Scientific level

Although Energiya-Buran was not a scientific program, institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences did considerable R&D in support of the project. Among them were the Institute of Applied Mathematics (IPM) (software development) and the Institute of Applied Mechanics (IPRIM) (research on heat-resistant materials). Many leading figures in the Soviet space industry were members of the Academy, including Valentin Glushko. Presidents of the Academy of Sciences during the Buran years were Mstislav V. Keldysh (1961-1975), Anatoliy P. Aleksandrov (1975-1986), and Guriy I. Marchuk (1986-1991).

Umbrella organizations

With 73 ministries and departments and about 1,200 organizations and enterprises involved in the Energiya-Buran program, there was also a need for several bodies to manage the program beyond institutional borders. The most important of these was the Interdepartmental Coordinating Council (MVKS). Created in July 1976, this was the leading body overseeing the Energiya-Buran program. It included representatives from all the ministries involved in the program as well as the general and chief designers, the heads of the main manufacturing facilities, and several leading scientists. Originally, it was headed by the first deputy head of the Ministry of General Machine Building B. V. Valmont, but from July 1981 on by the MOM minister himself, with the commander of GUKOS serving as his deputy. During its meetings, usually held at the Baykonur cosmodrome, MVKS discussed key technical and organizational aspects of the Energiya-Buran program. Its decisions had the same authority as those made by the Council of Ministers and needed to be implemented immediately, which is why MVKS was sometimes referred to as a “mini Council of Ministers”. The only comparable entity in the Soviet space program until then had been the Council for the Problems of Mastering the Moon (or simply the “Lunar Council”), formed in 1966 to run the N-1/L-3 piloted lunar-landing program, although it is not entirely clear if that had the same powers as MVKS in the Energiya – Buran program.

Also playing an important role in the program was the Interdepartmental Expert Commission (MEK), established in January 1977. Headed by TsNIIMash director Yuriy Mozzhorin, MEK consisted of about 70 leading representatives of the main organizations involved in Energiya-Buran. Its initial task was to review the basic design of the Energiya-Buran system, but it continued to play an important role after the design had been frozen, mainly in safety and quality control. For this purpose working groups were set up by the MEK, which made over 2,000 recommendations to improve the Energiya-Buran system.

Finally, there was the Council of Chief Designers (SGK), a body set up in the late 1940s by Sergey Korolyov that initially consisted of the six chief designers involved in missile programs (Korolyov, Glushko, Barmin, Kuznetsov, Pilyugin, and Ryazanskiy). The Council brought together individuals who were subordinate to different ministries and thereby circumvented the normal chain of command in the industry, facilitating swifter and more efficient work.

While SGK was an influential and rather unorthodox management institution under Korolyov, it gradually evolved into a bureaucratic organization under Mishin and Glushko. The agenda was often set weeks or months in advance without taking into account new developments. Meetings were now also attended by representatives of the Central Committee, the ministries, and the Military Industrial Commission, with the chief designers often electing to send their deputies rather than go them­selves. Decisions by the Council were officially unanimous, but were in actual fact made solely by the chairman, even if there were objections from other members. This changed in 1983, when decisions of the Council had to be endorsed by the signatures of all members. Although this move complicated the conduct of the meetings, it did make the decisions more authoritative. Chaired by Valentin Glushko and later by Yuriy Semyonov, the Council met weekly at NPO Energiya to discuss ongoing technical issues, including those regarding the Energiya-Buran program. Glushko and later Semyonov bore personal responsibility for the implementation of those decisions [1].