Raketno kosmchsky krp En imn SP Krl : Experimental Machine-building Plant is 100 years old

Experimental Machine-building Plant is 100 years old

November 1, 2018

Today, November 1, the Experimental Machine-building Plant (ZEM) celebrates its one hundredth anniversary.

This is a special date not only for the employees of the plant, but also for the entire rocket and space industry of our country. RSC Energia' ZEM is not just the major employer in the town, although it was exactly because an ordnance plant was moved in 1918 to Podlipky, this quiet dacha community was turned into a workers' settlement. Then the settlement became a town, and eventually a town of science named after the Chief Designer, the great Korolev.

ZEM earned the all-Soviet Union fame as far back as in the years before the WWII, when in became our country's leader in the development and production of anti-tank, tank and anti-aircraft artillery.

Evacuation of the main production unit in 1941 turned a new page in the legendary history of ZEM. First, the vacated floor areas were used for setting up a repair facility for weapons that had seen action. After that, the plant, which was given the designation of Plant No.88, started serial production of 25-mm anti-aircraft guns. 'All for the front, all for the Victory!' - this call was answered by the workers and engineers of the Central Artillery Design Bureau which was also established here and produced anti-tank and division artillery.

The company's literal ascent to space began a year after the war, when the State All-union Prime Research Institute NII-88 was established on the base of Plant No.88, and Sergei Korolev was appointed аs the Chief Designer of the first long-range missiles. It was under his leadership that the great challenge to our country was met - the nuclear missile shield of our Motherland was developed. Certainly, the successes of the industrial rocket production would have been impossible without an outstanding pleiad of talented people dedicated to the common goal, - NII-88 became the talent foundry for many companies in the industry.

The legendary R-7 rocket, the overall configuration of which is retained to this day by the Soyuz LV, assembled and tested in the plant's specially constructed high-bay facility, became not only the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, but also cleared the way to space for the humankind.

Ever since the beginning of the space age, ZEM has been assembling all the experimental and small-batch products, which require a special approach, extremely well organized manufacturing processes and the highest level of work discipline. These include rocket engines for various applications, upper stages, artificial satellites of Earth, robotic spacecraft, communication satellites. It was here that the first manned spacecraft were built, starting with Vostok, and components for orbital stations Salyut and Mir, work was conducted under the Energia-Buran program, and for the International Space Station the following modules were manufactured: MRM-2 (Poisk), DC-1 (Pirs), node module Prichal.

Constructed here today are crew transportation spacecraft Soyuz MS and cargo transportation spacecraft Progress MS, communications and ERS satellites, upper stages. Work is under way on the development of the new-generation crew transportation spacecraft Federatsiya. The future prospects for our country's space industry are also directly linked to to the plant and its unique workforce.

To develop cutting-edge hardware for deep space exploration, to always remain the leaders, pioneers overcoming any obstacles, - these are the main principles and traditions handed down from the first Chief Designer Sergei Korolev. That is how they have always worked and will work at ZEM!

We congratulate the plant with anniversary. Happy holiday, dear colleagues and partners!