Yиry Gagarin First cosmonaut on the Earth

Thermophysics and Aeromechanics, 2011, Vol. 18, No. 2

To the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s space flight

Climbing to stars A.I. Maksimov Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia E-mail: [email protected] (Received January 12, 2011) Development of cosmonautics and preparation to the first manned space flights are briefly observed. Details of the development of the first Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile R-7, which served as a basis for creating Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod, Molniya, and Soyuz launchers, are given. The contributions of the outstanding designers of space engineering, W. von Braun, S.P. Korolev, V.P. Glushko, and academician M.V. Keldysh, to the development of astronautics and first manned space missions are demonstrated. A list of test launches and manned flights of Vostok and Mercury spacecrafts and the basic characteristics of Vostok, Redstone, Atlas-D, Voskhod, and Soyuz launchers are presented. Key words: astronautics, cosmonautics, pioneers of rocket engineering, liquid-propellant rocket engine, ballistic missile, launcher, spacecraft, reentry capsule, manned flight. INTRODUCTION

Exactly half a century ago, on April 12, 1961, at 9:07 a.m. Moscow time, the Vostok launch vehicle started from the Baikonur cosmodrome and launched the first manned spacecraft with Yury Gagarin, senior lieutenant of the Soviet Air Force, onboard. After one turn around the Earth, Gagarin performed safe landing on a parachute in the Saratov region near the Volga River. This historical flight lasting for 108 minutes, which paved the road to space, became one of the most important achievements on the long way of humankind evolution. For half a century that has passed since that time, manned cosmonautics came through the stages of unanimous euphoria of the first years of astronautics, travels to the Moon, creation and exploitation of the first space stations. Reusable space transportation systems Space Shuttle and Energiya–Buran were developed. Creation of the tremendous 400-ton International Space Station with a crew of 6 people has been almost finalized recently as a result of the efforts applied by 15 countries. After that, the idea to implement the dream of the first space conquerors to fly to Mars and other planets was revived. © A.I. Maksimov, 2011

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BEGINNING OF ASTRONAUTICS

For many centuries, people thought that the Earth is the center of the Universe. Back in 360 B.C., however, the Greek philosopher, Heraclide of Pont told his pupils that Mercury and Venus rotate around the Sun, though he believed that the Sun rotates around the Earth. Less than a century later, Aristarchus of Samos actually proposed the modern arrangement of the Solar system, which is now called the Copernicus system, and tried to determine the distance from the Earth to the Sun and to the Moon approximately in 280 B.C. Another half a century later, Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276−194 B.C.) performed fairly accurate calculations of the Earth radius by measuring the length of the shadow at the summer solstice (instead of 6378 km, he obtained 6311 km, i. e., the error was only 1 %). A significant contribution to astronomy development in the next years was made by Hipparchus (180−126 B.C.). He managed to determine the year duration, and he was the first one to calculate the distance between the Moon and the Earth and the obliquity of the ecliptic (plane of the Earth's orbit) with respect to the plane of the Earth's equator. He composed a catalog of positions of 850 stars separated into six classes in accordance with their brightness. Despite the significant achievements of the Greek researchers in finding the true structure of the universe, the final victory was won by the conservative ideas of Aristoteles (384−322 B.C.) and Claudius Ptolemaeus (who died approximately in 168). Aristoteles and Ptolemaeus rejected the mere idea about the existence of other worlds and argued that it is the Earth that is at the center of the Universe, while all stars, the Sun, and other planets rotate around the Earth. Because of intense pressing of the Christian church only any new scientific idea, Ptolemaeus’ geocentric system described in his famous paper “Great mathematical construction of astronomy in 13 books,” which is better known as “Amalgest,” was considered as valid almost without any changes for 1.5 thousand years, until the end of the 16th century. The modern structure of the Universe was based on the academic works of Nikolaus Copernicus (1473−1543), Johannes Kepler (1571−1630), and Galileo Galilee (1564−1642). Copernicus’ book entitled “On rotation of celestial spheres” was published in Nurnberg in 1543, not long before the author’s death. With his activities, the Polish astronomer formed the basis for the heliocentric system and placed the Sun at the center, though he still believed that the Earth and other planets move in epicycles, which, in turn, rotate around the Sun along large circles. In 1616, when the new idea became a real threat for Aristoteles’ canonical statements, the inquisition listed Copernicus’ book among other prohibited works, and it remained prohibited for more than 200 years, until 1828. Kepler’s book entitled “New astronomy” (“About Mars motion”) dealing with investigations of the Mars motion laws, based on observations of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546−1601), was published in 1609. In that book, Kepler described two (out of three) laws of planetary motion proposed by him, which later found unambiguous confirmation by the law of universal gravitation, which was discovered by Isaac Newton, an English physicist and mathematician (1643−1727). Construction of the modern heliocentric system was actually finalized soon after the telescope was invented and Galilee, an Italian physicist and astronomer, performed the first observations of the Moon, stars, and nebulae, and discovered four large satellites of Jupiter. Galilee described the results of his astronomical observations in the book entitled “Star herald” in 1610. In 1692, during the favorable opposition of the Earth and Mars, researchers performed the first international experiment aimed at determining the real scales of the Solar system. In processing the results observed, Giovanni Cassini (1625−1712) found that the distance between the Earth and the Sun is more than 128 million kilometers [1], which is fairly close to the true value (based on modern data, the mean distance is 149 597 870 km). 164

