A policy of anticipation as a strategic objective of space biology and medicine at the present stage

This article reflects the ongoing debates in Russia regarding paths of innovative development and the role that fundamental science has played in the development of technology critical for national security and for its breakthrough potential. Alternative routes of technical development include variations in priority support for those points of growth, in which Russia has attained and steadily held the leading position, occupying a prominent place in the international division of labor. Russia’s space program is a good example of the successful implementation of a national program and provides a demonstration of the country’s leadership role in this area of human activities. This article presents an analysis of the factors and circumstances in Russia that predetermined, in the early, “Gagarin” period of piloted space flights, its winning of the leading position. They also determined the vector of the development of manned space flight for many years to come. Even taking into account the host of issues with the implementation of the International Space Station (ISS) utilization program and the planning of manned flights to the Moon and Mars, the unique experience of preparations and the conducting of research and tests with humans in space—the enormous groundwork in fundamental biomedical research over the past 50 years of piloted flights—provides the basis for an optimistic prognosis for gaining headway with essentially new, ambitious space projects. The key question is whether the proactive strategy of prioritized development and the affirmation of the role of manned space flights as the most integrated and science-intensive sector of innovative achievement will be realized. The development of the space industry depends upon the answer, not only at the present stage but in the long-term as well, as does the fate of the national fundamental space sciences, an integral part of which is space biomedicine.