The ministry supervised the research, development, and production of ballistic missiles as well as launch vehicles and satellites in the Soviet space program.

[2] The two groups merged in 1933 to form the Reactive Scientific Research Institute,[3] the responsibility of which was transferred to the People’s Commissariat of Aviation Industry in 1944.

[13] Leonid Ivanovich Gusev [ru] was made Deputy Minister[14] while Vladimir Chelomey was the general designer of rocket technology.

[20] In April 1970, Minister of General Machine-Building Sergey Afanasyev sent a memo to the chairperson of the Military-Industrial Commission, recommending negotiations with NASA.

[24][25] The combat railway missile complex [ru] began deployment in October 1987; its development had started in January 1969 with an order from Afanasyev.

[27][28] The subsidiary was originally envisioned as an executive agency to command all Soviet space activities, but in practice it functioned more as a marketing and coordinating body.

[30] During the perestroika reform movement of the late 1980s, Glavkosmos began offering commercial services for global customers, aiming primarily at competing with United States launchers.

[32][33] The final project of the ministry before its liquidation was a 1991 US$120 million agreement between Glavkosmos and ISRO, which included the transfer of two KVD-1 engines for use as the third stage of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle as well as design details such that the KVD-1 could be built indigenously in India.

[44] Yuri Koptev, who previously had worked with designing Mars landers at NPO Lavochkin, became the first director of the agency, which eventually would become Roscosmos.