M to Tikhonravov introduction to rocketry. Tikhonravov Mikhail Klavdievich

Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov was born on July 29, 1900 in the city of Vladimir into the family of a lawyer and teacher. In 1918 the family moved to Pereslavl. Here Mikhail began working as a courier in court, where his father was a people's judge. In 1919, the young man became the first Komsomol member of Pereslavl. Tikhonravov organized a Komsomol cell at the former women's gymnasium. Also in 1919, he joined the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and became an agitator for the military registration and enlistment office.

According to surviving evidence, Tikhonravov coped well with the duties of an agitator. In 1920, he was transferred to the Vladimir military registration and enlistment office, and from there he was sent to the front. In the same year, Tikhonravov entered the Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet (currently the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky). During his studies, Tikhonravov designed a number of gliders, the models of which had fairly high performance characteristics. Since 1925, Tikhonravov worked at several aviation enterprises.

In 1932, Tikhonravov became the head of a team in the Jet Propulsion Research Group. In the gliding section of the Society for the Promotion of Defense, Aviation and Chemical Construction of the USSR, Tikhonravov met S.P. Korolev. Subsequently, their acquaintance grew into close cooperation, in particular, in 1933, at the suggestion of Korolev, Tikhonravov led the work on the creation of the first Soviet ballistic missiles using hybrid fuel. In August of the same year, the first tests of the GIRD-09 rocket designed by Tikhonravov were carried out.

In 1934, Tikhonravov became the head of a department at the Jet Research Institute. And here, under his leadership, work was carried out to create rockets, the take-off altitude of which gradually increased.

In the late 1930s, Tikhonravov and the team he led were engaged in developments related to liquid rocket engines and rockets for studying the upper atmosphere, but these studies were soon curtailed. And Tikhonravov and his colleagues were tasked with developing shells for the Katyusha.

After the Great Patriotic War, Tikhonravov began work on creating artificial Earth satellites, manned spacecraft and automatic interplanetary stations. However, in 1950, Tikhonravov was removed from his position. He managed to return to research work only in 1953, and in 1954 Tikhonravov already proposed a consistent program for space exploration from the launch of the first satellite until the landing on the Moon.

The Pereslavl Museum houses the Komsomol card and diaries of Mikhail Klavdievich. His records of trips around the countryside on military registration and enlistment affairs are of considerable interest from both historical and local history points of view. Among other materials, there are diagrams of the location of villages, which indicate the mileage, time of departure from Pereslavl and time of return to the city, and also describe the sentiments of the local population.

In 1956, Tikhonravov began working at OKB-1 as head of the design department for various artificial Earth satellites, manned spacecraft, and spacecraft for exploring the Moon and other planets. In 1957, Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov was awarded the USSR Lenin Prize for the successful launches of Sputnik 1 and a satellite with a living creature on board.

In addition, Tikhonravov took an active part in the launch of the first manned spacecraft. For this, in 1961, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mikhail Klavdievich was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, as well as the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle medal.

Later, the team headed by Tikhonravov took part in the development of a heavy interplanetary spacecraft, which was intended for a manned flight to Mars.

In parallel with his research activities, the outstanding designer taught at the Moscow Aviation Institute named after S. Ordzhonikidze, where Tikhonravov became a professor in 1962.

In addition to the awards already mentioned, Tikhonravov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, Red Star, and others for his achievements that contributed to the development of Soviet aviation, rocket and space technology.

Discoveries and inventions of Russia, Slavic House of Books

2017-07-07T22:31:05+00:00

Tikhonravov Mikhail Klavdievich (1900-1974).

Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov was born on July 29, 1900 in Vladimir.
In 1919, he voluntarily joined the Red Army. In the same year he worked as a comrade of the chairman of the Pereslavl Committee of the RKSM.
In 1920, he entered the Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet (now the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky). After graduating in 1925, Mikhail Tikhonravov worked at several aviation enterprises. Designer of a number of gliders: AVF-1 “Arap” (1923), AVF-22 “Zmey Gorynych” (1925, together with V.S. Vakhmistrov), “Firebird” (1927, together with A .A. Dubrovin), “Gamayun”, “Skif” (both in 1928 together with V.S. Vakhmistrov and A.A. Dubrovin), “Komsomolskaya Pravda” (“Firebird-2”, 1929 together with V.S. Vakhmistrov and A.A. Dubrovin), “Skif-2” (1931 together with V.S. Vakhmistrov and A.A. Dubrovin).

