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The Soviet space program (Russian: Космическая программа СССР, romanized: Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Unlike its Space Race competitor, the United States, which consolidated its space program under NASA, the Soviet space program was divided between several competing design bureaus led by Korolev, Kerimov, Keldysh, Yangel, Glushko, Chelomey, Makeyev, Chertok and Reshetnev, often under the Ministry of General Machine-Building. The program was an important part of the Soviet claim to superpower status.

From the 1890s, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky pioneered the fields of astronautics and rocketry. Soviet rocketry began with the Gas Dynamics Laboratory in 1921, and these endeavors expanded during the 1930s and 1940s. After the surrender of Nazi Germany, German V-2 rocket technology and expertise was utilized by Soviet and by US aerospace alike; Soviet spaceflight began with the derivative R-1 missile tests in 1948. In the 1950s, the Soviet program was formalized, led by Sergei Korolev.

The Soviet space program set many records in space exploration, including the first intercontinental missile (R-7 Semyorka), which launched the first satellite (Sputnik 1) and first animal (Laika the dog) into Earth orbit in 1957, and first human in space in 1961, Yuri Gagarin. The Vostok program saw the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 and Voskhod 2 the first spacewalk in 1965. The world's first Space station, Salyut 1 was launched in 1971, and the first modular station, Mir, in 1986. The Interkosmos program sent the first citizens of a countries other than the United States or Soviet Union into space.

Soviet computerized robotic missions achieved further milestones. The Luna program launched to the Moon, from 1959–70, the first flyby, impactor, imaging of its far side, soft landing, animals, and robotic sample return; the Lunokhod program deployed two lunar rovers from 1966. The Venera and Mars programs launched the first interplanetary probes. Venus missions achieved the first flyby, first impact, first soft landing, first surface imaging, and first atmospheric flight on another planet. Soviet probes also made the first impact and soft landing on Mars.

The program was primarily succeeded by Russia's Roscosmos, as well as Ukraine's State Space Agency. The legacy of the Soviet program includes Roscosmos' Soyuz and Progress spacecrafts, Soyuz and Proton rocket families, and the GLONASS satellite navigation system. The International Space Station's Russian segment, especially its Zvezda and Zarya modules, derive from Soviet technology. The primary Soviet spaceport, Baikonur Cosmodrome, is now in Kazakhstan, which leases the facility for Russia.