by Alexander MOROZENKO, head of the Korolyov town administration, and Valery SHUTOV, deputy head of the town administration

The town of Korolyov (or Kaliningrad before 1996) lies a mere four miles northeast of Moscow, just beyond the Ring Road marking our capital's boundary. The town has arisen through a merger of three major communities-Podlipki, Kostino and Bolshevo- with surrounding villages whose history dates back to the sixteenth century. The first industrial enterprise in the locality was built in 1715. That was Timmerman's canvas- and sail-cloth factory (The Bolshevo Textiles Co. of today); thereupon many other enterprises-textile and spinning mills as well as dye works-came into being. The district moved into an industrial era. Already at the turn of the century silk fabrics of the mill owned by the Sapozhnikov brothers were known far and wide both in Russia and elsewhere (this textile mill is still onstream today), and won many top prizes at national and international fairs. Bolshevo fabrics were used for the furnishing of palatial chambers and as attire for church hierarchs. The Korolyov of today is a vibrant industrial and cultural city with a population of more than 160,000.

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But what has made Korolyov famous is this: for many years it has been the humming center of Soviet and Russian cosmonautics. It is the site of 16 large enterprises, half of them space-oriented. Prominent scientists and designers are among those who have blazed its way to stardom. Hundreds of Doctors and about a thousand Candidates of Sciences have thrown in their lot with Korolyov. This town is one of the nation's leaders in the level of education: as much as 67 percent of its residents are people with university or college degrees. Today Korolyov is among our best science cities.

Now, a glimpse into the past. At the height of the First World War a British company built an assembly plant at what is now Korolyov to supply the Russian Army with self-propelled vehicles. In 1918 it shifted to the production of artillery guns, and from 1928 on it became this country's leading enterprise manufacturing antitank, tank and ack-ack guns. In 1929 one of its workshops was converted to a laboratory for developing multiple rocket launchers; a few years after, in 1932, it was reorganized into a design office.

Then came the Second World War. In the fall of 1941, as the Nazi troops stood at Moscow's doorstep, the plant was evacuated to the hinterland in the east. In December 1942, after the Nazis had been routed at Moscow, ground was broken for a new enterprise (No. 88) on the same site for manufacturing 25mm ack-ack guns. The Central Design Office (CDO) opened there developed a BS-3 antitank cannon (dubbed Zveroboi, or "Hunter") with unique armor-piercing characteristics. Its shells pierced the armor plating of the Tiger and Elefant panzers. And with war's end, on 13 May 1946, the Soviet government passed a decision whereby the then town of Kaliningrad was to become a center ofaerospace technology. We had to begin from scratch by setting up a string of design and R&D institutions.

The first in that string was the Research Institute known as N11-88; established on the basis of Plant No. 88 and CDO, it tackled the designing of liquid-propellant rockets of various designation. The N11-88 research center comprised a Special-Purpose Design

Office (SDO), laboratories, pilot production plant and testing stations. The first director of N11-88 was Major-General Lev Gonor (of the Corps of Engineers) who had been heading this country's major artillery plants before, and the chief engineer was Yuri Pobedonostsev, one of the pioneers of Soviet rocketry and one of the makers of the famous Katyusha multiple rocket launchers (rocket barrage weapons).

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The first "article" designed and built at N11-88 was a long-range ballistic missile modeled after the German rocket A-4 (better known as V-2, or Vergeltungswaffe-2). Next, a new rocket, R-l, was in for flight testing, in 1948. And about five years later, in March 1953, tests were completed of the first Soviet nuclear-capable rocket, R-5.