Tikhonravov met Sergei Pavlovich Korolev in the gliding section of the USSR OSOAVIAKHIM, their acquaintance turned into close cooperation. At Korolev’s suggestion, he headed the work on creating liquid-fueled ballistic missiles, which ended with the first successful launches.

In 1932, he worked as a crew chief in the Jet Propulsion Research Group, during which he developed the first Soviet two-stage rocket engine. In 1933, he led the creation of the first Soviet rocket with a hybrid fuel engine. Since 1934 he worked as Head of the Department of the Jet Institute.

Since 1938, Mikhail Tikhonravov has been researching liquid rocket engines and developing rockets for studying the upper layers of the atmosphere, but at the end of the thirties, work on creating liquid-propellant ballistic missiles was curtailed and Tikhonravov began developing projectiles for Katyushas. In 1940-1943, he headed the design group that developed (under the general leadership of A.G. Kostikov) the experimental fighter-interceptor “302P” with a power plant consisting of a liquid-propellant rocket engine and two ramjet engines.

In 1956, Mikhail Klavdievich went to work at OKB-1, to the position of head of the design department for various artificial Earth satellites, manned spacecraft, spacecraft for exploring the Moon and some planets of the Solar System. For the successful launches of Sputnik 1 and a satellite with a living creature on board, Tikhonravov became a Lenin Prize laureate in 1957.

On December 31, 1957, in connection with the creation of the R-7 rocket and the successful launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, a large group of scientists and engineers in the Kremlin were awarded Lenin Prizes. Among them were members of the group - M.K. Tikhonravov, I.M. Yatsunsky, I.K. Bazhinov and A.V. Brykov, who were awarded the prize for substantiating the possibility of creating and launching the first satellite. G.Yu. Maksimov was awarded the Lenin Prize a little later - for his participation in the creation of the first automatic lunar probes. I.K. Bazhinov writes in his memoirs that “S.P. Korolev, nominating G.Yu. Maksimov for the award, certainly took into account his great contribution to the work of M.K. Tikhonravov’s group.”

M.K. Tikhonravov took an active part in the launch of the first manned spacecraft, for which on June 17, 1961 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (the decree was not published).

Subsequently, the department, under the leadership of Mikhail Klavdievich, participated, in particular, in the development of a heavy interplanetary spacecraft created for a manned flight to Mars.

Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1968).

On March 4, 1974, Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov died, was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, and a bust was erected on his grave.

Awards:
-gold medal “Hammer and Sickle” of the Hero of Socialist Labor;
-two Orders of Lenin;
- two Orders of the Red Banner;
-Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree;
-medals.
-Lenin Prize.

M.K. Tikhonravov. 1925

Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov(July 16 (29), 1900 - March 4, 1974) - Soviet engineer, designer of space and rocket technology. Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, Lenin Prize laureate, Hero of Socialist Labor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR.

Biography

In 1919, he voluntarily joined the Red Army. In the same year he worked as a comrade of the chairman of the Pereslavl Committee of the RKSM.

In 1920, he entered the Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet (now the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky). After graduating in 1925, Mikhail Tikhonravov worked at several aviation enterprises. Designer of a number of gliders: AVF-1 "Arap" (1923), AVF-22 "Zmey Gorynych" (1925, together with V.S. Vakhmistrov), "Firebird" (1927, together with A A. Dubrovin), "Gamayun", "Skif" (both 1928), "Komsomolskaya Pravda" ("Firebird-2", 1929), "Skif-2" (1931; all - together with V. S. Vakhmistrov and A. A. Dubrovin).

Tikhonravov met Sergei Pavlovich Korolev in the gliding section of the USSR OSOAVIAKHIM, their acquaintance turned into close cooperation. At Korolev’s suggestion, he headed the work on creating liquid-fueled ballistic missiles, which ended with the first successful launches.

In 1932, he worked as a crew chief in the Jet Propulsion Research Group, during which he developed the first Soviet two-stage rocket engine. In 1933, he led the creation of the first Soviet rocket with a hybrid fuel engine. Since 1934 he worked as Head of the Department of the Jet Institute.

Since 1938, Mikhail Tikhonravov has been researching liquid rocket engines and developing rockets for studying the upper layers of the atmosphere, but at the end of the thirties, work on creating liquid-propellant ballistic missiles was curtailed and Tikhonravov began developing projectiles for Katyushas. In 1940-1943. headed the design team that developed (under the general leadership of A.G. Kostikov) the experimental fighter-interceptor “302” with a power plant consisting of a liquid-propellant rocket engine and two ramjet engines.

