\<COLOUR 1> COUNTRY: \<COLOUR 0> USSR, now the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
\<COLOUR 1> ORGANIZATIONS: \<COLOUR 0> Ministry of Defence Ministry for General Engineering Projects Intercosmos Glavcosmos
\<COLOUR 1> MAIN FACILITIES: \<COLOUR 0> Organization headquarters, Moscow Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Central Asia Mission control, Kaliningrad, near Moscow Northern Cosmodrome, Plesetsk Star City, near Moscow Volgograd Cosmodrome, Kapustin Yar
\<COLOUR 1> COMMENTS: \<COLOUR 0> The USSR began the Space Age when it launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, from Baikonur on October 4, 1957; since then it has remained the world's busiest space power, with more than 2,000 launches to its credit; the creation of the civilian agency Glavcosmos signalled a shift towards a more commercial approach to space activities; the break-up of the old Soviet Union has prompted Russian space scientists to cultivate arrangements with NASA and ESA.