The first dreams on flights to other worlds were realized in myths and science fiction. The first science fiction story about a travel to the Moon was written back in 160 by Lucian of Samos, a Greek sophist. The heroes of Lucian’s book entitled “True stories” found themselves on the Moon after a terrible storm captured Odisseus’ boat and took it to the sky. After a long period of gloomy Middle Ages, Europe saw the Resurrection. At the beginning of the 17th century, Lucian’s stories were published several times in the Greek language, and then they were translated into Latin. In 1634, these stories were published in English, which was a language known for the major part of the population. Lucian’s stories gave impetus to many other science fiction stories about the flights to the Moon and other planets. The writers of the new generation included the famous scientist J. Kepler. His book entitled “Dream or astronomy of the Moon” with a fantastic description of the Moon and its inhabitants was published in 1634 (after the author’s death). In the 19th century, intense development of barrel-type artillery made the authors of science fiction consider a more realistic way to perform interplanetary travels with the use of large guns. It was this method that was used to reach space velocities in the novels of Jules Verne, a famous French science fiction writer (1828−1905), entitled “From the Earth to the Moon” and “Around the Moon,” published in 1865 and 1870, respectively, which are still of interest for readers. The science fiction books published at the end of the 19th century − beginning of the 20th century played an important role in dissemination of ideas of interplanetary flights among various classes of the population, primarily among young people. Soon, many gifted people were enchanted by the idea of interplanetary flights and sought for realistic methods to perform these in practice. The oldest reference to an attempt to use rockets for manned flight was given in a story about the Chinese mandarin Van Gu, who was told to create in 1500 a flying vehicle from two large kites, which was equipped with 47 large gunpowder-driven rockets. The first attempt of flying this vehicle, however, was finalized by inventor’s death because of the explosion of the rockets during the launch. Among science fiction writers, a set of gunpowder-driven rockets was first “used” in 1649 for the Moon flight by Syrano de Bergerac, a French writer (1619−1655) [1−3]. Though the actual existence of the reactive force was theoretically justified by I. Newton, many people, including well-known scientists, doubted for a long time that rockets can be used for flights in vacuum. The first experiments on using gunpowder-driven rockets for flights with mice and rats were performed in Paris by the rocket master Claude Ruggieri at the beginning of the 19th century. In Russia, the first project of a controlled rocket-driven vehicle for manned flight in air was proposed by N.I. Kibalchich (1853−1881), who was a member of the “People’s freedom” organization, a specialist in explosives, and a participant of murder the tsar Alexander II on March 1, 1881. His records were found in the papers of the tsar’s secret political service only after the Great October Socialist Revolution and were published in the “Byloe” magazine (Nos. 4 − 5) in 1918 [4]. Hermann Ganswindt (1856−1934) was the first one among researchers and engineers who proposed a rocket-driven device for space travels in his report in 1891. In 1899, he published a book entitled “Das jungste Gericht,” where he described the structure of a space vehicle moved by shots of small dynamite cartridges [5]. It became gradually clear that a fuel having a higher calorific value than gunpowder should be used to increase the rocket velocity and range. S.S. Nezhdanovsky, a Russian researcher and inventor (1850−1940), considered a possibility of using a more efficient explosive mixture consisting of a liquid fuel and an oxidizer (kerosene and nitric acid or nitrogen dioxide) back in 1882−1884, but his manuscript was first published only in 1961 [2, 6]. 165

