The Soviet space program consisted of initiatives within the Soviet Union by competing design groups. Being primarily a military program, it was classified. Sergey Korolyov^[1] (also transliterated as Korolev) was the head of the principal design group; his official title was "chief designer" (a standard title for similar positions in USSR). Unlike the early US space program, which in the 1950s was developed predominantly by scientists and rocket engineers from Nazi Germany, immigrated in United States after World War II and was based on German technological experience, the rocket and space program of USSR after 1955 (see Helmut Grottrup) was performed mainly by Soviet engineers and scientists and was based on some unique Soviet and Imperial Russian theoreticall developments (Tsiolkovsky).

The Soviet Space program wasn't open and in public view, announcements of the outcomes of missions were delayed until success was certain and failures were sometimes kept secret. Ultimately, as a result Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, many facts about the space program (which was heavily connected to the military) were declassified.

The Soviet Space Program was dissolved with the fall of the Soviet Union, with Russia and Ukraine becoming its immediate heirs. Russia continued its program by creating the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, now known as the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA)^[2], while Ukraine created the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU).