Former leading designer of manned rocket and space systems Vladimir Bugrov has died

The former leading designer of manned rocket and space systems for the expedition to the Moon and the Energia-Buran system, Vladimir Bugrov, has died. He was 93 years old, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports, citing his wife.

Bugrov is a design engineer, a veteran of cosmonautics, who worked on the Soviet lunar program together with Sergei Korolev. After graduating from the Moscow Aviation Institute, he worked for six years at NPO Lavochkin on the Burya cruise missile. In 1961 he joined OKB-1, where he participated in the development of space technology.

Bugrov also took part in developing Korolev’s idea to create a civilian corps of cosmonaut engineers. It was assumed that after a short training and space flight, OKB-1 engineers would return to their work, using the experience gained in creating and testing new equipment, instead of waiting for the next flight at the Cosmonaut Training Center.