TheTechno Optimist.

Russian Orbital Station (ROS)Roscosmos—Russia drops polar-orbit plan: its next station will be built on the ISS Russian segment at 51.6 degreesSoyuz-5Roscosmos—Roscosmos sets the second Soyuz-5 test for late 2027 and the third for 2028Soyuz-5Roscosmos—Soyuz-5 makes its first flight from Baikonur, a successful suborbital test

Roscosmos

Soyuz-5 rocket, Russian Orbital Station

RUgovernmentest. 1992Checked 11 Oct

The brief

Analyst view
  • Soyuz-5, Russia's first new medium rocket in years, flew a successful suborbital test from Baikonur on Apr 30, 2026.
  • The Russian Orbital Station will now grow from the ISS Russian segment at 51.6 degrees, with a first new module due in late 2028.
  • Led since February 2025 by Dmitry Bakanov; the 2024 station plan was budgeted at 608.9B rubles.

Technical approach

As reported
Reuse

Build on flight-proven hardware

New projects lean on proven designs: the national station grows from the ISS Russian segment and reuses ISS-era module designs and Soyuz crew flights.

Kerosene

Cleaner kerosene-oxygen rockets

Soyuz-5 burns kerosene and liquid oxygen, which Roscosmos presents as cleaner propellants that also cut launch cost.

Baikonur

Launch from Kazakhstan

Crew flights and Soyuz-5 fly from the leased Baikonur site; the newer Vostochny site in Russia hosts Angara.

In-house

One owner for the whole chain

The corporation owns the main design bureaus and factories (Energia, Progress, Khrunichev, Energomash), so it runs rockets, engines and spacecraft itself.

Primer