On April 12th the Cosmonautics Day was celebrated in our country. This is a special holiday for South Ural State University since for more than 60 years now the university's Faculty of Aerospace Engineering has been training engineers for the developing sector of mechanical engineering– rocket and missile engineering. The major achievement of the Faculty are its more than 7000 graduates, many of whom are heading big and small enterprises, design bureaus, and research-and-development organisations, and are working as top managers or lead engineers. To attend this ceremonial meeting, the university invited the teaching and other staff members who made special contribution to the development of science in the field of cosmonautics.
"The results, which the Soviet Union obtained after Yuri Gagarin's flight into space, meant a breakthrough in engineering, and a breakthrough in technologies. And to a great extent, it further on defined the development of our country. There was a whole period of our domination in the military space technology and in the field of space exploration. South Ural State University also made its contribution. The then Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute designed a device which was used in the Mir space station," shared Rector Aleksandr Shestakov.
The ceremonial part of the meeting included two reports delivered by the Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Viktor Fyodorov and by the Director of the SUSU Institute of Engineering and Technology Sergey Vaulin. The speakers discussed the plans on popularizing of scientific projects, developing of technologies, and shared on the most up-to-date innovations. For instance, Sergey Vaulin told that scientists from South Ural State University jointly with Academician V.P. Makeyev State Rocket Centre (Miass), and JSC R&DIME, (Nizhnyaya Salda) are engineering a unique space complex, to which there are no analogues at present. The complex consists of a single-module launch vehicle, a platform, and a spacecraft, which will help protect the Erath from asteroids. The specific feature of the project is that the launch vehicle will be a "reusable" one, that is, it will be able to fly multiple times and deliver up to 7 tonnes of cargo to the near-Earth orbit. In addition, it will open the prospects for the humankind in not only exploring the asteroids threatening the Earth, but also perform various space services for the potential clients.
"A world-class research and education centre has been established; it is an interregional one and comprises 3 regions: the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, and Kurgan regions. The Centre's main field of activity is aerospace engineering. And aerospace engineering has always involved additional fields and sectors in its work. After all, you can do nothing without new materials and technologies, that is why this project is becoming a leading one for the Institute of Engineering and Technology, while all faculties are gradually getting engaged in it as well," said Director of the SUSU Institute of Engineering and Technology Sergey Vaulin.
To close the meeting, Aleksandr Shestakov, in acknowledgment, awarded the staff members who made their contribution into the development of the aerospace engineering sector:
- Ruslan Peshkov, head of the Asteroid Youth Design Bureau;
- Aleksandr Teryokhin, Associate Professor of the Department of Aircraft Engines;
- Ekaterina Zarnitsyna and Yulia Syuskina, Deputy Deans for Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering;
- Yulia Baranovskaya, Deputy Dean for Occupational Guidance;
- Elena Sulatskaya, Deputy Dean for Discipline Activities;
- Pavel Shaburov, assistant on working with talented young people.