Russian Space Force Day

MOSCOW, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - On Saturday, Russia marks Space Force Day, timed to the launch of the first man-made Earth satellite back in 1957.

Russia marks Space Force Day each year on October 4. On December 1, 2011, the national Space Force became part of the Russian Aerospace Defense Force.

The commemorative day was officially instituted by a Presidential Executive Order of October 3, 2002.

This holiday was first enacted by a Presidential Executive Order of December 10, 1995, and was called Military Space Force Day. The date was timed to coincide with the first-ever launching of a man-made satellite into space on October 4, 1957. That event ushered in the Space Age, including military space programs.

In September 1967, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) – The World Air Sports Federation – proclaimed October 4 the beginning of the Space Age.

The official date for marking Space Force Day was confirmed by a Presidential Executive Order of May 31, 2006, On Establishing Professional Holidays and Commemorative Days. The document gave it the status of a commemorative day.

The Space Force emerged as an independent arm of the service in 2001 and was called upon to promptly notify supreme military-political leaders about missile attacks, to monitor outer space and the situation in separate missile-defense districts, to repel an enemy attack in and from outer space and to support peacetime and wartime operations of the Russian Armed Forces.

On December 1, 2011, the Space Force became part of the Aerospace Defense Force, a newly-established arm of the service.

In 1955, the USSR began to establish the first spacecraft launching and tracking units and agencies, after the Soviet government decided to build an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing site in Kazakhstan, now called the Baikonur Space Center.

In 1957, the Command and Measuring Spacecraft Control Complex, now the Titov Main Test and Space Systems Control Center, was established during preparations to launch the first man-made space satellite. That same year, construction of a facility for launching R-7 / SS-6 Sapwood ICBMs, now the Plesetsk Space Center, was launched in the Arkhangelsk Region.

On October 4, 1957, spacecraft launch and control units sent into orbit Sputnik One, the first man-made space satellite in history.

On April 12, 1961, the Vostok One spacecraft was launched, which carried Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and controlled the entire mission. All subsequent national and international space programs involved spacecraft launch and control units.

In 1960, the Third Directorate of the Main Rocket and Missile Weapons Department was established at the Soviet Defense Ministry in order to oversee space programs. In 1964, this directorate was renamed the Central Space Systems Directorate of the Soviet Defense Ministry. In 1970, it was renamed the Main Space Systems Directorate of the Soviet Defense Ministry. In 1982, the Main Space Systems Directorate and affiliated units were removed from the organizational structure of the Strategic Missile Force and directly subordinated to the Soviet Defense Minister.

In August 1992, the Military Space Force of the Russian Defense Ministry was established, with facilities at the Baikonur and Plesetsk space centers. In 1994, the Svobodny Space Center, the Main Space Systems Testing and Control Center, the Military Engineering Academy and Central Research and Development Institute No. 50 of the Russian Defense Ministry were subordinated to the Military Space Force.

In 1998, the Military Space Force was incorporated into the Strategic Missile Force, with the right to control space systems.

In 2001, space systems began to play an increasing role in the system of Russia's military and national security. As a result, the Space Force was established on the basis of military units for launching and controlling spacecraft and also on the basis of military aerospace defense formations.

In 2001-2011, the Space Force conducted and supervised launches of over 230 space rockets carrying over 300 military, dual-purpose, socioeconomic and scientific research spacecraft. These spacecraft included communications, cartography, remote-sensing, telecommunications and research satellites.

Early-warning space systems recorded over 900 incidents in which space objects flew dangerously close to the International Space Station.

On December 1, 2011, the Aerospace Defense Force was established on the basis of Space Force formations and military units, subordinated to the Aerospace Defense Command of the Russian Air Force. The Aerospace Defense Force included Space Command, Air-Defense and Missile-Defense Command and the Plesetsk Space Center.

With the advent of the national Aerospace Defense Force, the Space Force ceased to exist as an independent arm of the service.

On March 1, 2013, the Mozhaisky Military Space Academy (St. Petersburg), the Yaroslavl subsidiary of this academy, the Marshal Zhukov Military Aerospace Defense Force Academy (Tver) and the Suvorov Cadet School in Tver were subordinated to the Aerospace Defense Force.

Lieutenant General Alexander Golovko commands the Aerospace Defense Force.

The high-tech Aerospace Defense Force ensures national aerospace defense and security.

The Aerospace Defense Force's facilities are deployed all over Russia – from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka – and also abroad. Early-warning systems and systems for monitoring outer space are located in other post-Soviet republics, including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Under the state rearmament program, the Aerospace Defense Force is to receive about 3.4 trillion rubles ($85.6 billion) until 2020, or about 20 percent of all program funding. The share of its modern weapons is to reach at least 50 percent and 70 percent, by 2015 and 2020 respectively.

In 2013, the Aerospace Defense Force launched three ICBMs and 32 multi-role spacecraft. Its mission-control center conducted about 375,000 control and communications sessions with spacecraft.

Duty units of the early-warning system and information centers of the missile-defense system detected about 40 foreign and Russian ballistic missile and space rocket launches.