As Yuzhnoye's General Designer, Utkin helped materialize the concepts and projects conceived by his predecessor Mikhail Yangel.

Vladimir Utkin placed emphasis on environmental protection, automation of prelaunch operations, missile firing rates, and other topical issues.

Vladimir Utkin was an active participant in international cooperation in space research and exploration, including the Interkosmos program: the Arcade project with the Aureole satellite was implemented jointly with French specialists; Aryabhata and Bhaskara satellites were built and launched into orbit in cooperation with India.

A lot of the credit must go to Vasiliy Utkin for using decommissioned missiles to launch spacecraft (under the Dnepr program, etc.).

Today, these medals have awarded to scientists and designers for outstanding achievements in aerospace technology development.