Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (ГКНПЦ им. М. В. Хру́ничева in Russian) is a Moscow-based producer of spacecraft and space-launch systems, including the Proton and Rokot rockets. The company's history dates back to 1916, when an automobile factory was established outside Moscow. It soon switched production to airplanes and during World War II produced Ilyushin Il-4 and Tupolev Tu-2 bombers. A design bureau, OKB-23, was added to the company in 1951. In 1959, the company started developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, and later spacecraft and space launch vehicles. The company designed and produced all Soviet space stations, including Mir. OKB-23, renamed to Salyut Design Bureau, became an independent company in 1988. In 1993, the Khrunichev Plant and the Salyut Design Bureau were joined again to form Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. In the 1990s, the company entered the International Launch Services joint-venture to market launches on its Proton rocket. Khrunichev subsequently became a successful launch service provider on the international space launch market.
The company currently has an over 30% market share of the global space launch market, and its revenue from commercial space launches in 2009 was $584 million. Current number of employees - about 35,000. It is named after Mikhail Khrunichev, a Soviet minister.
Read more about Khrunichev State Research And Production Space Center: Production, List of Rockets and Missiles
Famous quotes containing the words state, research, production, space and/or center:
“For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
—Bible: New Testament St. Paul, in Philippians, 4:11.
“One of the most important findings to come out of our research is that being where you want to be is good for you. We found a very strong correlation between preferring the role you are in and well-being. The homemaker who is at home because she likes that “job,” because it meets her own desires and needs, tends to feel good about her life. The woman at work who wants to be there also rates high in well-being.”
—Grace Baruch (20th century)
“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The merit of those who fill a space in the world’s history, who are borne forward, as it were, by the weight of thousands whom they lead, shed a perfume less sweet than do the sacrifices of private virtue.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“This is a strange little complacent country, in many ways a U.S.A. in miniature but of course nearer the center of disturbance!”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)