While Soviet rocketry organizations date back to 1921, the Ministry of General Machine-Building, upon being founded in 1955, became a dedicated department for aerospace technology. It was dissolved in 1957 but was reinstated in 1965. Various projects of the Soviet space program were developed at the ministry. It also began commercially providing launch services abroad through its Glavkosmos agency during the perestroika reforms of the late 1980s. The ministry was permanently abolished in 1991 amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Russian Space Agency, which would later become Roscosmos, was created in 1992 as its successor.
The first rendition of the Ministry of General Machine-Building was created by a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on 2 April 1955[4][5] with the active participation of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.[6][7] The ministry was formed to focus specifically on rocketry. Its intentionally vague name was chosen for purposes of secrecy.[8] Major General of the Engineering and Artillery Service Pyotr Nikolaevich Goremykin [ru], who had held the post of Minister of Agricultural Engineering from June 1946 to March 1951, was appointed as Minister of General Machine-Building.[9][10][11] The ministry was dissolved on 10 May 1957 and its functions were transferred.[12][13][14]
On 26 February 1985, the Ministry of General Machine-Building issued an order that formed Glavkosmos.[25][26] The subsidiary was originally envisioned as an executive agency to command all Soviet space activities, but in practice it functioned more as a marketing and coordinating body.[27] Glavkosmos became the prime authority for implementing cooperative agreements with foreign bodies, with activities including commercial utilization of Soviet systems and approving foreign cosmonauts to fly aboard Soviet spacecraft.[28]
Many subsidiaries of the Ministry of General Machine-Building served as primary organizations in the management of the Soviet space program; the ministry controlled roughly 1200 factories and employed between 1 million and 1.5 million people at its peak.[29][30] However, contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Europe, and the Ministry of Aerospace Industry in China), which had their programs run under single coordinating agencies, the executive architecture of the Soviet space program was multi-centered; several internally competing design bureaus, technical councils, ministry staffs, and expert commissions all held more influence over the program than political leadership. The creation of a central agency after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and establishment of the Russian Federation was therefore a new development. The Ministry of General Machine-Building was dissolved on 1 December 1991 on the basis of a 14 November resolution of the State Council of the Soviet Union.[31][32][33] The Russian Space Agency, which eventually would become Roscosmos, was formed as its successor[34][35][36] on 25 February 1992 by a decree of President Boris Yeltsin.[37]Yuri Koptev, who previously had worked with designing Mars landers at NPO Lavochkin, became the first director of the agency.[38]
In 2013, when the Russian space sector was being reorganized,[39] one option considered was the creation of a ministry similar to the Ministry of General Machine-Building.[40]
The R-12 Dvina missile was produced simultaneously at four enterprises within the ministry.[44] In April 1970, Minister of General Machine-Building Sergey Afanasyev sent a memo to the chairperson of the Military-Industrial Commission that recommended negotiations with NASA, the space agency of the United States. These negotiations were approved the next month and eventually led to the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz mission.[45] Work on the GLONASS system for satellite navigation began at the ministry in 1976.[46][47] The ministry contributed to the construction of the RT-2PM Topol missile system, which began deployment in 1985.[48][49] The combat railway missile complex [ru], a mobile missile system, began deployment in October 1987; its development had started in January 1969 with an order from Afanasyev.[50]