PIONEERS OF ROCKET ENGINEERING AND COSMONAUTICS

The commonly recognized founder of theoretical cosmonautics is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a teacher of mathematics from Kaluga (1857−1935, Fig. 1) [4, 7]. He described his first ideas on rocket dynamics in his diary; the records were made from February 20 to April 13, 1883 [8]. His systematic studies started in 1896 made him worldwide famous. As Tsiolkovsky confessed himself, the impetus to these studies was given by Jules Verne, a French science fiction writer, who “woke up the mental activities in this direction,” and A.P. Fedorov’s booklet entitled “New principle of aerostatics eliminating the atmosphere as a carrier medium.” The first paper on rocket dynamics, which was written by Tsiolkovsky and was entitled “Studying space by reactive instruments,” was published in the May issue of the “Scientific review” journal in 1903, but it became little known because the major part of the issue was lost owing to publisher’s bankruptcy. Nevertheless, apart from a narrow range of the author’s friends and some researchers, the future Soviet pioneer of rocket engineering F.A. Tsander had a chance to read this paper [9]. In his paper published in 1903, Tsiolkovsky described the structure of his liquidpropellant rocket and derived the basic formula of rocket dynamics, which is now known as the Tsiolkovsky formula. This formula relates the maximum possible (so-called characteristic) velocity of a single-stage rocket to the velocity of gases ejected from the nozzle and to the ratio of the burnt fuel mass to the final mass of the rocket: V = W⋅ln(1 + M2/M1), where V is the final velocity of the rocket, W is the effective velocity of exhaustion of combustion products from the rocket engine, М2 is the consumed fuel mass, and М1 is the final mass of the rocket, consisting of the mass of the rocket structure including the remainders of the non-consumed fuel and the payload. The ratio М2/М1, which actually characterizes the perfection of the rocket structure, is called the Tsiolkovsky number. The motion of a variable-mass body, i. e., a rocket, was studied by other researchers long before Tsiolkovsky. Back in 1731, in his paper entitled “World system,” Isaac Newton described launching a body from the Earth surface to the Earth orbit by ensuring a necessary velocity of this body. In 1810−1813, W. Moor derived the first equations of rocket dynamics. More details on rigorous derivation of these equations were given in the reference book written by P.G. Tait and W.G. Steel, which was published in 1856 in Cambridge. In Russia, all fundamental equations of rocket motion were derived in the papers entitled “Dynamics of a variable-mass point” (1897) and “Equations of motion of a variable-mass point in the general case” (1904) by Ivan Meshchersky, a famous mathematician (1859−1935) [10]. The first results of his studies on the theory of motion of variable-mass bodies were described in his lecture “One particular case of the Gylden theorem,” which was delivered in 1893 at the Petersburg Mathematical Society. Though the Tsiolkovsky formula is Fig. 1. K.E. Tsiolkovsky. 166

only a particular case of the Meshchersky equations, the latter were known for many years only to theoreticians in mathematics [11]. Apart from K.E. Tsiolkovsky, the most famous pioneers of rocket engineering and astronautics were the following talented foreign researchers and inventors: R. Goddard (1882−1945), R. Esnault-Pelterie (1881−1957), H. Oberth (1894−1989), W. Hohmann (1880−1943), and also Soviet engineers F.A. Tsander (1887−1933) and Yu.V. Kondratyuk (1897−1942). The main tribute for implementation of the ideas of Tsiolkovsky and other pioneers of astronautics should be given to W. von Braun, a German designer (1912−1977) and to S.P. Korolev (1907−1966) and V.P. Glushko (1908−1989), outstanding Soviet designers of rocket and space engineering. At the initial stage of modern rocket engineering development, the greatest achievements were reached by Robert Hutchings Goddard, an American researcher and inventor (Fig. 2). He became interested in the problem of space flights since 1899. In 1901, Goddard wrote his first small paper entitled “Motion in space,” where he analyzed the possibility of launching a projectile into space with the use of a gun. In 1909, he summarized his ideas on using a multi-stage rocket and various types of fuel, including gaseous oxygen and hydrogen. In 1912−1913, he studied rocket dynamics theoretically; since 1915, Goddard started ground-based experiments on determining the efficiency of solid-propellant rockets, depending on their configuration, size, and fuel type. In January 1920, the Collected Papers of the Smithsonian Institute (Vol. 71, No. 2, 1919) published Goddard’s first fundamental paper entitled “Method of reaching critical altitudes,” which contained the results of his theoretical and experimental studies in 1912−1916. In that paper, Goddard described the derivation of equations of rocket dynamics with allowance for the drag force of the atmosphere and for the gravity force of the Earth and obtained the Tsiolkovsky formula written in a different form. Since 1921, R. Goddard began experiments aimed at developing more efficient liquid-propellant rockets with engines operating on oxygen and hydrocarbon fuel (first, ether and then gasoline). Already in February–March 1922, he performed the first trial ignition of the prototype of the liquid-propellant 17.7 N (1.8 kgf) thrust rocket engine. The pioneering launch of the liquid-propellant rocket was performed on March 16, 1926 near Auburn in Massachusetts (Fig. 3) [5]. The next researcher who successfully launched a liquid-propellant rocket was Johannes Winkler, a German engineer (1897−1947). During the maiden launch, on February 21, 1931, his rocket (length about 60 cm and mass about 5 kg) went up to 3 m only. During the second launch, on March 14, 1931, however, it reached an altitude of 90 m [1, 12]. In the Soviet Union, the first hybrid propellant rocket, GIRD-09, designed by M.K. Tikhonravov started on August 17, 1933. Robert Albert Charles Esnault-Pelterie, a pilot, aircraft designer, engineer, inventor, and pioneer of rocket engineering (Fig. 4) presented his first theoretical work in astronautics, Fig. 2. R.H. Goddard. 167

Fig. 3. R. Goddard before the first launch of his liquid-propellant rocket.

which was entitled “Considerations on results of unlimited lighting of motors,” to the French Physical Society on November 15, 1912 and published it next year. In that paper, he considered the dynamics of a variablemass flying vehicle, analyzed different stages of flight on the Earth-Moon-Earth trajectory, demonstrated the technical possibility of maneuvering with the use of thrusters, and indicated the benefits of using nuclear energy for interplanetary flights. In 1928, he published the paper entitled “Studying the upper layers of the atmosphere with the use of rockets and possibility of space travels,” which became one of the most profound theoretical studies in astronautics in late 1920s. In February 1928, Esnault-Pelterie and André Louis Hirsch, a Parisian banker, founded an annual international prize, which was awarded to scientists and inventors for the most unusual theoretical and experimental works on astronautics until the beginning of the World War II. The first and second parts of the summary work of R. Esnault-Pelterie on astronautics and rocket engineering (“Astronautics”) were published in 1930 and 1935, respectively. In 1932, he started creating a liquid-propellant engine with a thrust of more than 100 kgf. Though the activities on creating an experimental prototype of an oxygenether rocket engine were successfully finished in 1937, Esnault-Pelterie did not receive financial support for further studies. He terminated his experimental works on rocket engineering because of the beginning of the World War II and moved to Switzerland [5, 10]. Hermann Oberth, a German pioneer of rocket engineering (Fig. 5), who was born in Romania and got higher education in Germany, became interested in interplanetary flights in 1907−1909. In his work entitled “Rocket to planets” published in 1923, he considered the equations of rocket dynamics in detail and derived the Tsiolkovsky formula. Oberth analyzed the most beneficial conditions of rocket launching with allowance for the drag force of the atmosphere and Earth rotation. He also described the structural features of the two-stage research rocket (length 5 m, diameter 55.6 cm, and takeoff

Fig. 4. R. Esnault-Pelterie. 168

Fig. 5. H. Oberth (photo presented by H. Oberth to N.S. Koroleva during his visit to P. Korolev’s museum house in 1982).