The NII-88-designed flying vehicles soon found non-defense applications as well, e.g. in studying the upper layers of the atmosphere, for they could take a kit of research instruments to an altitude of 100 km and higher, and bring it back to earth. And yet the best-known Soviet rocket designed by Sergei Korolyov was the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-5 adopted in 1957. And on the fourth of October, 1957, this rocket carried aloft the world's first artificial satellite of the earth, the sputnik. The R-7 rocket and its modifications were used as boosters in subsequent space launchings as well, e.g. in our lunar and interplanetary programs. They spent space vehicles for taking the first ever pictures of the back side of the moon; they carried into orbit the spacecraft Vostok with Yuri Gagarin on board; they insured the realization of our piloted spacecraft program that culminated in man's first walk in raw space early in 1965. Besides, these rockets were used for launching intercom satellites of the Molniya type (now part and parcel of TV and communication networks) and for many other purposes as well. Overall, R-7 rockets have launched more than two thousand different space vehicles.

Rocket engineering was developing apace to become an advanced industry. Simultaneously, N11-88 and its divisions were reorganized into independent enterprises: Design Office Department-1 (0KB-1), Design Office (KB) of Chemical Engineering, R&D Association (NPO) of Measuring Technology, R&D Association (NPO) COMPOSITE; and the N11-88 center was transformed into a Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIIMASh).

Set up in 1946, the 0KB-1 Design Office developed then into a major R&D association. Today this is the Aerospace Corporation ENERGIYA ("Energy") named after Sergei Korolyov with a large staff of scientists and engineers, among them two Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), 35 Doctors and 289 Candidates of Sciences. This R&D Center has designed and built models of our aerospace hardware, from the first Soviet sputnik all the way through to the shuttle type system ENERGIYA-BURAN. Today the Aerospace

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Corporation is involved with the implementation of a domestic program for manned space flights and with keeping the orbital station Mir in operational trim; unfortunately, in August 1999 it was deactivated. The ENERGIYA Corporation is the chief developer of the Russian part of the program for the use of this space station, and it is making most elements for it.

In fact, in its configuration the orbital station Mir is a forerunner of piloted orbital complexes of the twenty-first century. Another important line of ENERGIYA's activities is to ensure the operation of the SEA START floating cosmodrome.

The SEA START program launched back in 1998 ushers in an utterly new stage in the development of Russia's cosmonautics. In June 1999 we orbitted a space vehicle right from the water surface, or rather, from a giant floating platform used as a launch pad, 137 m long and 80 m wide, and with a displacement of 27,000 tons. The control center was aboard a 203 m-long ship. Such a space-launch complex makes it possible to fire rockets from the equatorial belt, which is the most advantageous region energetically. Four countries-Russia, the United States, Norway and Ukraine-have joined hands in carrying on the SEA START project; all this work is coordinated by Boeing of the United States. This aerospace company is building the base port for the floating cosmodrome. Russia is represented by five organizations, two of them from Korolyov. The ENERGIYA corporation is taking care of a rocket's final stage

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(stuffed with sophisticated electronic equipment), and of a carrier block putting space modules into orbit. In addition, the corporation has developed a complex of computer- aided systems of launch and flight control. And last, ENERGIYA is responsible for rocket hardware at large. The Norwegian company KVARNER is handling the marine part of the project-it had built an assembly-and-control ship that will carry a hangar shop where rockets will be assembled, and a launch control station. The giant catamaran (a vessel with two interconnected hulls) Odysseus is used as the base for the floating platform. The Ukrainian design office YUZH-NOYE of Dnepropetrovsk has built the two-stage booster rocket Zenith possessing high-energy characteristics and using ecologically safe fuel. It is planned to make sea launchings regular and bring their number to six a year.

Another essential sideline of ENERGIYAs activity will be the building of a new family of Yamal spacecraft, jointly with US partners.

The R&D Corporation ENERGIYA has been the workplace of a galaxy of designers, Sergei Korolyov's associates: Academicians Valentin Glushko, Vassily Mishin, Konstantin Bushuyev, Mikhail Yangel and other rocket demons. Still active is Boris Chertok, Corresponding Member of RAS and Sergei Korolyov's colleague. Today ENERGIYA is headed by RAS Corresponding Member Yuri Semyonov who also doubles as the General Designer.

