Vladimir Sergeevich Syromyatnikov (January 7, 1933 - September 19, 2006) was a Russian engineer and designer in the former Soviet space program.
His notable designs including the docking mechanisms for crewed spacecraft; it was his Androgynous Peripheral Attach System which, in the 1970s, linked the Soviet and American space capsules in the Apollo-Soyuz test flight.
Syromyatnikov also helped design and develop Vostok, the world's first crewed spacecraft, which launched Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961.
Having failed to get support for a solar sail program in the mid-1980's, Syromyatnikov pivoted to use the technology as a space mirror.
Two prototype Znamya space mirrors were deployed aboard Progress spacecraft in 1993 and 1999 respectively,[1] however due to the latter's failure, the program was abandoned.