Chief Designer behind Luna 9 and Lunokhod, the man whose robots reached the Moon and Venus first
On 3 February 1966, as Luna 9 made humanity's first soft landing on the Moon, Babakin shouted: "Did you see how we landed it?! Like laying it in a cradle!"
Chief Designer of the Lavochkin Design Bureau (1965–1971). Taking over the troubled unmanned lunar and planetary probe program from Korolev, he achieved the world's first soft Moon landing (Luna 9), first lunar rover (Lunokhod-1), first robotic sample return (Luna 16), and first Venus landing (Venera 7): a streak that defined the peak of Soviet automated space exploration. A radio technician who earned his degree only at 43, he succeeded through rigorous ground testing where Korolev's approach had failed. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1971 at 56. Craters on the Moon and Mars bear his name.
Career Timeline
- 1930Radio technician, Moscow city telephone network
- 1937Researcher, All-Union Electrotechnical Institute for Communications
- 1943Radar targeting lab chief, later chief engineer, Institute of Automation (VSNITO)
- 1949Surface-to-air missile and guidance systems, Chertok's division, NII-88
- 1952Burya cruise missile and V-300 anti-aircraft missile, OKB-301 (Lavochkin)
- 1965Chief Designer, OKB-301 / NPO Lavochkin — takes over all unmanned lunar and planetary probes
- 1966Luna 9 (first soft Moon landing), Luna 10 (first lunar orbiter)
- 1970Luna 16 (robotic sample return), Lunokhod-1 (lunar rover), Venera 7 (Venus landing)
- 1971Mars 2 and 3 launched — died of heart attack on 3 August