Russian Space Industry		Roskosmos Organizations
Alphabetical keyword	Official abbreviation	Full designation
NII - Nauchno Issledovatelskiy Institut		Scientific Research Institute
Chemical Engineering Institute	NII KhIMMASH	Scientific Research Institute for Chemical Engineering
Dollezhal NIKIET	NIKIET / NII-8
Kuznetsov Institute	NII PM	Kuznetsov NII for Applied Mechanics
Keldysh Center	Keldysh Centre	Keldysh Research Centre
Leipunsky IPPE	IPPE	Institute for Physics and Power Engineering imeni Leipunsky
NITs KS	NITs KS	Scientific Research Centre for Space Systems Engineering
Physical Measurements Institute	NIIFI	NII for Physical Measurements
Precision Instruments	NII TP	NII for Precision Instruments
TsNII Kometa	TsNPO	Central Science and Research Institute
TsNIIMash	TsNIIMASH	Central NII for Machine Building
Urals Composite	UNIIKM	Urals NII for Composite Materials
KB - Konstruktorskoe Byuro		Design Bureau
Armatura	KB Armatura	Armatura Design Bureau
Arsenal	Frunze KB Arsenal	Arsenal Frunze Design Bureau
Chemical Automation	KBKhA	Design Bureau for Chemical Automation
Chemical Transport Engineering	KB TKhM	Design Bureau for Chemical Transport Engineering
Fakel	OKB Fakel	Fakel Experimental Design Bureau
Isayev KB	KB KhIMMASH	Isayev Design Bureau for Chemical Engineering
KBOM	KBOM	General Engineering Design Bureau
KBSM	KBSM	Special Engineering Design Bureau
KBTM	KBTM	Transport Engineering Design Bureau
Motor	KB Motor	Motor Design Bureau
Salyut KB	OKB 23
TsKB TM	GP TsKB TM	Central Heavy Engineering Design Bureau (State Enterprise)
TsSKB	TsSKB	Central Specialised Design Bureau
Vympel KB	GNIP OKB Vympel	State Research and Engineering Enterprise
NPO - Nauchno Proizvodstvennoe Obedinenie		Scientific Production Association
Agat	GPO Agat	Agat Organization (State Enterprise)
Electromechanics	NPO Electromechanics	Electromechanical Institute (EMR)
Energomash	NPO Energomash	Glushko NPO for Power Engineering
Khrunichev	Khrunichev Plant	JSC GKNPTS imeni. M.V. Khrunichev
Krasmash	NPO Krasmash	Krasnoyarsk machine-building plant
Lavochkin	NPO Lavochkin	Lavochkin Research and Production Association
Molniya	NPO Molniya	JSC Scientific and Production Association Molniya
NPO AP	NPO AP	NPO for Automation and Instrument Engineering
NPO IT	NPO IT	NPO for Measurement Technology
Progress	Progress	Samara Progress Plant
ISS-Reshetnev	NPO PM	Research and Production Association for Applied Mechanics
Siberian Instruments	PO Siberian Instruments	Siberian Instruments and Systems Production Association
Tekhnomash	GP NPO Tekhnomash	Tekhnomash NPO (State Enterprise)
UKVZ	UKVZ	Kirov Ust-Katav Railway Carriage Plant
VMZ	VMZ	Voronyezh Mechanical Factory

Russia launched a sweeping reform of the space industry in 2013 amid a deep crisis in the sphere. As part of the reform the United Rocket and Space Corporation was set up, which is expected to consolidate all the enterprises of the industry, thus leaving Russia’s space agency Roscosmos in charge of research institutes and ground infrastructure organizations.

MANUFACTURING AND ASSEMBLY CENTERS
FOR SPACECRAFT AND ROCKETS

During the Cold War few details were available on Soviet factories equivalent to those of American industry in which specialized craft were built or where "serial" production is carried on. Occasional American visitors had been allowed to visit aircraft factories, and it was always possible that some space manufacturing is done in closed but adjacent buildings in some of these aviation centers. Occasional photographs had shown assembly lines for Vostok and for Soyuz spacecraft, and the numbers of such craft shown in the pictures strengthened the notion that the same basic shells were used for the large unmanned recoverable Kosmos flights used by the Soviet military to conduct observations of interest. Somewhere there must also be a production line for the smaller Kosmos, because many use the same basic shell, with modifications to fit the particular missions of the craft.

Except for the very largest launch vehicles, presumably almost all components were rail-transportable, especially as the Soviet railway lines have a generous clearance gauges through tunnels and stations. Western observers knew both through Soviet movies and through visits to Tyuratam that launch rockets and payloads were brought together in assembly buildings within a few kilometers of the launch pads, with the mating done horizontally, and then the combined rocket and payload pushed out to the pad atop flat cars and special transporters by diesel locomotives. At the pad, the transporter tilts the rocket up into a vertical position for final checkout and launch.

TEST AND TRAINING CENTERS FOR SPACE

Of necessity the Russians must have test stands for rocket development, and environmental chambers for rockets and payloads. These were not described as to location in the open literature.

Because of the numerous Soviet failures in planetary payloads, they had come to the American practice of having a duplicate payload in an environmental chamber undergoing as nearly as possible the same conditions as the actual spacecraft in flight, so that if problems develop, solutions can be tested with the laboratory "bird." This was first announced as the practice with the Venera 4 flight. (133) Something similar has been hinted at in connection with manned flights in 1974 and 1975.

