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This is an attempt to make sense of the Byzantine organizational structure of the former Soviet missile & space program.

I've divided this section into two broad areas:

• Government bodies
• R&D organizations

Government bodies were institutions at the highest state level that supervised the space program.
These include organizations within:

(a) the Soviet government (including the military); and

(b) the Soviet Communist Party


R&D organizations engaged in basic and applied research, development, and production
These include:

(a) Scientific-Research Institutes (NII) which typically did applied research. An example would be the organization currently known as the Keldysh Research Center which does important work on rocket and spacecraft propulsion in Russia.

(b) Design Bureaus (OKB) which typically designed various elements of the space program such as spacecraft, launch vehicles, and ground infrastructure. An example would be the Energiya Rocket-Space Corporation (RKK Energiya) which was the primary contractor for the Mir space station and continues to produce Soyuz and Progress spacecraft for the International Space Station.

(c) Factories.