Abstract <p>We provide an overview of research at the Department and Laboratory of Physical Mechanics of St. Petersburg State University, from its founding in 1986 to 2024 inclusive, that is devoted to the modeling of nonequilibrium processes in plasma. Special attention is paid to several key results: (i) calculation of the aerodynamic characteristics of bodies moving in rarefied plasma, (ii) modeling the charging process of bodies in space plasma, and (iii) the development of methods for describing the dynamics of electron beams in space plasma. We describe methods of calculating the aerodynamic characteristics of bodies both with and without taking into account their intrinsic magnetic field. It is shown that analytical methods can also be used to describe the process of charging a cylindrical body in space plasma taking into account an external magnetic field. Other results are presented relatively briefly.</p>