mass 544 kg), which was designed by him to reach an altitude of 1960 km. The next, more complete Oberth’s book entitled “Ways to ensure space flight” (“Wege zum Raumschiffahrt”) with a volume of approximately 400 pages was published in 1929. On July 23, 1930, Oberth’s first oxygen-gasoline liquid engine called “Kegelguse,” which developed a thrust force of 69 N (7 kgf), successfully worked for 90 seconds. This success allowed the members of the Interplanetary Communication Society (which was more known as the German Rocket Society (VFR)) to start fabricating liquid-propellant rockets “Mirak” and “Repulsor” [1, 5, 12]. Another German engineer and architect, Walter Hohmann (Fig. 6) became interested in space flights in mid-1910s. In 1925, he published a book entitled “Possibility of reaching celestial bodies,” where he considered various problems of overcoming the gravity force of the Earth, free flight in space, flying around other celestial bodies, landing of the space vehicle on these bodies, and its reentry to the Earth. In solving problems of choosing optimal flight trajectories, he found that the most beneficial trajectories from the viewpoint of fuel consumption are elliptical trajectories touching the circular orbits of the launch planet and target planet. Such trajectories of motion were later called the Hohmann trajectories or ellipses. The next Hohmann’s paper entitled “Ways and time of flight, possibility of landing,” dealing with interplanetary flight trajectories, was published in 1928. He considered flights to Mercury and Jupiter and showed that the trajectory flight around other celestial bodies can reduce the flight time almost by a factor of 2 [5, 10]. At the moment, almost all flights to distant planets, asteroids, and comets are performed over such trajectories, i. e., by using gravitational (or the so-called perturbational) maneuvering. The first records on space flight problems were made by Fridrikh Tsander (Fig. 7) in autumn 1907. In contrast to Tsiolkovsky, he sincerely believed that a space vehicle can be created in the nearest years, rather than in the future, based on the level of science and technology achieved by that time. It is from this statement that Tsander started his first publication on astronautics, which was entitled “Flight to other planets”

Fig. 6. W. Hohmann. 169

Fig. 7. F.A. Tsander.

and was published in the journal “Engineering and life” (No. 13) in 1924. His confidence allowed him to pass comparatively rapidly from the basic theoretical research to particular engineering calculations and then to the development of real structures: prototypes of the rocket engine OR-1, liquid-propellant rocket engines OR-2 and 10, and also the first liquid-propellant rocket GIRD-X developed in the Soviet Union. In September 1931, Tsander and Korolev organized the Moscow group for studying reactive motion (GIRD or MosGIRD). Tsander became the first leader of this public organization. The Chairman of the Technical Council was Sergey Korolev, the future Designer-in-Chief of the first Soviet rocket space systems [13, 14]. Yury Kondratyuk (born as Alexander Shargei, Fig. 8) was interested in interplanetary flight problems when he was a student in the classical school. His first untitled manuscript where he derived the basic formula of rocket dynamics, i. e., the Tsiolkovsky formula, was written when he studied in a school for warrant officers, shortly before he was sent to the battlefield in autumn 1916. In this manuscript, he proposed a sequence of basic actions aimed at space conquering, beginning from atmospheric flights to the Moon mission. Considering space flight trajectories, Kondratyuk justified the feasibility of vertical takeoff of the rocket, caused by the dense atmosphere of the Earth, demonstrated the cost efficiency of creating intermediary stations for flights to the Moon and planets of the Solar system, and indicated the possibility of significant fuel saving during spacecraft landing by means of its deceleration in the atmosphere. He managed to publish his famous paper entitled “The Conquest of interplanetary space” at his own expense only in January 1929 in Novosibirsk, where he moved in April 1927 [4, 14, 15]. Despite significant contributions to development of rocket engineering made by numerous research teams in the 1920-1930s, the real prospects of breakthrough to space appeared only after development of the first heavy ballistic missile А-4 (Aggregat-4) or V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe-2) designed by Wernher von Braun.

