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 the developer and manufacturer of the

Fregat Fregat (russian: Фрегат, ''frigate'') is an upper stage developed by NPO Lavochkin in the 1990s, which is used in some Soyuz and Zenit launch vehicles, but is universal and can be used as a part of a medium and heavy class launch vehic ...

upper stage, as well as interplanetary probes such as

Fobos-Grunt Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (russian: link=no, Фобос-Грунт, where ''грунт'' refers to the ''ground'' in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian sample return mis ...

. As of 2015, it was headed by Sergei Lemeshevskii. On August 10, 2017 the Lavochkin Association's Board of Directors appointed Vladimir Kolmykov Director General of the enterprise.

Overview

The company develops and manufactures spacecraft such as the

rocket upper stages, satellites and interplanetary probes. It is a contractor for a number of military programs, such as the Oko early warning satellite, Prognoz and

Araks , az, Araz, fa, ارس, tr, Aras The Aras (also known as the Araks, Arax, Araxes, or Araz) is a river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan excl ...

programmes as well as the civilian program Kupon. One of the company's most notable projects was the participation in the failed

sample return mission A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as lo ...

. NPO Lavochkin has also developed the Elektro–L series of new-generation weather satellites, as well as the Navigator standardised satellite platform, which will serve as the basis for several future Russian satellites.

History

The company was founded in 1937 as OKB-301, 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, ...

aircraft

design bureau OKB is a transliteration of the Russian initials of "" – , meaning 'experiment and design bureau'. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and prototyping of advanced technology, usually for military application ...

(OKB). The head designer was , supported by and

Semyon Lavochkin Semyon Alekseyevich Lavochkin (russian: Семён Алексе́евич Ла́вочкин; 11 September 1900 - 9 June 1960) was a Soviet aerospace engineer, Soviet aircraft designer who founded the Lavochkin aircraft design bureau. Many of his ...

. On October, 1945 Lavochkin was promoted for the head designer of the design bureau. It gained distinction for its family of piston-engined fighter aircraft during World War II, and later shifted to missile and jet fighter designs. Following the death of the head designer, the OKB-301 succumbed to the growing power of

Vladimir Chelomey 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 ...

and became

OKB-52 NPO Mashinostroyeniya (russian: НПО машиностроения, lit=RDA of machine manufacturing) is a rocket design bureau based in Reutov, Russia. During the Cold War it was responsible for several major weapons systems, including the UR-1 ...

Branch No. 3 on 18 December 1962. Later, it turned to work on interplanetary probe designs for Luna sample return program, the Lunokhod program,

Vega program The Vega program (Cyrillic: ВеГа) was a series of Venus missions that also took advantage of the appearance of comet 1P/Halley in 1986. ''Vega 1'' and '' Vega 2'' were uncrewed spacecraft launched in a cooperative effort among the Soviet ...

Phobos program Phobos (Greek for "fear") most commonly refers to: * Phobos (moon), a moon of Mars * Phobos (mythology), the Greek god and personification of fear and panic Phobos may also refer to: Comics * Phobos (Marvel Comics) * Phobos (''W.I.T.C.H.''), a ...

, etc. The former OKB-301 became named NPO Lavochkin. In January 2012, officials of Lavochkin faced administrative punishment for not taking into account of designing the computer system after the crash of Russia's Mars moon spacecraft

Projects

Aircraft

* LaGG-1 *

LaGG-3 The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 (Лавочкин-Горбунов-Гудков ЛаГГ-3) was a Soviet fighter aircraft of World War II. It was a refinement of the earlier LaGG-1 and was one of the most modern aircraft available to the Sov ...

* Gu-82 * K-37 * Gu-1 * La-5 * La-7 "Fin" * La-9 "Fritz" * La-11 "Fang" * La-15 "Fantail" * La-17 * La-120 * La-126 * La-130 * La-132 * La-134 * La-138 * La-140 * La-150 * La-152 * La-154 * La-156 * La-160 * La-168 * La-174 * La-176 * La-180 * La-190 * La-200 * La-250 ''Anakonda''

Rockets and missiles

* S-25 Berkut (SA-1 "Guild") - surface-to-air missile * S-75 Dvina (SA-2 "Guideline") - surface-to-air missile * La-205 is V-300, a SAM for S-25 air defense system * La-350 Burya - intercontinental cruise missile * La-400 DAL - surface to air missile *

- upper stage

Spacecraft

Astron Astron may refer to: * Mitsubishi Astron engine * ASTRON, the Dutch foundation for astronomy research, operating the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and LOFAR * Astron (comics), a fictional character, a member of the Marvel Comics group The E ...

* Elektro-L - satellite **

Elektro-L No.1 Elektro-L No.1 (russian: Электро-L), also known as Geostationary Operational Meteorological Satellite No.2 or GOMS No.2, is a Russian geostationary weather satellite which was launched in 2011. The first Elektro-L spacecraft to fly, it beca ...

** Elektro-L No.2 *

- space probe * Granat - satellite *

Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment The Living Interplanetary Flight ExperimentAsian Scientist"Phobos-Grunt Mission Carrying Yinghuo-1 Space Probe Suffers Technical Glitch" Srinivas Laxman, 9 November 2011 (LIFE or Phobos LIFE) was an interplanetary mission developed by the Planetar ...

