![russian space pioneer russian space pioneer](https://natedsanders.com/ItemImages/000024/45549_lg.jpeg)
Shalaj explained that the school was focused from the beginning on launch sustainability. Professor Shalaj, now dean of OmGTU, and Professor Trushlyakov were among the founders of the OmGTU’s department of aerospace and rocketry, back in 1967. There I met two pioneers of launcher sustainability: Victor V. OmGTU is one of the most important research centers in eastern Siberia with many international connections. I travelled to Omsk for the 70 th anniversary of Omsk State Technical University (OmGTU). As of 2007, launch frequency of the rocket was reduced out of concern from the toxic propellant used the last confirmed launch was in 2010. Cosmos 3M, or SL-8 as it was designed by the US Department of Defense, is well known among space debris experts because its upper stage represents one of the major threats to the sun synchronous low Earth orbit with more than 300 debris objects still orbiting around Earth at different altitudes (700-1500 km). In 1969 the Omsk Polyot ( ПО «Полёт) manufacturing site started the mass production of the Cosmos 3M, building about 420 rockets before production stopped in 2006. Omsk, a large city in eastern Siberia, is perhaps one of the most significant places in the world to talk about sustainability and space debris. Manufacturing site’s Cosmos 3M in Omsk (Credits: Polyot).