Reactive Scientific Research Institute

The Reactive Scientific Research Institute, known by its initials RNII, was one of the first Soviet research and development institutions to focus on rocket technology. It was officially established on 21 September 1933 by merging the Leningrad based Gas Dynamics Laboratory with the Moscow based Group for the Study of Reactive Motion, and staff from Leningrad moved to Moscow. Its first director was Ivan Kleymyonov, with Sergey Korolev as his deputy, and its early advisory board included Glushko, Korolev, Pobedonostsev and Tikhonravov. It worked on solid fuel and liquid fuel rocket engines, cruise missiles and the rocket aircraft RP-318, and its research produced the RS-82 and RS-132 rockets and the Katyusha rocket launcher, which went into production in 1941. The institute was renamed several times, becoming NII-3 in 1937 and NII-1 in 1944, and its work was important to the later Soviet rocket and space programs.