| Ministry of General Machine-Building | |
| Seal: | State Emblem of the Soviet Union.svg |
| Seal Size: | 120px |
| Picture Caption: | Buran at the 1989 Paris Air Show |
| Preceding1: | State Committee on Defense Technology |
| Superseding1: | Russian Space Agency |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Minister of General Machine-Building |
| Jurisdiction: | Soviet Union |
| Employees: | 1,000,000–1,500,000 |
| Parent Agency: | Military-Industrial Commission |
| Child1 Agency: | OKB-1 |
| Child2 Agency: | Glavkosmos |
| Child3 Agency: | Research Institute of Machine-Building Technology |
The Ministry of General Machine-Building (Russian: Министерство общего машиностроения СССР; MOM), also known as Minobshchemash, was a government ministry of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1957 and from 1965 to 1991. The ministry supervised the research, development, and production of ballistic missiles as well as launch vehicles and satellites in the Soviet space program.
The first Soviet organization dedicated to rocket technology was the Gas Dynamics Laboratory, founded in 1921 by Nikolai Tikhomirov. The laboratory researched and developed solid-propellant rockets, which became the prototypes of missiles in the Katyusha rocket launcher, as well as liquid-propellant rockets, which became the prototypes of Soviet rockets and spacecraft.[1] An organization with a similar purpose, the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion, was founded in 1931.[2] The two groups merged in 1933 to form the Reactive Scientific Research Institute,[3] the responsibility of which was transferred to the People’s Commissariat of Aviation Industry in 1944.
The first rendition of the Ministry of General Machine-Building was created by a decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on 2 April 1955,[4] [5] with the active participation of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.[6] [7] The ministry was the first in the Soviet Union to specifically focus on rocketry. Major General of the Engineering and Artillery Service, who had held the post of Minister of Agricultural Engineering from June 1946 to March 1951, was appointed Minister of General Machine-Building.[8] [9] [10] Design bureaus such as OKB-1 were subordinated to the ministry.[11] The ministry was dissolved on 10 May 1957 and its functions were transferred, possibly for purposes of secrecy.[12]
The Ministry of General Machine-Building was reestablished on 2 March 1965, as a successor to the State Committee on Defense Technology.[13] was made Deputy Minister[14] while Vladimir Chelomey was the general designer of rocket technology.[15] The ministry was put in charge of space technology as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles, except solid-fueled missiles; these instead were developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, which from 1966 was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense Industry.[16] Transferred to the new ministry were factories from the defense, aviation, radio engineering, and shipbuilding industries, alongside leading design bureaus and research institutes such as the Research Institute of Machine-Building Technology (known as NITI-40 until 1966).[17] Many of these were headed by academicians such as Sergei Korolev, Mikhail Yangel, Valentin Glushko, Nikolay Pilyugin, Vladimir Barmin,, Viktor Makeev, and Viktor Litvinov. The ministry reported to the Military-Industrial Commission, which coordinated its activity with eight other military-industrial ministries.[18] The R-12 Dvina missile was produced simultaneously at four enterprises within the ministry.[19] In 1977, the ministry received its own trade union.[20]
In April 1970, Minister of General Machine-Building Sergey Afanasyev sent a memo to the chairperson of the Military-Industrial Commission, recommending negotiations with NASA. These negotiations were approved the next month and eventually led to the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz mission.[21] Work on the GLONASS system began at the ministry in 1976.[22] [23] The ministry contributed to the construction of the RT-2PM Topol missile system, which began deployment in 1985.[24] [25] The began deployment in October 1987; its development had started in January 1969 with an order from Afanasyev.[26]
On 26 February 1985, the Ministry of General Machine-Building issued an order that formed Glavkosmos.[27] [28] The subsidiary was originally envisioned as an executive agency to command all Soviet space activities, but in practice it functioned more as a marketing and coordinating body.[29] Glavkosmos became the prime authority for implementing cooperative agreements with foreign bodies, with activities including commercial utilization of Soviet systems and approving foreign cosmonauts to fly aboard Soviet spacecraft.[30]
During the perestroika reform movement of the late 1980s, Glavkosmos began offering commercial services for global customers, aiming primarily at competing with United States launchers. Its first commercial offering was presented at the Space Commerce '88 trade show in Montreux, Switzerland. Most notably, it featured the sales of the following launchers: Energia, with a payload of up to 100 tons to Low Earth orbit; Proton with a payload of up to 20 tons to Low Earth orbit or 2 tons to geostationary orbit for between US$25 million and US$30 million; Tsyklon-3 for payloads of up to 4 tons to Low Earth orbit; a family of Soyuz rockets in configurations for Low Earth, geostationary transfer, and Molniya orbits; and the Vostok launchers for between US$12 million and US$18 million. Glavkosmos also featured Kosmos rockets with the successfully completed launches of Indian Aryabhata and Bhaskara satellites. Other offerings included the sales of Okean-O1 satellites or the use of space on the Foton satellites and Mir space station. During the conference several contracts were signed, including down payments for three satellite launches for undisclosed customers, an option for a launch of the Aussat-2 on Proton, a contract with Payload Systems Inc. for experiments in protein crystallization on Mir and Kayser-Threde for microgravity experiments on the Foton satellites in 1989, 1990, and 1991.[31]
The Buran program to develop reusable spacecraft was managed jointly by the Ministry of General Machine-Building and Ministry of Aviation Industry. Despite various disputes about the program between the two ministries, Buran, the first spacecraft to be produced as part of the program, successfully completed the sole flight of the program in November 1988.[32] [33]
The final project of the ministry before its liquidation was a 1991 US$120 million agreement between Glavkosmos and ISRO, which included the transfer of two KVD-1 engines for use as the third stage of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle as well as design details such that the KVD-1 could be built indigenously in India.[34] [35] Russia backed out of the agreement in 1993 after the United States objected to the deal and imposed sanctions on the grounds that the deal was a violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime, forcing ISRO to sign a more limited agreement with Russia and initiate a project to develop its own cryogenic engine.[36] [37]
Many subsidiaries of the Ministry of General Machine-Building served as primary organizations in the management of the Soviet space program; the ministry controlled roughly 1200 factories and employed between 1 million and 1.5 million people at its peak.[38] [39] However, contrary to its American, European, and Chinese competitors, which had their programs run under single coordinating agencies, the executive architecture of the Soviet space program was multi-centered; several internally competing design bureaus, technical councils, ministry staffs, and expert commissions all held more influence over the program than political leadership. The creation of a central agency after the reorganization of the Soviet Union into the Russian Federation was therefore a new development. The Ministry of General Machine-Building was dissolved on 14 November 1991.[40] The Russian Space Agency was formed as its successor[41] [42] [43] on 25 February 1992 by a decree of President Boris Yeltsin.[44] Yuri Koptev, who previously had worked with designing Mars landers at NPO Lavochkin, became the first director of the agency, which eventually would become Roscosmos.[45]
In 2013, when the Russian space sector was being reorganized,[46] one option considered was the creation of a ministry similar to the Ministry of General Machine-Building.[47]
During its existence, the Ministry of General Machine-Building offered three awards. The "Excellence in Socialist Competition" award was approved on 1 September 1955 by order no. 134 and awarded until 1957.[48] The "Best Innovator" award was given out in the 1970s,[49] and the "Best Inventor" award was offered until 1991.[50]
The Ministry of General Machine-Building had five ministers during its existence, one having been from its first incarnation and the remaining four from its second incarnation:[51] [52]