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Lavochkin Association

Formerly	OKB-301
Type	State-owned company
Industry	Space industry Aerospace industry Defense industry
Founded	1937
Headquarters	Khimki, Moscow region, Russia
Key people	Vladimir Kolmykov (Director General) Semyon Lavochkin (Chief Designer from 1940 to 1960)
Products	Spacecraft, Space probes, aircraft, missiles
Revenue	$275 million[1] (2017)
Operating income	$8.54 million[1] (2017)
Net income	$8.17 million[1] (2017)
Total assets	$862 million[1] (2017)
Total equity	$154 million[1] (2017)
Number of employees	5000
Parent	Roscosmos[2]
Website	www.laspace.ru

NPO Lavochkin (Russian: НПО Лавочкина, OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association or shortly Lavochkin Association, LA) is a Russian aerospace company. It is a major player in the Russian space program, being the developer and manufacturer of the Fregat upper stage, as well as interplanetary probes such as Fobos-Grunt. As of 2015, it was headed by Sergei Lemeshevskii.^[3] On August 10, 2017 the Lavochkin Association's Board of Directors appointed Vladimir Kolmykov Director General of the enterprise.

Overview

The company develops and manufactures spacecraft such as the Fregat rocket upper stages, satellites and interplanetary probes. It is a contractor for a number of military programs, such as the Oko early warning satellite, Prognoz and Araks programmes as well as the civilian program Kupon. One of the company's most notable projects was the participation in the failed Fobos-Grunt sample return mission.^[4] NPO Lavochkin has also developed the Elektro–L series of new-generation weather satellites, as well as the Navigator standardised satellite platform, which will serve as the basis for several future Russian satellites.^[5]

History

The company was founded in 1937 as OKB-301, a Soviet aircraft design bureau (OKB). The head designer was Vladimir P. Gorbunov. On October, 1945 Semyon Lavochkin was promoted for the head designer of the design bureau. It gained distinction for its family of piston-engined fighter aircraft during World War II, and later shifted to missile and jet fighter designs. Following the death of the head designer, the OKB-301 succumbed to the growing power of Vladimir Chelomey and became OKB-52 Branch No. 3 on 18 December 1962.^[6]:300 Later, it turned to work on interplanetary probe designs for Luna sample return program, the Lunokhod program, Vega program, Phobos program, etc. The former OKB-301 became named NPO Lavochkin.

In January 2012, officials of Lavochkin faced administrative punishment for not taking^{[clarification needed]} into account of designing the computer system after the crash of Russia's Mars moon spacecraft Fobos-Grunt.^[7]

Projects

Aircraft

Rockets and missiles

• 
  S-25 Berkut (SA-1 "Guild") - surface-to-air missile


• 
  S-75 Dvina (SA-2 "Guideline") - surface-to-air missile


• 
  La-205 is V-300, a SAM for S-25 air defense system


• 
  La-350 Burya - intercontinental cruise missile


• 
  La-400 DAL - surface to air missile^[8][9]
  


• 
  Fregat - upper stage

Spacecraft

Future projects

• 
  ExoMars 2018 mission


• Luna-Glob


• 
  Mars-Grunt - space probe


• 
  Spektr-RG - high-energy astrophysics observatory

Designers and engineers

• Georgy Babakin


• Semyon Lavochkin


• 
  Yuri Koptev, later director of Roscosmos, worked at Lavochkin from 1965

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lavochkin.

• Babakin Space Centre

References

Further reading

• William H Mott, Robert B Sheldon, L Philip Sheldon (2000). Laser Satellite Communication: The Third Generation. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 132.
  ISBN 1-56720-329-9
  


• GlobalSecurity.org - http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/world/russia/npolav.htm