ship (Production No. 449, ISS mission 80P) from Baikonur to the International Space Station, ISS. During the early planning of the ISS flight manifest in 2014, Progress launches were planned for July 1 and October 16, 2021, however in the provisional schedule prepared by Roskosmos at the end of August 2020, the third and final launch of the Russian cargo vehicle to the station in 2021 was planned for November 17.

Progress MS-19 was expected to dock to the zenit (sky-facing) port of the MIM2 Poisk module and continue its mission for 286 days.

November 24: A Soyuz-2 rocket to launch the UM Prichal module to the International Space Station, ISS.

November 30: A Soyuz-2 rocket to launch the Meteor-M No. 2-3 remote-sensing satellite and a group of secondary payloads, including four satellites from Moscow State University, MGU, from Vostochny. (As of April 2021. As of second half of 2020, the launch was expected between August and October 2021).

End of November: A Soyuz-ST/Fregat rocket (Mission VS26) to launch a pair of Galileo navigation satellites from the ELS facility near Kourou, French Guiana. (As of April 2020, the mission was planned for December 15, 2020, but was later delayed until early 2021 and by the beginning of 2021, the mission slipped to the middle of the year and later shifted to October 2021. By March 2021, the launch was planned at the end of November of that year.

December 8: A Soyuz-2 rocket to launch the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft (Production No. 752, ISS mission 66S) with a crew of three from Site 31 in Baikonur to the International Space Station, ISS. By July 2020, a pair of tourists accompanied by one professional cosmonaut was assigned to the 12-day flight, officially designated Visiting Expedition-20. According to a preliminary flight manifest drafted by Roskosmos at the end of August 2020, the Soyuz MS-20 mission was expected to take place from December 8 to December 20, 2021. According to the original plans, the spacecraft was to dock at the nadir (Earth-facing) port of the MIM1 Rassvet module, a part of the ISS' Russian Segment, however by November 2020, its destination on the ISS was switched to the MIM2 Poisk module. By August 2021, the mission was expected to have a four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous profile with the station.

Soyuz MS-20 was scheduled to land with the same crew on December 20, 2021, after eight days in orbit. On May 13, 2021, Roskosmos announced that two space tourists from Japan, Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano, booked by the US-based Space Adventures company would begin training in Star City for flight aboard Soyuz MS-20. They would be accompanied by the Soyuz commander Aleksandr Misurkin, Roskosmos said. The crew was officially confirmed as Visiting Expedition 20, EP-20, on May 19, 2021. Aleksandr Skvortsov was assigned as a backup commander for the mission.

The spacecraft for the mission was shipped to Baikonur on September 1, 2021, and went through initial processing at the launch site in the first half of September. On September 13, RKK Energia announced that its specialists installed the vehicle into its testing rig, conducted its visual inspection and testing of default status of all the systems, connected the ship to diagnostics equipment, powered up onboard service systems and concluded autonomous tests and installation of Kazbek chairs inside the Descent Module. The schedule of upcoming work included preparations of the spacecraft for integrated tests and leak tests of the thermal control system.

The Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft is being prepared for shipment to Baikonur on Aug. 30, 2021.

End of 2021: A Soyuz-2 rocket to launch a cluster of small payloads from Vostochny, including the second StriX-β radar imaging demonstration satellite. (As of March 2021)

December 23-26: A Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat-M rocket to launch the 12th OneWeb mission from the Site 31 in Baikonur.

2021 July 1: A Soyuz rocket to launch a Progress cargo ship from Baikonur toward the International Space Station, ISS. (As of 2014)

2021: A Proton-M/Block DM-03 rocket to launch Elektro-L No. 4 satellite from Baikonur. (As of 2019)

Delayed from 2020: An Angara-1.2 rocket to launch the South-Korean Kompsat-6 remote-sensing satellite from Site 35 in Plesetsk. The agreement for the launch in 2020 was announced in July 2016.

2021: A Soyuz-2-1a rocket to launch the second Kondor-FKA radar-carrying satellite. (As of 2019. Postponed from 2019, switched from Rockot/Briz-KM)

Around or after 2021: Russian military to launch the first new-generation Sfera-V military communications satellite. (As of 2016)

2021: A Soyuz-2/Fregat rocket to launch the Luna-Glob-2 (orbiter) toward the Moon.

October-November or 2022: A Soyuz-2/Fregat rocket to launch the Luna-Glob (Luna-25) lunar lander from Vostochny.

Cancelled missions

2021: A Soyuz-5 methane-burning launch vehicle to fly its first test mission (As of mid-2014).

2021: Russia to launch the Ekspress-AT4 communications satellite (as of 2014).

2021: Russia to launch the Ekspress-AT5 communications satellite (as of 2014).

2021: Russia to launch the Ekspress-AMU8 communications satellite (as of 2014).

For missions in 2022 click here

This page is compiled by Anatoly Zak

Last update: September 17, 2021

All rights reserved

Soyuz-2-1a rocket lifts off with the Progress MS-16 cargo ship on Feb. 15, 2021. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Soyuz-2-1b with Arktika-M1 satellite lifts off on Feb. 28, 2021. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Soyuz-2-1a lifts off from Baikonur on March 22, 2021, with CAS-500-1 and 38 secondary payloads. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Soyuz MS-18 lifts off on April 9, 2021. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

The FGB-2/MLM module for the Russian segment of the International Space Station, ISS. Copyright © 2001 Anatoly Zak

A Proton rocket with the MLM nauka module shortly after arriving at the launch pad on July 17, 2021. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

A Soyuz-2-1b rocket shortly after arrival at Pad No. 6 at Site 31 in Baikonur on August 16, 2021, for the ninth launch into the OneWeb constellation. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Soyuz-2-1b lifts off from Baikonur with 34 OneWeb satellites on August 22, 2021. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

As of August 2020, the launch of the UM Prichal module was planned for September 6, 2021. Click to enlarge. Credit: RKK Energia