Creation and activities of the Tikhonravov Group

In the mid-1940s (1945-1946), M.K. Tikhonravov created a group of employees at the Jet Research Institute (RNII, later NII-1) to develop a project for a manned vehicle vertically launched by a single-stage rocket (type R-1 ) to a height of up to 200 km (project VR-190).

The further achievements of M.K. Tikhonravov in the scientific and engineering fields are difficult to separate from the activities of the group he led, the composition of which changed from time to time, but continued to remain a single, mutually complementary community of highly qualified specialists.

In 1946, work on the VR-190 project was transferred from the RNII to the newly created NII-4 of the Academy of Artillery Sciences (AAS), and subsequently NII-4 of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Accordingly, M.K. Tikhonravov, appointed deputy head of NII-4 for one of the missile specialties, was transferred there, along with a group of employees.

Its members at that time included N. G. Chernyshov, P. I. Ivanov, V. N. Galkovsky, G. M. Moskalenko and others.

In 1947, a young talented military surveyor I.M. Yatsunsky came to NII-4, who was also included in the group and quickly became Mikhail Klavdievich’s first assistant.

Initially, M.K. Tikhonravov directly supervised the work on the VR-190 project, but in 1947 this work, along with part of the group, was transferred to another division of NII-4, Mikhail Klavdievich gradually moved away from them and created a new department headed by Ivanov. The VR-190 project, as is known, was not implemented.

In the department of P. I. Ivanov, Mikhail Klavdievich, knowing well the works of K. E. Tsiolkovsky, among other works, proposed research on composite rockets. The department began to develop acceptable methods for calculating the flight trajectories of composite missiles of a package design, finding the optimal design and ballistic parameters of missiles, and conducting research calculations..

This article will focus on Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov (1900-1974) - a pioneer of domestic rocket science and astronautics, Lenin Prize laureate, Hero of Socialist Labor. The first Soviet liquid-fuel rocket, which flew into the air in 1933, was of his design. Tikhonravov’s design developments are directly related to the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, to the launch of Yuri Gagarin, to the first human spacewalk in history; they are embodied in many spacecraft developed at the Sergei Pavlovich Korolev Design Bureau.

At the beginning of 1934 in Moscow, at the gates of house No. 19 on Sadovo-Spasskaya Street, in the courtyard of which the GIRD (jet propulsion research group) was located, two people were talking.
- Who will create a ship for human flight into space?
- Of course, a team, definitely a team! I know both you and I will be in this team. And we will certainly live to see human interplanetary flight. We will design and build a ship that is impossible to even imagine now.
- These wonderful days will come, these wonderful days will come!..
This is what twenty-seven-year-old Sergei Korolev and thirty-three-year-old Mikhail Tikhonravov dreamed of almost seventy years ago. And on April 12, 1961, the spaceship they created? Vostok? with Yuri Gagarin on board. And even earlier there was the first artificial earth satellite.

Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov was born in Vladimir. When he was one and a half years old, his parents moved to St. Petersburg. The father of the Tikhonravov family, Claudius Mikhailovich, an honorary citizen of the city of Vladimir, graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, and his mother, Alexandra Nikolaevna, graduated from the Bestuzhev courses. She also studied at the famous A.L. Stieglitz School of Technical Drawing, which trained teachers for art and industrial schools. Her son Mikhail later became a remarkable artist. In general, the future scientist was distinguished by many talents. After graduating from the Third Classical Gymnasium, he mastered Latin perfectly and read ancient authors in the original; I also studied French.
At the age of nine, Misha Tikhonravov, having attended an aviation show, became ill for the rest of his life. sky, began to voraciously read books on the theory of aeronautics. And when in 1920 N.E. Zhukovsky organized the Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet, Tikhonravov immediately found himself among the students. In the training workshops of the institute, he, together with the later famous aviation design engineer Vladimir Vakhmistrov, designed and built a glider. Called "Snake Gorynych", he represented Soviet gliding at international competitions in Germany in 1925, showing excellent results: he rose to a height of 265 meters and flew 11 kilometers.
In 1925, M.K. Tikhonravov graduated from the institute, by this time renamed the Military Air Academy of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky. He worked for the famous aircraft designer N.N. Polikarpov, participated in the creation of a number of aircraft - the firstborn of Soviet aviation, including the U-2 light night bomber. At the same time, he begins to seriously master the theoretical foundations of rocketry.
Since the early 1920s, Mikhail Tikhonravov was a member of the gliding section at OSOAVIAKHIM. There he often met with S.P. Korolev. Sergei Pavlovich once told him that a group was being created in Moscow to study the principles of jet propulsion, later called GIRD, and that one team under the leadership of F.A. Tsander was already working on aviation liquid jet engines (LPRE). Korolev invited Tikhonravov to head the team for the development of ballistic missiles with liquid propellant engines. He accepted the offer and invited four more employees of the Central Design Bureau named after V.R. Menzhinsky, where he moved from Polikarpov, including his future wife Olga Konstantinovna.
At first, they worked on a voluntary basis in the evenings (?officially? GIRD was created in 1931). The wits deciphered the name of their?organization? like?a group of engineers working for nothing?. But the enthusiasm was great. Olga Konstantinovna, in a conversation with one of M.K. Tikhonravov’s students, A.V. Brykov, recalled: “It felt like we were on the verge of discovering some secret. Although the conditions were very difficult at first. We worked in a cold, uninhabited basement with a cement floor and cold stone walls. In the part of the basement that Tikhonravov’s team occupied, there weren’t even windows. Did we communicate with the outside world? only with the help of a fan mounted into the wall near the ceiling. But Zander’s brigade didn’t even have that. I remember how we ran outside to warm ourselves. Of course, then they laid the floors, papered the walls, installed a round stove?
The third brigade of the GIRD (gas-dynamic test installations) was headed by the future major rocket scientist Yu.A. Pobedonostsev, the fourth (rocket planes and cruise missiles) - S.P. Korolev.
Gradually things got better. New equipment appeared. On August 17, 1933, the ?09? rocket was launched at the engineering site in Nakhabino. - the first Soviet liquid-propellant rocket designed by M.K. Tikhonravov. In 18 seconds of flight, the rocket rose to a height of 400 meters. The launch was supervised by Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.
In 1933, on the basis of the Leningrad Gas Dynamic Laboratory (GDL) and GIRD, the world's first Jet Research Institute (RNII) was organized. M.K. Tikhonravov and S.P. Korolev became heads of departments there: Korolev worked on winged aircraft with liquid propellant engines, and Tikhonravov worked on rocket-propelled mortars? Katyusha?.
In 1934, M.K. Tikhonravov made a presentation at the first All-Union Conference on the Study of the Stratosphere, in which academicians D.P. Karpinsky, A.L. Belopolsky, V.I. Vernadsky, I.M. Vinogradov took part, and Academician S.I. Vavilov presided. Mikhail Klavdievich's report on the use of rocket propulsion systems in stratospheric research substantiated for the first time the possibility of human flight in a rocket.
In the same year, together with the director of the Rocket Research Institute I.T. Kleimenov, M.K. Tikhonravov visited K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga. As a souvenir of this meeting, there was a photograph that has now become a textbook.
Flying like a bird is man's eternal dream. And M.K. Tikhonravov paid her a worthy tribute. While still at the academy, he began to study the methods of flight of living creatures.
Is it possible to build a reliable aircraft with flapping wings - a flywheel? To answer this question, Tikhonravov began researching birds: how do they fly? Every summer, going on a trip with friends on boats, he caught various birds, took careful measurements, and kept statistics. The process turned out to be too labor-intensive, and Mikhail Klavdievich turned to the hunters through the newspaper with a request to provide him with some information. Letters began to arrive. Tikhonravov entered the data contained in them into a special file cabinet.
In this regard, one funny incident is recalled. One day Tikhonravov received by mail an exceptionally qualified and interesting description of a certain bird, which, however, did not fit into his statistics. He re-read the letter. The handwriting seemed familiar; it turned out that it was his friend, Professor Vetchinkin, who saw Tikhonravov’s advertisement in the newspaper, decided to joke and sent him a detailed description of the rooster.
Mikhail Klavdievich studied this problem for many years and wrote about a dozen papers on it: “The theory of the flapping of a bird’s wing?” and others. His book? The Flight of Birds and Machines with Flapping Wings? (1937, 2nd ed. - 1949) for a long time remained the only one of its kind that most fully revealed issues related to ornithopters in the domestic literature.
Tikhonravov also collected and studied beetles (work? Flight of insects?), most of the collection of which was subsequently transferred to the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University.