The principal test and training center for Soviet cosmonauts is at Zvezdnvy Gorodok (Star City) east of Moscow in the suburbs. This has been visited by both the American astronauts and NASA technicians, and also by the Western press.

On July 21, 1980, Tass reported that the Gagarin cosmonaut training center at Star City was 20 years old, pinpointing its establishment at a time just after the first unmanned test of the Vostok spaceship. (134) Facilities at the center were said to include class rooms, laboratories, scale models of spacecraft and orbital stations, a sports training complex, centrifuges, thermal chambers and other equipment to simulate conditions in space. Among the latter was a new pool, 23 meters in diameter and 12 meters deep, containing models of a Soyuz craft and a Salyut station. In this neutral buoyancy facility, cosmonauts, wearing spacesuits, practiced various operations in space, such as extravehicular activity to examine the exterior of their craft.

The official ASTP histories do not add greatly to this description. The Lebedev and Romanov book has a color photograph of the simulation hall in the cosmonaut training center.135 Accounts of visits by American delegations in October 1970 and October 1973, in the Ezell's book, (136) refer to a manned spaceflight museum with a re-construction of Gagarin's office and the memorabilia collected by him on his subsequent world tours. NASA Deputy Administrator, George Low, on his second visit, saw more of Star City and was impressed by the amount of new construction taking place.137 A new four-story training building was being erected especially for ASTP. In addition they were building a new hostel and dispensary for the U.S. team. Star City provides good living accommodations for the cosmonauts and their families, and associated scientists and technicians.

Apparently there were some facilities for training in the Tyuratam area, presumably in or near the new, burgeoning city of Leninsk. The American visitors found the accommodations provided at Leninsk to be equal or superior to those provided at the Kennedy Space Center. The cosmonauts when suited up for flights ride out to the pad in a well-equipped, air-conditioned bus, much in the manner that NASA astronauts were transported.

When the Soyuz 9 cosmonauts returned to Earth, they went to a special isolation center, which was highly reminiscent of the Houston quarantine facility, perhaps as a dry run for similar procedures once Soviet cosmonauts return from the Moon. (138)

The lunar material recovered by Luna 16 on the Moon was also taken to a special isolation laboratory at an unspecified point which employs the same general kind of procedures to preserve freedom from contamination, both in and out, as Houston has supplied for its Lunar Receiving Laboratory. (139)

All in all, one was struck with the close parallels between the United States and Soviet programs in terms of procedures and equipment, but also with the paucity of definitive Soviet information in the public domain on any of these matters aside from the few facilities which have been occasionally opened to visitors.

SPACE RESEARCH CENTERS

During the Cold War, reliable information about Soviet space research centers was limited. There were a few which had come to public attention. For example, the engine development work of the Leningrad Gas Dynamics Laboratory had been revealed through research publications of a theoretical nature, and early experimental engines as well as a few operational engines had been put on display and described as developed there. There is even a museum in Leningrad where it is possible to see these products.

The large body of published literature in various fields of space sciences revealed researchers in many scientific institutes pursue studies of geophysics, the upper atmosphere, radiation, space medicine, the planets, the Sun, and so forth. But it was not possible from these papers to build a definitive list of titles and locations of space laboratories and centers. It was assumed that some were in the new science cities which have been created in several parts of the Soviet Union.

A fairly detailed description of one major institute was provided during 1971. The Moscow Space Research Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences consists of administrative buildings, parking lots, and laboratories in the central area, with experimental and storage areas at the back. The administrative building has 3 stories, underground parking, a library, conference and reception rooms, and an auditorium seating 1,200 persons. The laboratories were in a 13-story building with 2-story annexes. There were special air-conditioning units in towers nearby. All told, there were 41,000 square meters of floor space, including 33,000 square meters in laboratories; and the building volume is 599,870 cubic meters, including 534,700 cubic meters in laboratories. (131)

It has been reported that a branch of the Space Research Institute was established at Tarusa in Kaluga Oblast. (132) Foundations for a new building, to be constructed by Yugoslav specialists, had been laid. A new satellite communication center had already begun operation and there were plans to carry out extensive research during the 1980's into astrophysics and studies of the solar system.

References:

A. SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS: 1976-80, SUPPORTING VEHICLES AND LAUNCH VEHICLES, POLITICAL GOALS AND PURPOSES, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN SPACE, ADMINISTRATION, RE-SOURCE BURDEN, FUTURE OUTLOOK PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF HON. BOB PACKWOOD, Chairman, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, UNITED STATES SENATE, Part 1, Dec. 1982.

131. Stroitelstvo i Arkhitektura, Moskvy, Moscow, Nov. 1, 1971, pp. 26-29.

132. Moscow Home Service, 1630 GMT, May 23, 1981.

133. Tass 0800 GMT, Oct. 19, 1967, quoting Komsomolskaya Pravda, Moscow.

134. Tass in English, 2005 GMT, July 21, 1980.

135. Ibid., pp. 46-47.

136. Ibid., p. 110.

137. Ibid., p. 2233.

138. Tass, 1704 GMT, June 20, 1970.

139. Tass, 1077 GMT, Sept. 26, 1970.