MOSCOW, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Chief designer of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation Yevgeny Mikrin has passed away at 65, Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos said Tuesday. Local reports said last month that he contracted the novel coronavirus.
The passing of Mikrin, a scientist in mechanics and control processes, is "an irreparable loss for Russia's rocket and space industry, as well as the country's science," a Roscosmos obituary read.
No reason was provided for his death, but various reports said that Mikrin had been infected with COVID-19.
Earlier on Tuesday, TASS news agency quoted President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev as saying that Mikrin died in a hospital for coronavirus treatment in a Moscow suburb.
On April 15, TASS reported that Mikrin had taken two tests for COVID-19 and both results were positive after he visited the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 9 to see the Soyuz MS-16 spaceship off to the International Space Station. Enditem