This big-name company is actively cooperating with its partners at home and abroad in various commercial ventures over and above space-related technology; these are consumer goods, machines and units for the agroindus-trial and fuel-energy complexes. Medicine is another important spin-off: to people with locomotor problems ENERGIYA offers prosthetic modules for the upper and lower limbs; these appliances are on a par with the best foreign-made analogs-some of them have merited medals at international exhibits of innovations and inventions in Brussels and Geneva. The high reliability of Korolyov-made prosthetic appliances has been checked and double-checked in laboratory and shopfloor conditions. The Korolyov College of Space Engineering and Technologies has opened an Orthopaedic Department for hands-on training in related fields. The full-scale production of prosthetic appliances with the use of high-precision equipment (launched in 1994) allows to turn out up to 40,000 sets a year. The ENERGIYA Corporation also manufactures sophisticated household appliances like kitchen processors, vacuum cleaners, water biofilters and so on down the line. All these items are high in demand.

The Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIIMASh) has taken part in making the R-7 intercontinental missile and its modifications that carried aloft the first sputniks, the Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz spacecraft as well as the lunar and interplanetary probes. Its staff includes two RAS members, 63 Doctors and 478 Candidates of Sciences.

The TsNIIMASh center looks into the future of aerospace technology and maps out federal space exploration programs; theoretical and experimental research in the field of aerohydrodynamics, thermal physics, celestial mechanics, astrophysics and strength of materials-these are but some of its research areas. Working within the framework of the defense industry conversion program, TsNIIMASh has launched the production of satellite television aerials, telemetry equipment, mobile X-ray units and so forth.

The Korolyov-based Flight Control Center (TsUP) that monitors the flight of our spacecraft enjoys world fame. In 1975 TsUP controlled the US-Soviet SOYUZ- APOLLO project when two spaceships, the Soviet Soyuz and the American Apollo, docked in orbit. That was the first US-Soviet joint venture in outer space. The TsUP controlled the MI R-SHUTTLE mission in 1995, the space flights within the INTERCOSMOS international programs (since 1969), the flights of the Vega (1986) and Phobos (1988) probes, and other space vehicles. Particular precision was required in computing the trajectory of the Vega (a probe sent toward Halley's comet) and Phobos (a probe sent toward Mars). TsUP coped fine with this difficult job. The Flight Control Center fulfills most of its projects now jointly with international aerospace agencies (European Space Agency, NASA of the United States, the National Center of Space Exploration in France, etc.). It has been monitoring the orbital complex MIR, and the international space station orbitted in 1998 and composed of two modules-Zarya (Russia) and Unity (USA). TsUP is supervising the SEA START project as well.

For many years the TsNIIMASh center had been superintended by Professor Yuri Mozzhorin; its present head Academician Vladimir Utkin, was the chief designer of the Zenith carrier rocket. Their names are well known in this country and abroad...

Back in 1949 N11-88 gave rise to an independent institution involved in liquid- propellant rocket engines. Later it got an official name to its logo-the Design Office of Chemical Machine-Building (KBKhM). In 1972 KBKhM was named after Alexei Isayev, a designer who had been working together with Sergei Korolyov. Among its research staff are two Doctors and 13 Candidates of Sciences. All in all, this design office has developed over 120 liquid-propellant rocket engines and power units. At present KBKhM is participating in a major Russo- Italian

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project to make a cryogenic propellant booster, and is carrying out works for the international orbital station. In keeping with the conversion program, KBKhM is developing medical hardware (Dikkul's trainers), units for the pumping of solutions of any density, heaters for individual and group users, and units for the thermal treatment of meat products.

