 The building of the Main Admiralty in Leningrad, where in the 1930s the Gas Dynamics Laboratory was located | |
| Parent institution | Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Nikolai Tikhomirov |
| Established | 1921[1] |
| Mission | research and development |
| Focus | Solid-propellant rockets, Liquid-propellant rockets |
| Key people | Valentin Glushko |
| Location | |
| Dissolved | in 1933 became RNII |
| Part of a series of articles on the |
| Soviet space program |
|---|
Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) (Russian: Газодинамическая лаборатория) was the first Soviet research and development laboratory to focus on rocket technology. Its activities were initially devoted to the development of solid propellant rockets, which became the prototypes of missiles in the Katyusha rocket launcher, as well as liquid propellant rockets, which became the prototypes of Soviet rockets and spacecraft. At the end of 1933 it became part of the Reactive Scientific Research Institute (RNII). A number of craters on the far side of the Moon are named after GDL employees.