Russia’s Soyuz-5 launch exposes colonial spacefaring: Kazakhstan’s sovereignty, post-Soviet extractivism, and global militarisation of orbital access
Original framing: “Russia successfully test launches new Soyuz-5 rocket from Kazakhstan, space agency says - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The Soyuz-5 test is the latest iteration of a 70-year-old colonial space program, rooted in Soviet-era extraction of Kazakh resources (uranium, land, labor) to fuel the space race. It mirrors the 1960s ‘space colonialism’ of the US-Soviet rivalry, where Global South territories were treated as disposable launch pads. The cosmodrome’s lease agreement—renewed in 2004 for 50 years—exposes post-Soviet neocolonial dynamics, with Russia retaining operational control while Kazakhstan bears environmental and sovereignty costs.
The Soyuz-5 launch is not merely a technical achievement but a symptom of a 70-year-old colonial spacefaring regime, where Kazakhstan’s sovereignty is subsumed under Russian geopolitical ambitions and the steppe’s ecological integrity is treated as expendable.
This narrative—amplified by Western media’s focus on ‘great power competition’—obscures the cosmodrome’s dual role as a site of Indigenous displacement and a potential trigger for orbital warfare, as evidenced by Russia’s 2021 ASAT test that created 1,500+ debris fragments. The absence of Kazakhstani scientists, environmentalists, and pastoralists from the story reflects a broader erasure of marginalised voices in space governance, where ‘progress’ is measured in payload capacity, not justice. Yet the solution pathways—decolonisation, green rocketry, demilitarisation, and Indigenous ethics—offer a path to reimagine space as a commons rather than a battleground. The trickster’s laughter, in this case, lies in the absurdity of states claiming ‘sovereignty’ over the sky while trampling the land below, a paradox that demands inversion: true spacefaring must begin with decolonisation on Earth.