Fig. 8. Yu.V. Kondratyuk. 170

DESIGNERS-IN-CHIEF OF THE FIRST ROCKET SPACE SYSTEMS

Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun (Fig. 9) was born in Wirsitz on March 23, 1912, in the family of the baron Magnus von Braun and baroness Emmy von Quistorp. In April 1930, he entered the Higher Technical School in Berlin and became a member of the German Society of Interplanetary Communications (VfR). At the same time, von Braun together with K. Riedel and R. Nebel started experiments with Oberth’s combustion chamber in the workshops of the Berlin State Institute of Chemistry and Technology. By October 1932, the Head of the Armament and Ballistic Department of the Military Inspection of Armament, Colonel Karl Bekker and the Head of the LiquidPropellant Engine Development Department at the Military Inspection of Armament, Captain Walter Dornberger organized an experimental rocket station in Kummersdorf. The first person enrolled was von Braun. At the end of 1934, the Braun — Dornberger team performed tests of a 300 kgf (3 kN) thrust liquid-propellant engine for 150-kg A-1 and A-2 missiles; in 1935, they tested a 1.0−1.5 tf (10−15 kN) thrust liquid-propellant rocket engine. In 1937, von Braun was appointed the Technical Director of a new rocket center in Peenemünde and the responsible officer for the development of the A-4 longrange ballistic missile. On May 2, 1945, von Braun and his colleagues surrendered to Americans. The USA received all technical documentation and approximately 100 A-4 missiles together with well-trained military personnel. In the USA, the German rocket engineers signed contracts for participation in test campaigns and high-altitude launches of A-4. On April 1, 1950, the team headed by von Braun, which included 120 former researchers from Peenemünde, was moved from the White Sands rocket test field to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. At the new place, they started to develop a ballistic missile designed for delivering a massive nuclear charge to a distance of 400 km. The first launch of the missile called “Redstone” was performed by von Braun’s team on August 20, 1953. It was modifications of this missile that ensured launching of the first American artificial satellite of the Earth (Explorer-1) on January 31, 1958 and the ballistic trajectory flights of the first American astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom on May 5 and July 21, 1961. On May 14, 1955, Wernher von Braun received the American citizenship. On July 1, 1960, his team was transferred from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Von Braun became the first director of a new NASA center, renamed to the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), where he supervised the development of launchers of the Saturn family, which provided Apollo manned missions to the Moon. In January 1970, he left the position of the Marshall Center Director and was appointed the Deputy CEO of NASA on planning. After moving to the NASA headquarters in Washington, von Braun tried to ensure manned missions to Venus and Mars with landing of astronauts on the Martian surface. By that time, however, the USA were engaged into the

Fig. 9. Wernher von Braun. 171

unpopular Vietnam war, and the USA administration did not want to start new expensive space projects. In addition, after a more than convincing revanche over the Soviet Union in the “Moon race,” most Americans were no longer interested in space flights. On July 17, 1972, von Braun left NASA and became a Vice President of Fairchild Industries; in 1975, he founded the National Space Institute. He died on June 16, 1977 and was buried in the yard of a church in the Washington suburb. The founder of practical cosmonautics, S.P. Korolev (Fig. 10) was born in Zhitomir on January 12, 1907 in the family of a teacher of the Russian language and literature. Since autumn 1910, he stayed with the mother’s parents in Nezhin. When the Society of Air Force Friends and the Society of Aviation and Aeronautics of the Ukraine and Crimea were founded in 1923, Korolev became a member of the gliding team of this Society in Odessa. In July 1924, the Aviation Technical Council of the Odessa Department of this Society considered and approved the project of his first glider K-5. In the same year, Korolev entered the Aviation Department of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of the Kiev Polytechnical Institute and joined the team constructing a training glider KPI-3uch designed by S.I. Karatsuba. In 1926, Korolev became a student of the night department of the Aeromechanical Faculty of the Bauman Moscow Higher Engineering School (BMHES). After studying at an aviation club, he received a certificate of a glider pilot at the end of March 1927 and a certificate of a hovering pilot on November 2, 1929. Simultaneously with his student’s activities and working at an aviation plant, Korolev together with S.N. Lyushin (1902−1978) designed and constructed a hovering glider named Koktebel in 1929, which participated in the IVth All-Union Glider Competition in the Crimea in October 1929. His diploma project supervised by A.N. Tupolev (1888−1972) was an SK-4 two-seat light airplane. On October 28, 1930, at the VIIth All-Union Glider Competition, a glider pilot V.A. Stepanchenok (1901−1943) was the first one to perform three Nesterov loops during free hovering on a new Korolev’s glider SK-3 called Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star). In 1931, Korolev participated in organizing a group for studying jet propulsion (GIRD) at the Bureau of Aeronautics of the Central Council of Osoaviakhim and became the Chairman of its Technical Council. On July 14, 1932, by the decree signed by R.P. Eideman (1895−1937), the Chairman of the Central Council of Osoaviakhim, GIRD became a research and design team for development of missiles and engines rather than a public organization, and Korolev was appointed the Head of GIRD. In 1933, Korolev was the leader in testing the first Soviet hybrid propellant missile GIRD-09 designed by M.K. Tikhonravov and liquidpropellant missile GIRD-X designed by F.A. Tsander. On September 21, 1933, by the decree of the Commander of Armaments of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, M.N. Tukhachevsky (1893−1937), the Leningrad Gas-Dynamic Laboratory (GDL) was united with GIRD into the Jet Propulsion Research Institute. The GDL Head I.T. Kleimenov was Fig. 10. S.P. Korolev. 172

