Alla Masevich

She served as deputy chairman of the Astronomical Council of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in 1952, and worked closely with Viktor Ambartsumian.

Masevich was the Russian delegate to the International Astronautical Federation Congress following the 1957 Sputnik launch and presented a paper on optical tracking of satellites.

[2] She was born in Tiflis as the eldest child of Natalia Zhgenti, a Georgian nurse, and Genrikh Masevich, a lawyer.

As a child, the popular scientific works of Yakov Perlman, whom Masevich began a correspondence with, inspired her interest in science.

[3] From 1952 to 1987 she held the prestigious position of Deputy Chairman of the Astronomical Council of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.