Roscosmos

Roscosmos
Information
Type	State corporation
Industry	Aerospace, Virtual Reality
Founded	2015
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Products	Spacecraft, launch vehicles, VR headsets (XR-1, XR-2)
Website	https://www.roscosmos.ru

Roscosmos (Russian: Roskosmos), formally the State Space Corporation Roscosmos, is the Russian government agency responsible for the country's space program. In the Virtual Reality field it is notable as an unusual hardware maker: in 2021 the corporation revealed a pair of in-house, PC-powered VR headsets, the Roscosmos XR-1 and the Roscosmos XR-2, developed primarily for cosmonaut and engineer training rather than for the consumer market. The headsets were designed entirely with Russian hardware and software and used external laser-based tracking similar to SteamVR devices, a rare example of a national space agency building its own VR headset hardware.

Background

Roscosmos is the successor to the Soviet and early post-Soviet space program and was reorganized into a state corporation in 2015, with headquarters in Moscow. Its core activities span crewed spaceflight, launch vehicles, satellites, and the operation of facilities such as the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. The VR program sits well outside that traditional remit, which is why the project drew attention in the XR press when it surfaced in 2021.

According to TASS, the VR work was carried out by a Roscosmos IT subsidiary acting as the corporation's industry IT integrator, reported in English coverage under transliterations including RC-Digital and RK-tsifra. The effort was overseen by Konstantin Shadrin, director of the corporation's Digital Development Department.

VR headsets

Roscosmos announced plans to produce its own VR hardware in February 2021 and brought a first prototype to the Startup Village technology conference in Skolkovo, Russia, that June. Coverage described two generations of device, the XR-1 (reported codename Falcon-1) and the more capable XR-2 (codename Sokol-1, the Russian word for falcon). The XR-1 was framed as a test platform for the corporation's technology and was completed the year before the XR-2 complex was unveiled, while the XR-2 targeted much higher resolution and a wider field of view.

Both headsets were built around external laser ("lighthouse" style) positional tracking on outside-in beacons, a method shared with SteamVR devices, and were reported to be compatible with the SteamVR platform on Windows. The XR-1 used liquid crystal (LCD) panels with hybrid Fresnel lenses, while the XR-2 added eye tracking and a far higher pixel count. Reporting noted that the XR-2 could work with Russia's Astra Linux operating system in addition to Windows.

Headset	Codename	Resolution (per eye)	Refresh rate	Field of view	Optics / display	Notes
Roscosmos XR-1	Falcon-1	1440 x 1440	90/120 Hz	105 degrees diagonal	Hybrid Fresnel lenses, LCD	Test platform; under 500 g; miniDP and miniUSB; SteamVR and Windows; laser/beacon tracking
Roscosmos XR-2	Sokol-1	2880 x 2880	90/120 Hz	157 degrees diagonal	Higher-resolution panels, Eye tracking	Laser tracking of up to 256 objects with stated error under 5 mm; Oculus Touch-style controllers; Astra Linux or Windows

Purpose and use

The headsets were developed for training and visualization rather than as commercial products. Roscosmos and its subsidiary positioned the VR complex for use at the Cosmonaut Training Center, where it would form part of a spacecraft simulator program, and for designers visualizing their work. Coverage tied the simulator effort to a universal trainer covering both the current Soyuz spacecraft and the next-generation Orel (also rendered Eagle) crewed vehicle then in development, with plans to combine the VR hardware with elements simulating weightlessness. Shadrin said the Cosmonaut Training Center had been interested in the virtual reality complex and had asked for a sample for testing.

Reception and status

Press coverage in mid-2021 highlighted the XR-2's high headline specifications, including its 2880 x 2880 per-eye resolution and 157 degree field of view, as competitive with or exceeding leading consumer headsets of the period. Writers also stressed that the devices were aimed at internal Russian use, with no clear indication they would be sold outside Russia. The XR-2 did not reach the market as a consumer product, and the hardware-comparison database VRcompare lists it as cancelled.