NPO-Lavochkin

The Scientific Production Organization NPO-Lavochkin was originally founded in 1937 as the Lavochkin Aircraft Design Bureau, OKB-301, named for its Chief Designer. Lavochkin produced a number distinguished fighter aircraft during WW-11

and then surface-to-air missile designs after the war, producing the first operational system for the defense of Moscow. In 1953 the SAM business was transferred to a new design bureau and OKB-301 pursued ramjet intercontinental cruise missiles as a hedge against problems with ICBM development. But the successful introduction of ICBMs in the late 1950s left OKB-301 without work. Semyon Lavochkin died in 1960 and the organization transferred in 1962 to Chelonrey’s OKB-52. The factory was closed, but reopened in 1965 as NPO-Lavochkin under the steady and capable leadership of Georgi Nikolayevich Babakin specifically to take responsibility for the robotic lunar and planetary spacecraft programs transferred from OKB-1.

The new NPO-Lavochkin realized immediate success using its inheritance from OKB-1 augmented by a history of great skill and experience in aviation technology. Luna 9 soft landed on the Moon’s surface in January 1966, and before the year was over there were three successful lunar orbiters and a second soft lander. The first successful Venus entry probe, Venera 4, followed in 1967. NPO-Lavochkin went on to continue this highly successful series of spacecraft at Venus, a successful series of lunar orbiters, rovers and sample return missions, and the singularly complex and successful Vega missions which delivered landers and balloons to Venus enroute to a flyby of Halley’s comet. LTnfortunately, NPO-Lavochkin had no success at Mars: their campaigns in 1969, 1971, and 1973 were riddled with failures, and worse was to come in 1988 and 1996. Their astronomy missions have met with better success, in particular the Granat and Astron space observatories. Today NPO-Lavochkin is the single engineering center for the production of robotic scientific spacecraft.