NPO MOLNIYA Research and Industrial Corporation was founded to create the first Russian manned reusable spacecraft in 1976. While the space transportation increased the development of such space vehicles that could considerably reduce the cost of space launch became of great necessity. The time when any price for a payload delivery to an orbit was paid was over, specialists in rocket production throughout the world began to count money and their customers could not reconcile that super expensive electronic systems and rocket engines were annihilated in result of the only launch. The development of reusable systems to put into an orbit was a logical step of technical engineering progress and in the seventies the USA and the USSR got down to development of the Multiused Space transportation systems. In the USA it was called space Shuttle system. In Russia it was called Energia-Buran system with space aerplane BURAN orbiter.

The head of a new firm G. E Lozino-Lozinsky earlier worked at SPIRAL reusable aerospace system which dates back to the sixties.

NPO MOLNIYA was founded on the basis of two design bureaus: BUREVESTNIK (Chief Designer A. V. Potopalov) that had experience in the creation of heavy supersonic aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles and MOLNIYA (Chief Designer M. R. Bisnovat) which developed unmanned flight vehicles and an Experimental Machine-Building Plant (General Designer V. M. Myasischev) where heavy and high altitude aircraft were designed and tested. The main team for the BURAN orbiter designing came together with G. E. Lozino-Lozinsky from the design bureau ZENIT headed by A. I. Mikoyan and more than a hundred engineers from RADUGA (Dubna), those who had been working on the SPIRAL project there. Specialists from SALUT ENERGIYA, TSNIIMASH and other rocket and aviation firms have been invited. The high standards of knowledge and intelligence of its staff is proved by the fact that more than 50 doctors and candidates of science worked there.

 

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Molniya Triplane Aircraft	Spiral Project	Bor Experimental Space Vehicles	Buran Orbiter
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