Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey

Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey (born June 30, 1914, Sedlets, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died Dec. 8, 1984) was a Soviet aerospace designer who was the chief architect behind the Proton launch vehicle and the Almaz (Salyut) military space station.

After an early career in 1944–53 designing copies of the German V-1 “buzz bomb,” Chelomey formed a new design bureau known as OKB-52, in Reutov, outside of Moscow, in 1955. There he began working on a series of advanced naval cruise missiles. In 1959 he initiated development of new rockets and spacecraft for the emerging Soviet space program.

Through the 1960s Chelomey was often at loggerheads with Sergey Korolyov, the patriarch of the Soviet space program. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is rumoured to have favoured Chelomey over Korolyov (possibly because Khrushchev’s son worked for Chelomey). Chelomey oversaw a huge empire by the mid-1960s, working on several intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), military satellites, launch vehicles, cruise missiles, and antiballistic missiles.

After Khrushchev’s ouster in 1964, Chelomey’s fortunes declined. Despite falling out of favour, Chelomey produced the UR-100 ICBM (known in the West as the SS-10), the Proton launch vehicle, the Almaz military space station (launched as Salyut 2, 3, and 5), and the Transport-Supply Ship (TKS), which was designed as the resupply vehicle for Almaz.

In the late 1970s, Chelomey lost most of his support in the high levels of the Soviet government when his patron, Minister of Defense Andrey Grechko, passed away. In 1981 Chelomey was barred from further work in the Soviet space program. He died in 1984 after being hit by an automobile. He was twice awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour (1959, 1963), the highest award given to civilians during the Soviet era.

Many of Chelomey’s creations, such as the Almaz, Proton, and TKS, continue to serve the current Russian space program in updated form.