GK Launch Services

GK Launch Services is a Russian commercial launch-services operator headquartered in Moscow, established in May 2017 as a joint venture between Glavkosmos — the commercial-export subsidiary of the Roscosmos state corporation — and International Space Company (ISC) Kosmotras, with Glavkosmos holding a 75% stake. The company was created to market and sell commercial launch capacity on the Soyuz-2 family of launch vehicles, flown from Russian spaceports including Baikonur Cosmodrome, to international satellite operators.

GK Launch Services sells dedicated and rideshare launches primarily on the Soyuz-2 rocket, which the company markets on the vehicle's long flight-proven heritage, reliability and status as one of the few launch vehicles certified for crewed spaceflight (used operationally to carry cosmonauts and astronauts to the International Space Station on other Soyuz variants). The company conducted its first fully commercial mission on 22 March 2021, and has since managed additional rideshare missions carrying batches of international and domestic smallsat payloads.

As a joint subsidiary of a Russian state space corporation, GK Launch Services' international commercial business has operated within the broader context of sanctions and reduced Western customer access to Russian launch vehicles that has affected the Russian space sector; the company nonetheless continues to offer Soyuz-2 commercial launch services and accepts satellite launch inquiries through its website. Specific current leadership names and a comprehensive launch manifest were not available in the primary sources reviewed for this entry.