Viktor Pavlovich Legostaev

 

 

Scientist, designer of rocket and space hardware
Full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Doctor of Science, Engineering, professor
Honored Worker of Science of the Russian Federation
Winner of Lenin and State Prizes of USSR and Russian Federation, Russian Federation Government Prize winner

Born on June 6, 1931 in Moscow (Russia). Graduated from Moscow Higher Technical School after N.E. Bauman in 1955. Candidate of Science (1959), Doctor of Sciences (1987), Professor (1991), Honoured Scientist of the Russian Federation (1996), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1997), member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2003).

From 1955 to 1960 Legostaev worked at NII-1 (now it is FSUE M.V. Keldysh Research Center), was engaged in the problem related to the flight stability of cruise missiles with regard to their structural flexibility. At the same time V.P. Legostaev in the team headed by B.V. Raushenbah (later on Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR) was involved in spacecraft (SC) control theory. With his participation the first in the country SC active attitude control system was developed, namely Luna-3 interplanetary attitude control system and Vostok manned spacecraft attitude control system.

In 1960 V.P. Legostaev as a member of the group of specialists was transferred to OKB-1 (now it is S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia) and till 1989 he working first as Head of sector and later on as Head of the Complex took a direct part in pre-launch processing and launch of the Vostok spacecraft with one person onboard. With his creative participation SC orientation and motion control systems were developed and constructed, among them there are automatic interplanetary stations Mars, Venera, automatic vehicles Zenit, Molnya, manned spacecraft Vostok, Voskhod, Soyuz, orbital stations Salyut, Mir, etc.

He solved the most difficult scientific and technical problems arising for the first time in world practice in the course of development of SC control and navigation systems, among which: development of scientific foundations of the design theory of SC control systems, construction of structures and dynamics analysis of SC automatic orientation systems and manual control systems of manned spacecraft; analysis and synthesis of automatic and manual rendezvous and berthing systems of spacecraft; dynamics research and formation of control laws of space complexes with stabilization systems, namely control momentum gyros; stability analysis of large elastic structure motion in gravity force field, as applied to multimodular orbital complexes, etc.

Under his direction and with his direct participation the systems which were given priority in world practice were developed, among them: the automatic control system of rendezvous and berthing (in AES orbit) of spacecraft with orbital stations Salyut, Mir; the Soyuz-19 manned spacecraft control system for the Soviet-American Program Soyuz-Apollo; the complex multifunctional adaptable and practically non-expendable control system of constantly outfitted orbital manned Complex Mir which is constantly outfitted and provides reliable control of its orientation within 15 years.

From 1989 to 2014 V.P. Legostaev as Vice-President, First Deputy General Designer headed work under the International Space Projects (The International Space Station and the Sea-Based Rocket and Space Complex Sea Launch), as well as supervises the development of telecommunication satellites and remote sensing satellites, organization of research from board the manned complexes.

Viktor Pavlovish - Academician of the International Astronautics Academy; International Academy of Informatization, Russian Academy of Cosmonautics after K.E. Tsiolkovsky, Russian Academy of Navigation Sciences, author and co-author of more than 250 scientific works and inventions, for many years carried on fruitful pedagogical work at Moscow Physicotechnical Institute. He was the Head of the Chair of SC control systems. V.P. Legostaev is Lenin Prize winner (1966), USSR and Russian Federation State Prize winner (1989) and (1999), Russian Federation Government Prizes winner (2004, 2010), decorated with Lenin order (1976) and Labour Red Banner order (1961), awarded Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences after B.N. Petrov.