the authors, leading representatives of russian space research and industry, show the results and future prospects of astronautics at the start of the third millennium. the focus is on the development of astronautics in russia under the new historical and economic conditions, but the book also covers the development in the usa, europe, china, japan, and india. it spotlights the basic trends in space related issues: necessary restructuring of space industry and spaceports, improvement of carrier rockets, booster units, spacecraft, and component elements. the book describes the possibilities of the wide use of space technologies and its numerous applications such as navigation and communication, space manufacturing, space biotechnology, pollution research, etc. furthermore it contains a huge amount of facts described in an understandable way without requiring specialist knowledge, accompanied by many photographs, charts and diagrams, mostly in color. therefore the book will be of interest to both experts and lay readers.