RESHETNEV celebrates the centenary of its founder’s birth

“Academician M. F. Reshetnev” Information Satellite Systems” bears the name of its founder and first director, Mikhail Fyodorovich Reshetnev, Prof. Dr.-Ing. – member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recipient of multiple state prizes, mentee and associate of Russia’s rocket science trailblazer S. P. Korolyov.

In 1950, Reshetnev graduated with honors from Moscow Aviation Institute and was appointed to Sergey Korolyov’s department as an engineer, making Deputy Chief Designer just eight years later, in 1958.

In 1959, he accepted Korolyov’s offer to move from Moscow to Siberia and head the Special Design Bureau №1 Branch there. Reshetnev’s team proved capable of achieving ground-breaking results in the rocket engineering field. He headed the Siberian enterprise for 37 years, during which over a thousand various spacecraft were built, as well as KOSMOS-3 and KOSMOS 3M carrier rockets.

Reshetnev was certain early on, that satellite systems would be the future of space technology. After launching the STRELA type communication satellites in 1964, he pushed for the development of more complex and efficient spacecraft, such as MOLNIYA in 1967, followed by an ever evolving fleet of navigation, geodetic, data relay, and search and rescue spacecraft.

Mikhail Reshetnev is also renowned for his scientific and teaching work. Since the late 1960s, he has lectured at the university that now bears his name, Reshetnev Siberian State University of Science and Technology. In 1989, he established and headed the University’s Spacecraft and Upper Stages Department.

His life’s achievements are witnessed by over 200 scientific works and 40 inventions.

Vita

• Mikhail Fyodorovich Reshetnev (November 10, 1924 – January 26, 1996)
• Born in the village of Barmashevo, Snegiryevo District, Odessa Region. Graduated from school in Dnepropetrovsk, student of the Moscow Aviation Institute since 1940.
• WWII participant, drafted into the Red Army in 1942. Graduated from the Serpukhov Military Aviation School of Mechanics in 1943, after which he was engaged in repair and preparation of combat aircraft for sorties.
• Honors graduate of Moscow Aviation Institute (1950). Doctor of Engineering Sciences (1967). Professor (1975). Corresponding Member and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1976 and 1984, respectively).

Awards

• Order of Badge of Honor (1956)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1961)
• Order of Lenin (1966, 1971, 1974)
• Hero of Socialist Labour (1974)
• Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1980)
• Laureate of the State Prize of Russian Federation (1996)
• Order of Merit Third Class (1994)