The inspiration for establishing the organisation came from Fredrich Tsander, a scientist, inventor, and romantic who dreamed of space travel.

[2] A key contributor to GIRD came from a young aircraft engineer Sergey Korolev, who would later become the de facto head of the Soviet space programme.

At this time the group was organized as four brigades to further optimise their efforts, as follows:[4][5] Under Korolev's leadership GIRD began to attract additional funding from the Red Army's Directorate of Military Inventions, which enabled GIRD to obtain better equipment and pay personnel, which by 1933 totaled approximately 60 personnel.

Mikhail Klavdievich Tikhonravov, who would later supervise the design of Sputnik I and the Luna programme, headed GIRD's 2nd Brigade, was responsible for the first Hybrid-propellant rocket launch, the GIRD-9, on 17 August 1933, which reached an altitude of 400 metres (1,300 ft).

It was never completed, but its design formed the basis of the later Aviavnito rocket, powered by Leonid Dushkin's 12-K engine and fueled by liquid oxygen and alcohol, which was first launched in 1936 and achieved an altitude of 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in 1937.

By 1931 there were two Soviet organisations focusing on rocket technology; GIRD and the Leningrad based Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL).

Informal contact between the two group were maintained and discussions began of a merger, which was supported by the Deputy People's Commissar for the Army and Navy, Marshall Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

[10][11] For their contribution to spaceflight the following GIRD personnel have craters on the far side of the Moon named after them; S. P. Korolev, F. A. Tsander and Mikhail Tikhonravov.