Anatoly Arkadevich Blagonravov (; – 4 February 1975) was a Soviet engineer in the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...

and later a diplomat. He represented the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

on the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). He worked closely with Hugh Dryden, his American counterpart, to promote international cooperation on space projects at the height of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. Anatoli adopted a dog named Tsygan, one of the first dogs to make a successful sub-orbital flight in 1951. Blagonravov died at the age of 80 in Moscow.

Start of US/Soviet spaceflight cooperation

Blagonravov was instrumental in opening the door to international cooperation in human spaceflight. After

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...

's orbital flight, an exchange of letters between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premiere

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

led to a series of discussions led by Blagonravov and NASA Deputy Director Hugh Dryden. Their talks in 1962 led to the Dryden-Blagonravov agreement, which was formalized in October of that year, the same time the two countries were in the midst of the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

. The agreement was formally announced at the United Nations on December 5, 1962. It called for cooperation on the exchange of data from weather satellites, a study of the Earth's magnetic field, and joint tracking of the U.S. Echo II balloon satellite. Unfortunately, as the competition between the two nation's manned space programs heated up, efforts to further cooperation at that point came to an end. In April 1970, he held informal talks in New York City with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Administrator Thomas O. Paine, about the possibility of performing a rendezvous and docking of a US and Soviet spacecraft. This led to an agreement signed on May 24, 1972, by US President Richard M. Nixon and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Premier Alexei Kosygin, calling for such a joint manned space mission, and declaring intent for all future international manned spacecraft to be capable of docking with each other. On July 17, 1975, the crews of a US Apollo spacecraft and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft performed such a docking, visiting each other's spacecraft, shaking hands, exchanging gifts, and performing joint experiments in space. Blagonravov was inducted as a member of the inaugural class to the International Space Hall of Fame.

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External links

Blagonravov, Anatoli
Encyclopedia of Science entry, retrieved Sept 15 2007 * __NOTOC__ 1894 births 1975 deaths Soviet physicists Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Heroes of Socialist Labour Soviet space program personnel Soviet diplomats {{Russia-physicist-stub

Start of US/Soviet spaceflight cooperation

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Further reading

External links