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Russia's GLONASS navigation system designer passes away

MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. An outstanding Russian space designer and one of the authors of the GLONASS navigation system, Leonid Gusev, has passed away on Wednesday, the Russian Space Systems Corporation told TASS.

"Leonid Gusev, a prominent Russian radio engineering scientist and a founder of the Russian rocket and space industry has died on Wednesday at the age of 92", a source in the company said.

Gusev was one of Russia’s leading experts in the aerospace electronics. He was involved in designing and developing the devices for radio guidance systems of the R-5 and R-7 long-range ballistic missiles. He took part in the launch of the first artificial Earth orbiting satellite and the first manned Vostok-1 spacecraft. During his career in Russia’s space industry, Leonid Gusev was involved in the work to create high-priority on-board and ground-based radio and space systems that ensured the delivery of the Moon soil, flights to Mars, Venus and Halley’s Comet.

He led the efforts to develop the domestic space geodetic and communication systems, the GLONASS global navigation satellite system, the COSPAS-SARSAT search-and-rescue system, flight-control system of the Mir space station and the International Space Station and many other projects. He authored more than 100 scientific papers and some 20 inventions and patents.

Gusev was born on April 3, 1922, in the village of Vnukovo outside Moscow. In 1940, he was drafted into the Red Army, fought in Russia’s Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany and was wounded twice. In post-war years, he graduated from the Radio Department of the Moscow Electrical Engineering Institute of Communications.

Leonid Gusev was awarded multiple Russian orders and medals and was a winner of the Lenin and State prizes of the USSR.