The OKB-586/Yuzhnoye design office, located in Dnipro, Ukraine, has developed a large number of military rockets, space launchers and satellites, including the Cosmos and Intercosmos series. Thousands of Yuzhnoye rockets and satellites have been mass-produced by Factory No. 586/YuzhMach. This company celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2021, and was run from 1954 to 1971 by Mikhail Yangel, one of the three great Soviet creators of cosmic rocket technology, alongside Sergei Korolev and Vladimir Chelomey.

Yuzhnoye Launchers and Satellites covers 40 years of programs carried out during the Soviet period, which was marked by the Nuclear Arms Race and the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union, and 30 years of the Ukrainian period, characterized by cooperation with the West and opening up commercialization. The book incorporates the latest information from declassified archives.