Until recently, residents of Rostov-on-Don knew little about the activities of the open joint-stock company "Plant Kvant", which is part of the Russian Space Agency. This circumstance, however, is easily explained by the fact that the enterprise belongs to the Russian military-industrial complex, which in itself to a certain extent limited information about it. Initially, the plant was created as a branch of the Azov Optical and Mechanical Plant and was intended for the production of dual - use products, civil and military, in the interests of aviation and the aviation industry. - Our plant can be called a "child of the century" without much stretch, - says Vyacheslav Motin, General Director of JSC "Plant Kvant", Candidate of Technical Sciences. And it's hard to argue with him. The company launched its first products, two on-board instruments for spacecraft orientation on the Ground, in July 1980. At least the fact that the plant was put into operation just a month before this memorable event for the team indicates the high demand for products. The Moscow NGO Neofizika, whose structural structure included Kvant, commissioned it to produce small-scale and single production of devices for astronavigation and orientation of spacecraft on the Earth, on the Sun and on the stars, according to its scientific and technical documentation. Since then and to this day, almost all Soviet and Russian spacecraft have been equipped with "quantum" navigation equipment, which is characterized by high reliability and a large margin of safety. If earlier the factory workers were only manufacturers of these products, now, due to the changed economic conditions, they also started developing their own scientific and technical documentation, creating a research department at the enterprise for this purpose. New developments of Kvant are involved in serious international space projects, such as Globalstar, in which eight American communications satellites equipped with orientation de ... Читать далее