History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back The Aspects of the History of the Rarefied Gas Dynamics in Russia Predtechensky M.R. Safonov A.I. Timoshenko N.I. The aspects of the history of the rarefied gas dynamics related to the creation of the experimental equipment in the Institute of Thermophysics is discussed. The problems of rarefied gas dynamics covers the phenomena with characteristic spatial and temporal scales, when the number of collisions between molecules is not sufficient to establish equilibrium. It may be a variety of non-equilibrium situation. For example, gas can have different translational, rotational and vibrational temperature and the composition of the components corresponds to some another temperature. These problems are extremely important in the physical gas dynamics, chemical kinetics, laser physics and other fields. A motion of nanoparticles can be described only using the concepts of rarefied gas dynamics. In order to be able to set in space daring experiments, special technical base is needed. The largest in the USSR vacuum gas-dynamic complex equipped with modern diagnostic tools, enabling to perform researches with nonequilibrium supersonic flows with the effects of the translational, rotational, vibrational relaxation, spontaneous condensation and radiation was established in Novosibirsk Akadem town more than half a century ago. And it’s also part of the history of the rarefied gas dynamics. Keywords: rarefied gases dynamics; nonequilibrium supersonic jet streams; Institute of Thermophysics; academician RAS A.K. Rebrov. Contacts: E-mail:vika@itp.nsc.ru Pp. 17-22.