- space probe *

Luna programme The Luna programme (from the Russian word "Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, ...

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 ...

Luna 10 Luna 10 (or Lunik 10) was a 1966 Soviet lunar robotic spacecraft mission in the Luna program. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon. Luna 10 conducted extensive research in lunar orbit, gathering important data on the strength of ...

Luna 11 Luna 11 (E-6LF series) was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It was also called Lunik 11. Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satelli ...

** Luna 12 **

Luna 13 Luna 13 (E-6M series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program. Overview The Luna 13 spacecraft was launched toward the Moon from an Earth-orbiting platform and accomplished a soft landing on 24 December 1966, in the region of Oceanus P ...

** Luna 14 ** Luna 15 **

Luna 16 ''Luna 16'' was an uncrewed space mission, part of the Soviet Luna program. It was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample of lunar soil to Earth. The 101 grams (3.56 ounces) sample was returned from Mare Fecunditatis. ...

** Luna 17 ** Luna 18 ** Luna 19 **

Luna 20 ''Luna 20'' was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions. Overview ''Luna 20'' was placed ...

** Luna 21 ** Luna 22 ** Luna 23 ** Luna 24 ** Luna 25 ** Luna E-8 No.201 **

Luna E-8-5 No.402 Luna E-8-5 No.402, also known as Luna Ye-8-5 No.402, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1969C, was a Soviet spacecraft under Luna programme which was lost in a launch failure in 1969. It was a Luna E-8-5 spacecraft, the first of at least e ...

** Luna E-8-5 No.405 ** Luna E-8-5M No.412 * Lunokhod programme **

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. The ...

Lunokhod 2 ''Lunokhod 2'' (russian: Луноход-2 ("Moonwalker 2"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 204 ("Device 8EL No. 204")) was the second of two unmanned lunar rovers that landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod pro ...

* Mars program ** Mars 2M No.521 ** Mars 2M No.522 ** Mars 4 ** Mars 5 **

Mars 5M Mars 5M, also known as Mars 79 (russian: Марс-5М, or ) was a cancelled Mars sample return mission that the Soviet Union was planning in the 1970s. History Mars 5M grew out of the Mars 5NM and Mars 4NM missions that were canceled along with ...

Mars 6 Mars 6 (), also known as 3MP No.50P was a Soviet spacecraft launched to explore Mars. A 3MP bus spacecraft launched as part of the Mars program, it consisted of a lander, and a coast stage with instruments to study Mars as it flew past. Spacec ...

** Mars 7 * Mars-96 * Oko - missile early warning satellite. * Spektr-R - space

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

satellite, dedicated to

very Long Baseline Interferometry Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telescopes on Earth or in space. T ...

Spektr-RG Spektr-RG (Russian: Спектр-РГ, ''Spectrum'' + '' Röntgen'' + ''Gamma''; also called Spectrum-X-Gamma, SRG, SXG) is a Russian–German high-energy astrophysics space observatory which was launched on 13 July 2019. It follows on from th ...

- space observatory satellite *

US-K Upravlyaemy Sputnik Kontinentalny (russian: Управляемый Спутник Континентальный meaning ''Continental Controllable Satellite'') or US-K (russian: УС-К) is a series of Russian, previously Soviet, satellites used t ...

- satellite *

US-KMO US-KMO (russian: УС-КМО), an abbreviation for Upravlyaemy Sputnik - Kontinenty Morya Okeany (russian: Управляемый Спутник - Континенты Моря Океаны) meaning ''Controllable Satellite - Continents, Oceans, Se ...

- satellite * US-KS - satellite * Venera program **

Venera 3 Venera 3 (russian: Венера-3 meaning ''Venus 3'') was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on 16 November 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan ...

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 ...

Venera 5 Venera 5 (russian: Венера-5 meaning ''Venus 5'') was a space probe in the Soviet space program ''Venera'' for the exploration of Venus. Venera 5 was launched towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data. The spacecraft was very similar to V ...

Venera 7 Venera 7 (russian: Венера-7, lit=Venus 7) was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface on 15 December 1970, it became the first spacecraft to soft land on another planet an ...

** Venera 8 ** Venera 9 **

Kosmos 167 Kosmos 167 (russian: Космос 167 meaning ''Cosmos 167''), or 4V-1 No.311, was a 1967 Soviet spacecraft intended to explore Venus. A spacecraft launched as part of the Venera programme, Kosmos 167 was intended to land on Venus but never dep ...

Vega 1 Vega 1 (along with its twin Vega 2) was a Soviet space probe, part of the Vega program. The spacecraft was a development of the earlier '' Venera'' craft. They were designed by Babakin Space Centre and constructed as 5VK by Lavochkin at Khim ...

** Vega 2

Future projects

* Luna-Glob * Mars-Grunt - space probe

Designers and engineers

* Georgy Babakin *

Yuri Koptev Yuri Nikolayevich Koptev (russian: Юрий Николаевич Коптев, March 13, 1940, Voroshilovsk) is a former General Director of the Russian Space Agency ( Roscosmos), serving in that role from 1992 to 2004. He was replaced in 2004 b ...

, later director of Roscosmos, worked at Lavochkin from 1965