With the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian space industry entered a period of rapid degradation. What had recently been a source of national pride and a symbol of technological sovereignty turned into a heavy burden on the state budget. And this is not merely an economic problem—it is a strategic mistake whose cost will be felt for decades.
The scale of the decline becomes obvious when budgets are compared. In 2025, the Roscosmos budget amounted to only 4.15 billion dollars. For comparison: NASA’s budget is 25.4 billion; the US military space budget is 34 billion; the budget of China’s CNSA is about 20 billion dollars. Russia is no longer participating in the race to explore the Moon—today the United States and China are competing for first place. International commercial customers, which had provided up to 25% of the industry’s financial revenue, have turned away from Moscow.
The causes of this collapse are varied. Huge expenditures on the war against Ukraine have pulled resources away from civilian scientific programs. Sanctions have deprived the industry of access to critically important technologies and equipment. International cooperation has been curtailed: the joint ExoMars mission with the European Space Agency to search for life on Mars was stopped; Germany withdrew from the Spektr-RG project, placing the eROSITA telescope into hibernation; NASA no longer participates in the Venera-D project.
But the main problem goes deeper. Russia is losing not just current projects—it is losing the capacity to reproduce its scientific and engineering elite. The space industry suffers from a shortage of personnel, an outflow of specialists, and aging equipment. Without a constant influx of young scientists and engineers, without functioning scientific schools and international ties, the industry will not be able to recover even after the war ends. Igor Maltsev, director of RKK Energia, admitted this directly: “We need to stop lying to ourselves and to others that everything is fine with us.”
Meanwhile, space research is not a luxury or a matter of prestige. It is the foundation of technological sovereignty. Satellite communications, navigation, remote sensing of the Earth, meteorology, materials science, medicine—all of this directly or indirectly depends on space technologies. Abandoning their development means not simply falling behind in one industry, but systematically weakening the economy and security.
That is precisely why the Russian government announced a new national project, “Cosmos,” with funding of 4.4 trillion rubles through 2036, of which 2.2 trillion will be allocated through 2030. The project includes eight directions—from satellite communications to human spaceflight. Roscosmos plans to increase the share of private investment in the industry from 5% to 35% over ten years, and to place 1,118 satellites into orbit, including the Rassvet constellation for broadband internet.
These figures look significant, but they pale beside military spending and beside the budgets of competitors. The main question is not how much money has been allocated, but whether the projects will actually be implemented, whether private investment will be attracted, whether international ties will be restored, and—most importantly—whether faith in the industry’s future will return.
Space does not forgive neglect. The USSR paid for its leadership with decades of selfless labor and colossal resources. Russia, which has abandoned space for the sake of war, risks losing not only an industry but also its place among the powers that define the technological agenda of the twenty-first century. Restoring what has been lost will be far harder than preserving it. And one must begin not with rockets, but with an awareness of a simple truth: a country that stops looking at the sky loses its future.
Bibliography
- Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. Russia Is No Longer a Competitor in Space. 2026.
- 24 Kanal. The Kremlin’s Dreams Crumbled Against Sanctions: Russia Has Been Thrown Out of the International Race. 2026.
- UNIAN. Utopia on Paper: Russia May Never Fly into Space Again. 2025.
- Kommersant. Putin Approved the “Cosmos” National Project with a Budget of 4.4 Trillion Rubles Through 2036. 2025.
- Vesti. Kostyukov Said the Nuclear Center Received an Amazing Picture of the Universe. 2026.