During the perestroika reform movement of the late 1980s, the Glavkosmos agency of the ministry began offering commercial services for global customers, aiming primarily at competing with United States launchers. Its first commercial offering was presented at the Space Commerce '88 trade show in Montreux, Switzerland. Most notably, it featured the sales of the following launchers: Energia, with a payload of up to 100 tons to Low Earth orbit; Proton with a payload of up to 20 tons to Low Earth orbit or 2 tons to geostationary orbit for between US$25 million and US$30 million; Tsyklon-3 for payloads of up to 4 tons to Low Earth orbit; a family of Soyuz rockets in configurations for Low Earth, geostationary transfer, and Molniya orbits; and the Vostok launchers for between US$12 million and US$18 million. Glavkosmos also featured Kosmos rockets with the successfully completed launches of Indian Aryabhata and Bhaskara satellites. Other offerings included the sales of Okean-O1 satellites or the use of space on the Foton satellites and Mir space station. During the conference several contracts were signed, including down payments for three satellite launches for undisclosed customers, an option for a launch of the Aussat-2 on Proton, a contract with Payload Systems Inc. for experiments in protein crystallization on Mir, and a contract with Kayser-Threde for microgravity experiments on the Foton satellites in 1989, 1990, and 1991.[51]
The Buran program to develop reusable spacecraft was managed jointly by the Ministry of General Machine-Building and Ministry of Aviation Industry. Despite various disputes about the program between the two ministries, Buran, the first spacecraft to be produced as part of the program, successfully completed the sole flight of the program in November 1988.[52][53]
The final project of the ministry before its liquidation was a 1991 US$120 million agreement between Glavkosmos and ISRO, the space agency of India, which included the transfer of two KVD-1 engines for use as the third stage of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle as well as design details such that the KVD-1 could be built indigenously in India.[54][55] Russia backed out of the agreement in 1993 after the United States objected to the deal and imposed sanctions on the grounds that the deal was a violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime, forcing ISRO to sign a more limited agreement with Russia and to initiate a project to develop its own cryogenic engine.[56][57]
During its existence, the Ministry of General Machine-Building offered three awards. The "Excellence in Socialist Competition" award was approved on 1 September 1955 by order No. 134 and was awarded until 1957.[58] The "Best Innovator" award was given out in the 1970s,[59] and the "Best Inventor" award was offered until 1991.[60]
The Ministry of General Machine-Building had five ministers during its existence, one having been from its first incarnation and the remaining four from its second incarnation:[3][11][61][62][63][64]
^Владимир Иванович Ивкин (1999). Государственная власть СССР: высшие органы власти и управления и их руководители, 1923—1991: историко-биографический справочник (in Russian). ROSSPEN. p. 52. ISBN5-8243-0014-3. МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБЩЕГО МАШИНОСТРОЕНИЯ СССР Первое формирование. Образовано 2 апреля 1955 года. (ВВС СССР, 1955, No 6, Ст. 133). 10 мая 1957 года объединено с Министерством оборонной промышленности СССР и ликвидировано. (ВВС СССР, 1957, No 11, Ст. 275) Второе формирование. Образовано 2 марта 1965 года. (ВВС СССР, 1965, No 10, Ст. 115). Упразднено 14 ноября 1991 года. (ВВС СССР, 1991, No 50, Ст. 1421)
^Федеральный закон от 13 июля 2015 г. N 215-ФЗArchived 26 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine «8. Корпорация является правопреемником Министерства общего машиностроения СССР, Российского космического агентства, Российского авиационно-космического агентства и Федерального космического агентства в отношении международных договоров (соглашений) Российской Федерации в области космической деятельности, заключенных с органами и организациями иностранных государств и международными организациями (включая сопутствующие контрактные обязательства), а также правопреемником Российского авиационно-космического агентства и Федерального космического агентства в отношении соглашений (договоров) в указанной области, заключенных с федеральными органами государственной власти, органами государственной власти субъектов Российской Федерации, органами местного самоуправления и организациями.»
^Государственная корпорация "Роскосмос"Archived 26 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine. «Таким образом, госкорпорация "Роскосмос" стала правопреемником Министерства общего машиностроения СССР, Российского космического агентства, Российского авиационно-космического агентства и Федерального космического агентства.»
^Rzymanek, Jerzy (1988). Elsztein, Paweł (ed.). "Oferta handlowa Gławkosmosu – ZSRR" [Glavkosmos' commercial offer – USSR]. Astronautyka (in Polish). Vol. 5, no. 159. Polskie Towarzystwo Astronautyczne. p. 12, 14. ISSN0004-623X.
Various conventions, treaties, agreements, memorandums, charters or declarations establishing and governing intergovernmental organisations or inter-agency bodies dealing with space affairs
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