The Titov Main Test and Space Systems Control Centre () (also referenced as the Titov Space Control Centre and Titov Space Centre) is the main

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n military and commercial satellite control centre. It is run by the

Russian Space Forces The Russian Space Forces () is the space force branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces. It was reestablished following the August 1, 2015 merger between the Russian Air Force and the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces, after the independent arm of s ...

of the

Russian Aerospace Forces The Russian Aerospace Forces or Russian Air and Space Forces (VKS) comprise the air force, aerial, space force, space warfare, and Missile defense, missile defence Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It was ...

. Located roughly southwest of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

closed town A closed city or town is a settlement where travel or residency restrictions are applied. Historically, the construction of closed cities became increasingly common after the beginning of the Cold War, particularly in the Soviet Union. Since t ...

of Krasnoznamensk, the centre was built in 1957 as part of 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 was known by the name of Golitsyno-2.

History

A resolution of the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

of 30 January 1956 provided for the establishment of a command and control complex for the first flight satellites. Work on the construction of the centre began on May 8, 1957. GITSIU COP and subordinate military units together with the Mission Control Centre support the entire space programme. The military is responsible for the condition of many domestic orbital systems — military, scientific, manned and other. Specialists at the main centre started working with the first launches, first artificial satellite, the first manned flight into space. They also worked on Soviet Moonwalkers (

lunokhod Lunokhod ( rus, Луноход, p=lʊnɐˈxot, "Moonwalker") was a series of Soviet robotic lunar rovers designed to land on the Moon between 1969 and 1977. Lunokhod 1 was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on an extraterrestrial ...

y), and on the programme for the orbital station

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

, right up until the last seconds of its existence. Now among their many tasks is work with the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

Centre

Currently the Centre manages 75% of the domestic Russian orbital spacecraft constellation. By

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

of the

Russian President The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

on 14 August 2001, the centre was named after

Gherman Titov Gherman Stepanovich Titov (; 11 September 1935 – 20 September 2000) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut who, on 6 August 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth, aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1. He was the fou ...

, to honour the second human to orbit the Earth, who had been one of the leaders of the Centre. The centre has locations throughout Russia involved in testing, measuring and certifying equipment which are subordinated to the main centre.

References

{{coord, 55.594, N, 37.047, E, type:landmark, display=title Soviet and Russian space program locations Space technology research institutes Military installations of Russia 1957 establishments in Russia

History

Centre

See also

References