Mikhail Tikhonravov's famous 'satellite team' shown here in a photo from 1970. It was during 1950-54 that these young men and women developed the first engineering conceptions of a Soviet Earth satellite. Based on this important research, Tikhonravov authored a landmark report on artificial satellites in 1954 that laid the groundwork for the early Soviet space program. Sitting from left are: Vladimir Galkovskiy, Gleb Maksimov, Lidiya Soldatova, Tikhonravov, and Igor Yatsunskiy. Standing from left to right are Grigoriy Moskalenko, Oleg Gurko, and Igor Bazhinov.