Vladimir Syromyatnikov

Vladimir Sergeevich Syromyatnikov (1933, Moscow - September 19, 2006) was a Soviet and Russian space scientist best-known for designing docking mechanisms for manned spacecraft; it was his system which, in the 1970s, linked the Soviet Soyuz and the American Project Apollo space capsules.

Syromyatnikov also helped design and develop Vostok, the world's first manned spacecraft, which launched Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961.

In the 1990s, he updated the design of his docking mechanism for the meeting of the Mir space station Atlantis space shuttle. Syromyatnikov's designs are still used by spacecraft visiting the International Space Station.

See also

* Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
* Shuttle-Mir Program

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2006/10/09/db0903.xml Obituary]
* [http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr06/3222 Inteview in the IEEE Spectrum, April 2006]