But the main business of M.K. Tikhonravov’s life remained rocketry. The first steps, as we have seen, ended in brilliant success, which gave rise to great hopes. But they were destined to come true later than expected.
In 1937? For participation in the anti-Soviet terrorist and sabotage Trotskyist organization? The leaders of the Rocket Institute, I.T. Kleimenov and G.E. Langemak, were repressed and shot in 1938. Soon the head of the department, V.P. Glushko, and his deputy, S.P. Korolev, were arrested. Only ten years later on the path of the former?Girdovites? and specialists from the RNII crossed paths again - this time at NII-88 in Podlipki and at NII-4 in neighboring Bolshevo, where, according to the Resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers of May 13, 1946, a center for the development of jet weapons was created.
Engineer-Colonel Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov, by that time already known as the designer of the first domestic rocket with a liquid engine (1933), a rocket with a flight altitude of up to 40 kilometers (1936) and a multi-stage powder rocket for flight into the stratosphere ( 1942). It was Tikhonravov who organized a department at the institute that dealt with the theory of composite (multistage) rockets. The research work carried out here confirmed the possibility of achieving any flight range and placing artificial Earth satellites (AES) into low-Earth orbit. At the beginning of 1948, Mikhail Klavdievich reported on this to the Scientific Council of NII-4. His message was met with mostly disapproval. He supported his long-time colleague and friend S.P. Korolev, who issued an official order to the institute to conduct further research on Tikhonravov’s? subject.
Mikhail Klavdievich began to select from talented youth a group of like-minded people who, like him, were obsessed with the idea of ​​human flight into space. The resulting small, close-knit team went down in the history of rocket and space technology as the Tikhonravov group.
Later, one of its participants, Doctor of Technical Sciences, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes I.K. Bazhinov, will write: “Mikhail Klavdievich created a special psychological climate in the team. Each new employee very quickly became aware of the extreme importance and promise of the work in which he began to take part. Mikhail Klavdievich sought to select a task that corresponded to the creative interests of his employees. He especially welcomed it when specialists themselves found, put forward and solve problematic issues. In work conversations, he knew how to speak clearly, clearly and convincingly, and this helped everyone quickly find an interesting and important topic. All this led to the fact that the team?group? He worked enthusiastically, regardless of personal time, and solved many complex issues in a short time. Mikhail Klavdievich in every possible way encouraged the expansion of scientific horizons, taught his students not to be afraid of areas of knowledge unknown to them and to master them more boldly, if necessary for the business?
All members of the?group? had bright personalities. Igor Marianovich Yatsunsky is the most talented and reliable assistant, and subsequently a close friend of Tikhonravov, an engineer-geodesist in the first specialty, already in the “group”, he graduated from the Higher Engineering Courses at the Moscow Higher Technical University named after N.E. Bauman and the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. Vladimir Nikolaevich Galkovsky was a member of Tikhonravov’s brigade back in the GIRD. Tikhonravov knew Grigory Makarovich Moskalenko from the Jet Research Institute. Anatoly Viktorovich Brykov, a war participant, a graduate of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, was sent to NII-4 in 1949. Gleb Yuryevich Maksimov and Lidiya Nikolaevna Soldatova from the Moscow Aviation Institute worked with Tikhonravov from the first days of the group’s existence. Igor Konstantinovich Bazhinov and Oleg Viktorovich Gurko also came from MAI, but later, at the beginning of 1951.
At the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, the idea of ​​human space flight seemed fantastic to most. But these young people thought differently. Infinitely enthusiastic, they stayed up until late at night every day and did not know days off. And by 1950, they had obtained convincing results that allowed us to have no doubt: the first cosmic speed is achievable, the launch of an artificial Earth satellite is not a fantasy, but a very real prospect.
On March 15, 1950, the first scientific and technical conference of NII-4 took place. This day remains in the memory of many. At first everything went as usual - moderately solemn and military-like. But then the presiding officer announced the report of M.K. Tikhonravov. While he was talking about the progress of planned work on creating missile weapons, they listened attentively. When Mikhail Klavdievich moved on to the fact that there is a real possibility of launching an artificial Earth satellite into orbit and human flight into space, the hall began to roar. The noise grew, drowning out the speaker, and cries began to be heard: “Why is this necessary?” Do we have nothing to do? Nonsense!? Mikhail Klavdievich nevertheless finished his report and left the podium. But the hall did not calm down. One of the representatives of the highest military leadership, General P.P. Chechulin, appeared at the podium (in three years he will take the chair of the head of NII-4). Without a shadow of a doubt that he was right, he pronounced his verdict to thunderous applause: “All this is fantastic!” I consider it inappropriate to waste time not only on such research, but even on discussing it. The management needs to seriously think about the fact that the institute, instead of solving pressing problems of rocket technology, is dealing with far-fetched problems?
After the meeting, the drooping members of the?group? surrounded their mentor, to whom his deputy triumphantly announced: “I told you, Mikhail Klavdievich, that all this will not be in vain!?” Korolev, who was not speaking (he was not yet Korolev), came up, took Tikhonravov by the arm, took him aside and began to cheerfully prove something to him.
Many years later, one of the specialists from Tikhonravov’s group, Doctor of Technical Sciences O.V. Gurko, will say: “Making such a report at that time before the audience of NII-4, mainly consisting of artillerymen, was a very bold step.”
Indeed, the reaction was immediate. M.K. Tikhonravov was removed from the post of deputy head of the institute and appointed as a consultant. Almost all of his employees were taken away. Work on the satellite was strictly prohibited.
But? Tikhonravov’s group? did not cease its activities. The "Underground Corporation", as they called themselves, was engaged in "forbidden" activities. topics during non-working hours. Mikhail Klavdievich maintained constant contact with Sergei Pavlovich Korolev and regularly sent him research results, which M.V. Keldysh also knew about. They worked - and time worked for them.
In 1950, Department No. 3 (long-range ballistic missiles), headed by S.P. Korolev, was transformed into OKB-1 and became the leading division of NII-88. Korolev and Tikhonravov understood that they could only launch the satellite through joint efforts. And at the end of 1953, they decided that Sergei Pavlovich would order NII-4 a project on satellites, which would be included in the institute’s research plan. For assistance and assistance, Mikhail Klavdievich turned to A.I. Sokolov, head of the Jet Weapons Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Tikhonravov was also actively supported by the deputy head of the institute for science, Doctor of Technical Sciences G.A. Tyulin. Since January 1954, the topic “Research on the creation of an artificial Earth satellite” was officially opened at NII-4. M.K. Tikhonravov was appointed its scientific director, and I.M. Yatsunsky was appointed as the responsible executor. In the same 1954, S.P. Korolev sent a memo to higher authorities justifying the feasibility of establishing a research department at NII-88 to carry out work on artificial satellites. The government and military were slow and cautious. For Korolev and Tikhonravov, the main thing was to create an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of overcoming gravity. This is exactly what Sergei Pavlovich directed all his efforts towards. By the middle of 1954, the technical appearance of the R-7 rocket, the famous “seven”, had been completely determined, incorporating a record number of technical innovations. It was then that Korolev began to seek a government decision on the parallel development of the satellite project. At his own peril and risk, he organized the design of artificial satellites at OKB-1 without the appropriate sanctions from the Ministry and Government.
The rest is set out in the book by S.N. Khrushchev? The Birth of a Superpower: A Book about a Father? (M., 2000). At the very beginning of 1956, N.S. Khrushchev visited Korolev’s company. For several hours, the distinguished guests got acquainted with the combat missile systems that have been put into service and are being developed for the future, as well as with the R-7 missile, which so far existed only in a mock-up. ?The structure we saw amazed us with its size. A single rocket filled the brightly lit well of the workshop. Its size and contour were involuntarily associated with the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower. Crowded at the entrance, everyone looked at this miracle of technology in silence. Korolev enjoyed the effect produced and was in no hurry to begin explaining. Finally, the numbness passed, and the main group, with their heads raised, moved around the rocket. Korolev either pointed his pointer somewhere up, towards the very ceiling, or sank almost to his haunches?
It became clear to Sergei Pavlovich: now is the time to resolve the issue of the space use of the R-7. And he started talking...
After listening, Khrushchev asked whether the implementation of space projects would be delayed. plans to create intercontinental weapons. Korolev confidently replied that this would only speed things up. The military were silent, Khrushchev was thinking, the Chief Designer was waiting tensely. Finally Nikita Sergeevich said: “If the main task does not suffer, then act.”
In August 1956, OKB-1, together with pilot plant No. 88, separated from NII-88 and became an independent enterprise headed by Chief Designer S.P. Korolev. In September, in a report to the scientific and technical council, S.P. Korolev defined the most important task of the team: “There is no doubt that we are entering a new area of ​​​​work in rocketry related to the creation of flying machines.” The preliminary design of the satellite was approved by a special decision of the council.
At the same time, M.K. Tikhonravov and part of his employees transferred to Korolev as head of the head design department No. 9. This was the first specialized unit, which was entrusted with designing not rockets, but spacecraft. By 1957, three areas of activity of the “nine” had been defined: unmanned Earth satellites (E.F. Ryazanov), lunar and interplanetary automatic stations (G.Yu. Maksimov) and manned spacecraft (K.P. Feoktistov). Gradually, the department grew so large that S.P. Korolev divided it into two, and made both heads - M.K. Tikhonravov and P.V. Tsybin - his deputies.
In 1957, for his work on preparing and launching the first artificial Earth satellites, M.K. Tikhonravov was awarded the Lenin Prize. In 1961, after Yuri Gagarin's flight into space, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. M.K. Tikhonravov was awarded the Order of Lenin twice and twice the Order of the Red Star. In 1968 he was elected a corresponding member of the International Astronautical Academy.
In 1976, two years after the death of Mikhail Klavdievich, the Museum of Cosmonautics was opened in the American city of Alamogordo (New Mexico). In the Hall of Fame of the museum, among the images of 35 major figures in world astronautics, a portrait of M.K. Tikhonravov was placed.
The breadth of Mikhail Klavdievich’s scientific interests is evidenced by the list of his works, published and unpublished: more than 200 articles and books on gliding, aerodynamics, rocket technology, as well as fundamental works? Fundamentals of flight theory and elements of the design of artificial Earth satellites? - the result of the work of Tikhonravov’s group? (?Mechanical Engineering?, 1967) and?Basic views of physics? (left unfinished).
Unfortunately, for many of our compatriots the name of Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov remains little known. A.V. Brykov’s book “To the Secrets of the Universe,” written based on the memories of members of Tikhonravov’s group, has been making its way to the printing press for more than ten years. In 1981, the author at the publishing house?Soviet Russia? explained: “We publish only “distilled water” about space, but you have some problems here, prohibitions, persecution of the disobedient and even repression!? The book was published in Moscow only in 1993 with a circulation of only 300 copies. In 2000, A.I. Zuzulsky’s monograph? Steps to Heaven? about the life and work of M.K. Tikhonravov - a rather detailed monograph, but printed in an equally meager circulation - 300 copies. That's practically all.
It remains to add that the name of Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov is immortalized in the name of the Bolshevsky Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The main street of the young city of Yubileiny, which grew out of a military camp at NII-4, is named after him.

The above-mentioned books are used in the article: A.I.Zuzulsky. ?Steps to heaven? (Yaroslavl, 2000), A.V. Brykov. ?To the secrets of the universe? (M., 1993), as well as memoirs, materials from personal archives and recordings of conversations with students and employees of M.K. Tikhonravov - I.K. Bazhinov, O.V. Gurko, A.A. Dashkov. The author expresses sincere gratitude to all these people.

By decision of the Pereslavl-Zalessky City Duma dated May 26, 2011 No. 54, for outstanding services in the field of rocket science and astronautics, the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Pereslavl-Zalessky” was awarded to Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov (posthumously)

Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov is related to the Pereslavl head Alexandrov on his mother’s side (Sofya Nikolaevna Voronina). On the paternal side, a niece Nina Pokrovskaya (Okhotina), a teacher at a girls’ gymnasium, lived in Pereslavl. His parents were educated people: his father had a legal education and worked as a school teacher for some time. Mother and aunt taught.

Mikhail was born in Vladimir in 1900, graduated from high school in St. Petersburg, and in 1918 the family moved to relatives in Pereslavl. In the northern capital during this revolutionary time, life was difficult, and many intellectuals returned to provincial cities where they could live by gardening and farming.

The Tikhonravovs' relatives lived in a house next to the girls' gymnasium. Mikhail’s mother and his aunt taught at this gymnasium. In the summer of 1918, my father was elected people's judge of the 2nd section of the Pereslavl district (Elizarovskaya, Smolenskaya and Petrovskaya volosts). Mikhail got a job in the people's court as a courier and copyist. 18-year-old Mikhail immediately got involved in organizing the Youth Union.

From Mikhail Klavdievich in 1958, the Pereslavl Museum received an archive, studying which one can trace the history and development of the youth movement in the city and in the countryside in 1919-1920. The archive consists of printed and handwritten documents. Draft minutes of Komsomol meetings and committee meetings, lists of sympathizers with the youth movement, reports and reports to the party organization, etc. Here is what Mikhail Klavdievich reported about the creation of the Komsomol in Pereslavl: “The Pereslavl youth managed to organize only in 1919. There was no day of organization, there were days of organization, there was struggle, there were efforts, because the communist element could not be identified immediately, it was necessary to fight the alien philistine element that in the first days flooded the Union.” The Youth Union was recognized by the district committee of the party, and the date January 16, 1919 can be established as the date of the organization of the RKSM in Pereslavl.

In October 1920, Pereslavl Komsomol members elected young Mikhail as a delegate to the III All-Russian Congress of the RKSM, where V.I. spoke. Lenin with a historical speech “Tasks of the Youth Union”, which determined the program of activity of generations of Soviet youth.

In June 1919, Tikhonravov voluntarily joined the Red Army. As an educated person (and this was a rarity at that time), he was assigned to political work at the district military registration and enlistment office. The command quickly noticed in the guy a craving for technology and aviation.

In 1920, he was a cadet at the Institute of the Red Air Fleet (later the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky).
Having received an engineering diploma in 1925, M.K. Tikhonravov plunged headlong into space rocketry. The young engineer soon met the designers F.A. Zander and S.P. Korolev. Like-minded engineers create the famous GIRD - a group to study the dynamics of rocket motion. (As part of the Moscow group S. Korolev, F. Zander, V. Vetchinkin, Yu. Pobednosov, M. Tikhonravov)

The group worked in the basement of an old house on the corner of Sadovo-Spasskaya and Orlikov Lane. Tikhonravov's first invention, the GIDR-09 rocket, was constantly plagued by misfortunes: filled with liquid oxygen and jelly-like gasoline, it did not want to take off. The tests followed one after another. The inventors had difficulties with transport, and the first Soviet rocket was wrapped in matting and taken by tram to the test site in Nakhabino, having paid for baggage transportation. It seems like a symbolic contradiction: the wretchedness of the transportation method and the scale of the problem being solved...

Over ten flight weeks in 1933, 16 tests were carried out. Any patience is coming to an end: “This stuff will never take off!” Tikhonravov was completely exhausted, and Korolev forcibly sent him on vacation to Khoper, ordering him to “quietly fish.”

The day of August 17, 1933 went down in the history of Russian cosmonautics: human stubbornness defeated the stubbornness of metal. The “09” rocket took off and, gradually picking up speed, reached an altitude of 400 meters. “Starting from this moment, Soviet missiles must fly over the Union of Republics,” Korolev wrote then in the GIRD wall newspaper.

Pay attention to the peculiarity of Soviet realities of that time: after all, it was customary to work on sheer enthusiasm! Well, maybe not completely “naked” - Mikhail Klavdievich and his like-minded people were awarded a prize for the creation of the GIRD-09 rocket: each...a black leather coat. And before that, they were encouraged with only one pair of boots for everyone.

In 1946, rocket scientists under the leadership of Tikhonravov developed the first design of a ship for human flight into space at an altitude of 150-200 km, a decade and a half later “Vostok”.

From the memoirs of USSR pilot-cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov:
“In 1957 I came to work for Korolev. At first I worked for Tikhonravov. With completely different natures, they suited each other in one thing: each of them was a person faithful to the idea for which he stood.”

In 1960, at the Moscow Cosmonaut Training Center, Professor Tikhonravov gave a course of lectures “Mechanics of Space Flight”. “It was an amazing flight of fancy in the capabilities of man and technology of that time,” says his student, cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastyanov.

For Tikhonravov, an engineer of the highest, world class, the human factor always remained the most important, from his Komsomol youth to the last days of his life. He, like many real scientists, is a wonderful teacher. Apparently, this is why he, like many wonderful scientists, was a wonderful teacher. Apparently, that’s why he ended up in the elite team of the professors who gave lectures to the first, “Gagarin” detachment of Soviet cosmonauts.

In recent years, M.K. Tikhonravov passed this pedagogical baton to one of his students - V.I. Sevastyanov (Hero of the Soviet Union, cosmonaut pilot).
Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov is one of the pioneers in the remarkable galaxy of Soviet designers in the field of rocketry and astronautics. Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, he was a corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics, a Lenin Prize laureate, and a holder of numerous Soviet orders and medals.

On July 19, 2002, in Pereslavl-Zalessky, near the house where the Tikhonravov family lived, a memorial plaque was unveiled in memory of our fellow countryman. The ceremony was opened by the first secretary of the Pereslavl district committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation V.P. Pautov, Mayor of the city E.A. Melnik, as well as twice Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut V.I. Sevastyanov, who studied with M.K. Tikhonravov, and the scientist’s own daughter Natalya Mikhailovna, who brought tablets with her father’s drawings as a gift to the Pereslavl Children’s Art House.