Georgy Nikolayevich Babakin (; 13 November 1914 – 3 August 1971) was a

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 ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

working in the space program. He was Chief Designer at the

Lavochkin NPO Lavochkin (, OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association or shortly Lavochkin Association, LA) is a Russian aerospace company. It is a major player in the Russian space program, being the developer and manufacturer of t ...

Design Bureau from 1965 until his death. Babakin's early career was spent in radio engineering, starting with a job at the Moscow telephone company in 1930, working on an urban radio network. From 1943 to 1949, Babakin worked on radar targeting systems at the Institute of Automation (VSNITO), where he became its chief engineer. Babakin became involved in the Soviet space program in 1949, working in

Boris Chertok Boris Yevseyevich Chertok (; – 14 December 2011) was a Russian engineer in the former Soviet space program, mainly working in control systems, and later found employment in Roscosmos. Major responsibility under his guidance was primarily bas ...

's division of

NII-88 TsNIIMash () is a Russian rocket and spacecraft scientific center, dealing with all phases of development from conceptual design to flight test. The Institute is the main analytical center of Roskosmos in the field of system-wide studies of the ...

on surface-to-air missiles and targeting systems. In 1952, he was part of a group transferred to Lavochkin's bureau OKB-301 to work on the intercontinental cruise missile

Burya The ''Burya'' ("Storm" in Russian; ) was a supersonic, intercontinental cruise missile, developed by the Lavochkin design bureau (chief designer Naum Semyonovich Chernyakov) under designation La-350 () from 1954 until the program cancellation in ...

and the V-300 anti-aircraft missile. In 1960,

Semyon Lavochkin Semyon Alekseyevich Lavochkin (; 11 September 1900 – 9 June 1960) was a Soviet aerospace engineer, Soviet aircraft designer who founded the Lavochkin aircraft design bureau. Many of his fighter designs were produced in large numbers for Soviet ...

died at an aircraft show (literally died in Babakin's arms), and the bureau was subsumed by

Vladimir Chelomei Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey or Chelomei (, ; 30 June 1914 – 8 December 1984) was a Soviet engineer and designer in the missile program of the former Soviet Union. He invented the first Soviet pulse jet engine and was responsible for develo ...

. It became independent again in 1965, with Babakin as its chief designer. At that time, the planetary probe program was taken away from

Sergei Korolev Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (14 January 1966) was the lead Soviet Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He invented the R-7 Sem ...

's OKB-1 bureau and reassigned to OKB-301 due to its almost complete lack of success (not one Soviet planetary probe had succeeded since

Luna 3 Luna 3, or E-2A No.1 (), was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon. The hi ...

six years earlier). Babakin's new "NPO Lavochkin" brought improved engineering, testing and systems management to this problem, including proper bench and dynamics testing of components, something Korolev had never done. The effort began to bear fruit with the successful missions of

Luna 9 Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966, the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon and return ima ...

and Venera 4 in 1966-67. Babakin died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

at the age of 57 shortly before the completion of the Mars 2 and

Mars 3 Mars 3 was a robotic space probe of the Soviet Mars program, launched May 28, 1971, nine days after its twin spacecraft Mars 2. The probes were identical robotic spacecraft launched by Proton-K rockets with a Blok D upper stage, each consisti ...

spacecraft, during

Lunokhod-1 ''Lunokhod 1'' (Russian language, Russian: Луноход-1 "Moonwalker 1"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203 ("Device 8EL No. 203") was the first rover (space exploration), robotic rover lunar rover, on the Moon and the first to freel ...

mission. His bureau continued with a series of impressive successes, the first

Lunar rovers A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration Rover (space exploration), vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, ...

, landings on Venus and robotic sample return of Moon rocks. A research division of NPO Lavochkin is named after Babakin, and the firm continues to design and build spacecraft. The crater Babakin on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

and Babakin on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

were named in his honor. The Babakin Space Centre is named after him. The G.N. Babakin Medal was established by the Russian Federation of Cosmonautics on December 6, 1996.

Awards

Order of the Red Banner of Labor The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

(1956) *

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

(1966) * Hero of Socialist Labor (1970) *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(1970) * Medal of the National Centre for Space Studies of France

Literature

"Rockets and people"
– B. E. Chertok, M: "mechanical engineering", 1999. * A.I. Ostashev, ''Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov – The Genius of the 20th Century'' — 2010 M. of Public Educational Institution of Higher Professional Training MGUL . * "S. P. Korolev. Encyclopedia of life and creativity" – edited by C. A. Lopota, RSC Energia. S. P. Korolev, 2014

References

External links

Babakin's Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babakin, Georgy 1914 births 1971 deaths Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Lavochkin Soviet space program personnel Soviet engineers Soviet inventors Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery 20th-century inventors Russian scientists