Georgy Nikolayevich Babakin (russian: Гео́ргий Никола́евич Баба́кин; 13 November 1914 – 3 August 1971) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

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

Lavochkin NPO Lavochkin (russian: НПО Лавочкина, 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 th ...

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 (russian: link=no, Бори́с Евсе́евич Черто́к; – 14 December 2011) was a Russian electrical engineer and the control systems designer in the Soviet Union's space program, and later found employm ...

's division of

NII-88 TsNIIMash (russian: ЦНИИмаш) 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 syste ...

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; russian: Буря) 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 can ...

and the V-300 anti-aircraft missile. In 1960, Lavochkin died at an aircraft show (literally died in Babakin's arms), and the bureau was subsumed by

Vladimir Chelomei Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey or Chelomei (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Челоме́й; 30 June 1914 – 8 December 1984) was a Soviet engineer of Ukrainian ethnicity and designer in missile program of the former Sovie ...

. 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 (russian: Сергей Павлович Королёв, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov, sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ kərɐˈlʲɵf, Ru-Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.ogg; ukr, Сергій Павлович Корольов, ...

'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 ( rus, Луна 3}) 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 th ...

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 survivable landing on a celestial body ...

and

Venera 4 Venera 4 (russian: Венера-4, lit=Venus-4), also designated 4V-1 No.310, was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus. The probe comprised a lander, designed to enter the Venusian atmosphere and parachute to the s ...

in 1966-67. Babakin died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

at the age of 57 shortly before the completion of the

Mars 2 The Mars 2 was an uncrewed space probe of the Mars program, a series of uncrewed Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union beginning 19 May 1971. The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbit ...

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 consisting ...

spacecraft, during

Lunokhod-1 ''Lunokhod 1'' ( Russian: Луноход-1 ("Moonwalker 1"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203 ("Device 8EL No. 203")) was the first of two robotic lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. Th ...

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

Lunar rovers A lunar rover or Moon rover is a 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, 16, and 17. Other rov ...

, 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 is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and Babakin on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

were named in his honor. The Babakin Space Centre is named after him.

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 Lenin Prize winners 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