Place in Space

Examining Nationalism and Corruption’s Influence on 21st Century Russia’s Cosmos Goals

Abstract

The space program of the Russian Federation is the descendant of one of the most accomplished scientific programs in history, the Soviet Space Program. However, as a result of the breakup of the Soviet Union and a corresponding increase in bureaucracy and financial difficulties, the Russian Space Program began to falter and decline in the mid-1990s. The modern Russian space program, headed by the State Corporation Roscosmos, suffers from systematic institutional corruption and is manipulated by a nationalist regime that seeks to utilize the program as a way to legitimize itself while continuing to build upon a complex bureaucracy that allows embezzlement and graft to fester. This paper examines how these intertwined forces have transformed the once vibrant space program into a political symbol riddled with corruption by looking at two recent misconduct examples: the GLONASS satellite scandal and the Vostochny Cosmodrome scandal.