This is a select bibliography of academic level English language books (including translations) and journal articles, published about the non-military space programs in Russia and the Soviet Union.
For other areas of science and technology, please see:
Works listed here are cited in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly sources. Each is published by an academic or major press, written by a recognized expert, or substantially reviewed in scholarly journals; borderline cases are omitted. A selection of primary sources are included. Many of the books below carry their own bibliographies; see the Further reading section for other bibliographies, and the External links section for historical sites, academic sites, and museums.
Citations follow APA style. Book have citations to academic journal or mainstream published reviews when available. For books only partly about the subject, relevant chapter or section titles are provided when useful and available. Translators of the original-language edition are included when possible. In cases where a title or name has appeared with more than one English spelling, the most recent published form is used and a footnote documents any earlier title under which the work appeared.
General
The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research.
Andrews, J. T. (2009). Storming the stratosphere: Space exploration, Soviet culture, and the arts from Lenin to Khrushchev's times. Russian History, 36(1), 77–87. Andrews, J. T., & Siddiqi, A. A. (Eds.). (2011). Into the cosmos: Space exploration and Soviet culture. University of Pittsburgh Press. Brain, S. (2014). How the Soviets explored the cosmic void and found ... nothing. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 15(2), 458–465. Cornish, G. (2019). Music and the making of the cosmonaut everyman. The Journal of Musicology, 36(4), 464–497. Gerovitch, S. (2007). "New Soviet man" inside machine: Human engineering, spacecraft design, and the construction of communism. Osiris, 22(1), 135–157. Gerovitch, S. (2008). Stalin's rocket designers' leap into space: The technical intelligentsia faces the thaw. Osiris, 23(1), 189–209. Gerovitch, S. (2011). "Why are we telling lies?" The creation of Soviet space history myths. The Russian Review, 70(3), 460–484. Gerovitch, S. (2014). Voices of the Soviet space program: Cosmonauts, soldiers, and engineers who took the USSR into space. Palgrave Macmillan. Gerovitch, S. (2015). Soviet space mythologies: Public images, private memories, and the making of a cultural identity. University of Pittsburgh Press. Griswold, R. L. (2012). "Russian blonde in space": Soviet women in the American imagination, 1950–1965. Journal of Social History, 45(4), 881–907. Harford, J. (1997). Korolev: How one man masterminded the Soviet drive to beat America to the Moon. John Wiley & Sons. Harvey, B. (2007). Russian planetary exploration: History, development, legacy and prospects. Springer. Harvey, B. (2007). Soviet and Russian lunar exploration. Springer-Praxis. Huntress, W. T., Jr., & Marov, M. Ya. (2011). Soviet robots in the solar system: Mission technologies and discoveries. Springer. Jenks, A. (2020). Securitization and secrecy in the late Cold War: The view from space. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 21(3), 659–689. McDougall, W. A. (1985). ...the heavens and the earth: A political history of the space age. Basic Books. Siddiqi, A. A. (2000). Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the space race, 1945–1974. NASA History Division. Siddiqi, A. A. (2010). Competing technologies, national(ist) narratives, and universal claims: Toward a global history of space exploration. Technology and Culture, 51(2), 425–443. Siddiqi, A. A. (2010). The red rockets' glare: Spaceflight and the Russian imagination, 1857–1957. Cambridge University Press. Ulivi, P., & Harland, D. M. (2009). Robotic exploration of the solar system, Part 2: Hiatus and renewal, 1983–1996. Springer. Waldrop, M. M. (1987). Soviet space science opens to the West. Science, 236(4807), 1427–1431. Waldrop, M. M. (1989). A new Soviet plan for exploring the planets. Science, 246(4927), 211–212.
Programs and missions Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik
Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik (; ), or DS, was a series of satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1982. They served missions ranging from technological and scientific research to radar tracking targets for anti-satellite weapons and anti-ballistic missiles. 185 were launched on dedicated Kosmos rockets.
Gubka, O., & Savchuk, V. (2020). The Dnepropetrovsk Space Center: From ballistic missiles to international cooperation under the Interkosmos program. Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki, 65(3), 29–58. Krasnoperov, R., Peregoudov, D., Lukianova, R., Soloviev, A., & Dzeboev, B. (2020). Early Soviet satellite magnetic field measurements in the years 1964 and 1970. Earth System Science Data, 12(1), 555–561. Lardier, C. (2024). Yuzhnoye launchers and satellites. ISTE; Wiley. Siddiqi, A. A. (2000). Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the space race, 1945–1974 (NASA SP-2000-4408). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Soloviev, A. A., & Peregoudov, D. V. (2022). Verification of the geomagnetic field models using historical satellite measurements obtained in 1964 and 1970. Earth, Planets and Space, 74, Article 187.
Luna
The Luna programme (, "Moon"), sometimes called Lunik by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Designed as orbiters or landers, they achieved many firsts in space exploration—including the first lunar flyby, first lunar impact, and first photos of the Moon's far side—and studied the Moon's chemical composition, gravity, temperature, and radiation. Twenty-four spacecraft were formally given the Luna designation, though more were launched: those failing to reach orbit went unacknowledged and unnumbered, while those failing in low Earth orbit usually received Cosmos designations. The programme's estimated 1964 cost was US$6–10 billion (equivalent to US$– billion in ). The Luna 25 mission continues the Luna designation, though it—along with planned missions Luna 26, Luna 27, and Luna 28—is considered part of the Luna-Glob programme.
Basilevsky, A. T., Kreslavsky, M. A., Karachevtseva, I. P., & Gusakova, E. N. (2014). Morphometry of small impact craters in the Lunokhod-1 and Lunokhod-2 study areas. Planetary and Space Science, 92, 77–87. Clark, P. S. (1991). The Soviet manned lunar programme and its legacy. Space Policy, 7(3), 221–232. Harvey, B. (2007a). The first moon probes. In Soviet and Russian lunar exploration (pp. 15–43). Springer. Harvey, B. (2007b). Origins of the Soviet lunar programme. In Soviet and Russian lunar exploration (pp. 1–13). Springer. Harvey, B. (2007c). Soviet and Russian lunar exploration. Springer. Huntress, W. T., Jr., & Marov, M. Ya. (2011). Soviet robots in the solar system: Mission technologies and discoveries. Springer. Karachevtseva, I., Oberst, J., Scholten, F., Konopikhin, A., Shingareva, K., Cherepanova, E., Gusakova, E., Haase, I., Peters, O., Plescia, J., & Robinson, M. (2013). Cartography of the Lunokhod-1 landing site and traverse from LRO image and stereo-topographic data. Planetary and Space Science, 85, 175–187. Lardier, C. (2018). The Soviet manned lunar program N1-L3. Acta Astronautica, 142, 184–192. Robinson, M. S., Plescia, J. B., Jolliff, B. L., & Lawrence, S. J. (2012). Soviet lunar sample return missions: Landing site identification and geologic context. Planetary and Space Science, 69(1), 76–88. Shearer, C. K., Moriarty, D. P., Simon, S. B., Petro, N., & Papike, J. J. (2023). Where is the lunar mantle and deep crust at Crisium? A perspective from the Luna 20 samples. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 128(5), Article e2022JE007409. Shkuratov, Y., Kaydash, V., Sysolyatina, X., Razim, A., & Videen, G. (2013). Lunar surface traces of engine jets of Soviet sample return probes: The enigma of the Luna-23 and Luna-24 landing sites. Planetary and Space Science, 75, 28–36. Siddiqi, A. A. (2000). Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the space race, 1945–1974 (NASA SP-2000-4408). National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Luna-Glob
Luna-Glob (, "Lunar sphere") is a Moon exploration program by Roscosmos aimed at creating a fully robotic lunar base, after which it is intended to continue with crewed missions beginning with the Orel crewed orbiter.The vision of the Russian Space Agency on the robotic settlements in the Moon. Maxim Litvak, IKI/Roscosmos. 2016.
Based on plans dating to 1997, the program's first mission—the Luna 25 lander—was shelved after the 1998 Russian financial crisis and revived a few years later. Initially scheduled to launch in 2012 on a Soyuz-2 rocket, it was repeatedly delayed—to 2014, 2015,Российский зонд Луна-Глоб отправится исследовать Луну в 2015 году 2016, 2018,Russia will launch Luna spacecraft in 2018 and 2019. Roscosmos approved a model of the Luna 25 lander in 2017.
Luna 25 launched successfully on 11 August 2023 but crashed on 19 August after an anomalous orbit-lowering maneuver. , Luna 26 is planned for 2028, Luna 27 for 2029–2030, Luna 29 for 2032, Luna 28 for 2034, and Luna 30 for 2036. The planned Moon base would initially house no more than 4 people, later rising to a maximum of 12. Djachkova, M. V., Litvak, M. L., Mitrofanov, I. G., & Sanin, A. B. (2017). Selection of Luna-25 landing sites in the south polar region of the Moon. Solar System Research, 51(3), 185–195. Djachkova, M. V., Mitrofanov, I. G., Sanin, A. B., Litvak, M. L., & Tretyakov, V. I. (2022). Selecting a landing site for the Luna 27 spacecraft. Solar System Research, 56(3), 145–154. Golovin, D. V., Mokrousov, M. I., Mitrofanov, I. G., Kozyrev, A. S., Litvak, M. L., Malakhov, A. V., Nikiforov, S. Yu., Sanin, A. B., Barmakov, Yu. N., Bogolubov, E. P., Sholeninov, S. E., & Yurkov, D. I. (2021). ADRON-LR instrument for active neutron sensing of the lunar matter composition. Solar System Research, 55(6), 529–536. Ivanov, M. A., Hiesinger, H., Abdrakhimov, A. M., Basilevsky, A. T., Head, J. W., Pasckert, J.-H., Bauch, K., van der Bogert, C. H., Gläser, P., & Kohanov, A. (2015). Landing site selection for Luna-Glob mission in crater Boguslawsky. Planetary and Space Science, 117, 45–63. Ivanov, M. A., Marov, M. Ya., Basilevsky, A. T., & Kostitsyn, Yu. A. (2018). Boguslawsky crater on the Moon: Landing site selection for the Luna–Glob mission descent module. Solar System Research, 52(7), 570–577. Krasilnikov, S. S., Basilevsky, A. T., Ivanov, M. A., & Krasilnikov, A. S. (2021). Geological and geomorphological characteristics of high-priority landing sites for the Luna-Glob mission. Solar System Research, 55(2), 83–96. Krasilnikov, S. S., Krasilnikov, A. S., & Ivanov, M. A. (2022). Geological details of the main landing ellipses of Luna-25. Solar System Research, 56(3), 135–144. Litvak, M., Kozlova, T., Ilyin, A., Kiselev, A., Kozyrev, A., Mitrofanov, I., Tretyakov, V., & Yakovlev, V. (2022). Luna-25 robotic arm: Results of experiment with analog of lunar regolith in lunar-like conditions. Acta Astronautica, 200, 282–290.