The year 1966 saw the birth of yet another research center at Korolyov, the Research Institute of Measuring Technology (NIIIT), that split off from the Telemetry Department of N11-88 (founded by Dr. Ivan Utkin). The NIIIT of today is a large R&D association with four Doctors and 42 Candidates of Sciences serving on its staff. Its research covers various telemetric and measuring systems as well as the data processing and organization. Geared to the conversion program, this research center has developed a variety of things, such as a mobile laboratory for Moscow traffic police, a multichannel helicopter-borne optical-electronic communication complex, traffic-monitoring systems-all that for the road inspection and traffic police. Also: the onboard telemetric system PYRITE, the multiplex system of temperature measurement SIGNAL, compact thermometers...

In 1975 Georgi Konradi founded a materials science research institute that five years later, in 1980, expanded into a research-and-production association dubbed COMPOSITE. This is the youngest aerospace enterprise in Korolyov, with 10 Doctors and 69 Candidates of Sciences among its staff. COMPOSITE focuses on innovative materials and techniques, and relies on a sound R&D base that enables it to innovate in such fields as extra-hard and corrosion-proof steels, heat-resistant materials with preassigned properties, metal composites and specialties of fiber, laminated or combination structures; also, in clad metals coated

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with beryllium-containing alloys or those with granulated powders; in carbon-carbon and carbon-ceramic composites widely used in the aerospace industry and in the national economy at large, specifically, in medicine, utilities, power industry and nature management. COMPOSITE is also producing sealants, packings, lubricants, glues, dyes and varnishes. Within the conversion program, the association is all set to make roofing materials, water taps with mixers and ceramic seals, and other items. It has launched full-scale production of reinforced glass plastic doors and windows, glass-reinforced plastic sections for load-carrying structures, and glass-reinforced pipes for hot and cold water supply... This overlong list could be continued without end. Suffice it we add carbon-carbon membrane filters for the food industry. The COMPOSITE R&D Association is running a test center and a department whose job is to issue quality certificates for various materials.

So much for the COMPOSITE R&D Association. At this point it would be appropriate to name another Korolyov-based enterprise whose history dates from the wartime year of 1942. That year the workshops of a labor commune at Kostino (now part of Korolyov) were converted to a machine engineering enterprise, STRELA ("Arrow"). For quite some time it was catering to aircraft manufacturers by supplying instruments, bomb shackle locks, pilot harnesses... The further complexification of aerospace technology made it necessary for this enterprise to streamline its production. In 1966 an independent design office, ZVEZDA, was established; later on, in 1994, STRELA and ZVEZDA merged into a joint enterprise, the state R&D center ZVEZDA/STRELA, specializing in the development of missilery for

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the Air Force, Navy and the Army. Along the nondefense line, this amalgamation is designing and manufacturing electric bicycles, exhaust gas neutralizers for cars, high- safety mortise and hasp locks for doors, badminton rackets, collapsable spades for hikers, and many other consumer items.

Yet another nameworthy enterprise is what used to be the textile mill owned by the Sapozhnikov brothers. Despite its longish name-PEREDOVAYA TEKSTIL- SHCHITSA, which means "forward woman textile-worker"-it is doing a good job by turning out a long list of fabrics used in the manufacture of rubber and artificial leather goods; also, it manufactures filter cloths for the aluminum and glasswork industry; parachute fabrics and, last, self-defense devices.

Quite nearby, at Bolshevo, is the site of an enterprise founded in the initial post-war years, i.e. in the late 1940s. It used to manufacture equipment for the dairy industry. Then, in 1996, this mill expanded into a joint Russian-Swedish venture, ALPHA LAVAL POTOK. Today it is the leading producer of food industry equipment. Its plate-type heat exchangers are among the world's best.

Each city has distinctive features and hallmarks of its own. So does our Korolyov, the capital of Russian cosmonautics and Russia's pride. Space knows no boundaries, and thus the town is open for broad international cooperation. In June 1997 it joined the international alliance of science cities, SESAME (uniting medium-sized cities of fifteen countries, among them the United States, Tunisia and all industrial countries of Western Europe) whose priority areas include culture and education,

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the public utilities, economics, financial and investment policies.

Korolyov is also a member of the Union of Russia's Science Cities set up to promote local self-government in communities known for a high concentration of intellectual and scientific-technical resources. The aim is to ensure their further sustainable development. Our Korolyov is a nation's leader in this field too: the top-notch personnel of its aerospace complex has done a good deal toward a market infrastructure for small and medium-sized science-intensive businesses. The city is expanding the network of its banks, and its consumer market is growing apace.

By now more than 300 small R&D businesses have been registered at Korolyov, and some of them have already earned a name for themselves, such as the limited-liability company Applied Science Products Ltd., the municipal R&D association PROGRESS, the private stock company INCAR.

The Applied Science Products Ltd. was founded in 1992. It unites experts competent in space power engineering, electric rocket engines and fundamental problems of space exploration. It has carried out research and development projects in space studies, nuclear engineering and other areas; in particular, it has made a comparative study of the efficiency of electric rocket transport vehicles in near space over conventional vehicles. Working within the framework of a state-sponsored program for astronomy and basic space research, this company has made a ballistic study of space hardware-to-be with the aim of exploring the surface rock of asteroids, and subsequent extraction of useful minerals and their delivery to earth.(*)

The PROGRESS Municipal R&D Association was set up in June 1996 to coordinate scientific and technological policy in streamlining the town's infrastructure and introducing innovative

* See: "For Helium on to Asteroids" in the present issue of our magazine. - Ed.

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technologies. Today this is a head enterprise geared to Korolyov's urban resource- saving program meant in particular to develop a computer-aided system of power and water supply in the public utilities. The Municipal R&D Association designs and installs monitoring devices keeping a tab on water and power consumption. The new system has proved its good efficiency: a comparative study for 1997 to 1999 shows that one rouble invested into the gadgets paid off 2.3 roubles in the net economy of budget funds. The PROGRESS Association is actively cooperating with other organizations and projects: it is affiliated with the association RUSSIAN DEMONSTRATION ZONES OF HIGH POWER EFFICIENCY, participates in the project launched by the UN Economic Commission for Europe- ENERGY EFFICIENCY 2000. This project is part of the federal energy-saving programs for industry and farming, and of the program for reforming Russia's housing and public utilities.

The INCAR Company (which is a private stock company) was founded in 1996. It caters to disabled persons and supplies them with sundry vehicles, such as wheelchairs for children and adults, including special wheel-chairs for cerebral paralysis victims. Among its latest products is a high-power propulsion capacitor and a motor wheel. This technology has been materialized in a motor-operated wheelchair (autonomous drive), an electric dolly-and-trailer for hauling heavy loads, and an electric drive for bicycles. The INCAR line of vehicles also includes an electric motor car for entertainment and pleasure activities in parks and playgrounds.

In compliance with a decree signed by President of the Russian Federation of 7 November 1997 (On Steps Toward the Development of Science Cities as the Towns of Science and High Technologies) and a RF government decision (On Steps Toward the Development of Municipalities with Urban R&D Complexes [Science Cities]), in June 1999 the Coordinating Scientific-and-Technical Council of the town administration endorsed a master plan for Korolyov's development as a science city in a period up to the year 2005. This plan incorporates over a hundred investment projects for science-intensive production and its practical uses in medicine, the fuel- energy and agroindustrial complexes, in the housing and public utilities, in transportation, communications, ecoactivities, civil engineering and in other branches of the national economy. A special plank provides for new job openings and the vocational training of young people in top skills.

The Russian aerospace complex is living through hard times. All that notwithstanding, Korolyov is developing apace as a surging, go-ahead town. Its main thoroughfare is symbolic for the names that grace it: starting out from the Tsiolkovsky Street, this avenue continues along the Korolyov Prospekt and, crossing the Isayev Street, passes into the Cosmonauts Prospekt. Entering the third millennium, our people are confident about a good future for their town.

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