appointed the Head of the Jet Propulsion Research Institute, and Korolev became his deputy. Because of the disputes between the former leaders of GDL and GIRD on further activities of the institute, Korolev was appointed a senior engineer in the group of winged missiles headed by E.S. Shchetinkov (1907 – 1976). In the same year, Korolev’s book entitled “Rocket flight in the stratosphere” was published by the Military Publishing House. In February 1936, Korolev became the Head of the Department of jet vehicles, which was named Team No. 3 after transformation of the Jet Propulsion Research Institute to the Research Institute No. 3 (NII-3) at the People’s Commissariat of Defense Industry. Winged missiles 212, 216, 217, 301, and a rocket-propulsion glider RP-318 on the basis of the SK-9 two-seat glider were developed under his guidance in 1932−1938. In May 1937, M.N. Tukhachevsky and a team of high-rank officers were accused of spying, arrested, and soon executed by shooting. The leaders of NII-3 I.T. Kleimenov and G.E. Langemak (1898 – 1938) were arrested in November 1937 and then shooted. V.P. Glushko, a designer of liquid-propellant rocket engines, was arrested on March 23, 1938, and Korolev’s turn came on the night from June 27 to June 28, 1938. On September 27, 1938, the Military Board of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Korolev to 10 years of prison. After long residence at the Novocherkassk transit prison until June 1939, he was sent through Vladivostok and Magadan to the Maldyak gold mine. Because of the lack of vitamins, he became ill with scurvy and was close to death. Owing to activities of his mother, M.N. Balanina (1888−1980), and intercession of M.M. Gromov (1899−1985) and V.S. Grizodubova (1910−1993), famous pilots, Heroes of the Soviet Union and Deputies of the Supreme Council of the USSR, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the USSR cancelled the previous sentence of Korolev on June 13, 1939, and appointed a new consideration of the case. It was accidental, but symbolic that Korolev was brought back to Moscow on February 28, 1940, on the date of the maiden flight of his rocket glider RP-318 with an operating liquid-propellant engine. He was again sentenced to eight years of work camps; on September 18, he was placed into a special prison (TsKB-29) of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs located in the building of the Design Department of the Pilot Aircraft Building Sector of TsAGI in Moscow, where he took part in the development of the wing for the Tu-2 bomber. On November 19, 1942, owing to a petition of Glushko, Korolev was moved from Omsk, where he was evacuated together with TsKB-29, to Kazan. In a special design bureau of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs at the Kazan Motor Building Plant (OKB-16), he was involved into the development and flight tests of an aviation rocket power-plant. For creating the aviation power-plant with liquid-propellant engines RD-1 and RD-1KhZ (with chemical ignition) designed by Glushko, 35 specialists including Korolev were unbound ahead of time with their convictions cancelled on July 27, 1944. Korolev was fully exonerated only on April 18, 1957. Being a member of the Interdepartmental Technical Commission on studying captured German missiles, Korolev stayed in Germany from September 7, 1945 till January 1947. On August 9, 1946, the Minister of Defense, D.F. Ustinov (1908−1984) appointed Korolev the Designer-in-Chief of “Article No. 1” (a copy of the A-4 missile) and the Head of the Design Department No. 3 of the Special Design Bureau of the newly founded Research Institute NII-88 (Rocket Research Institute). In August 1956, Korolev was appointed the Head and the Designer-in-Chief of the Special Design Bureau OKB-1, a department of NII-88, which became an independent organization. 173

Military ballistic missiles R-1, R-2, R-5, R-7, R-9, and R-11 were created and commissioned under Korolev’s supervision; he was responsible for the development of solid-propellant missiles RT-1 and RT-2, launchers Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz, first satellites of the Earth, spacecrafts and interplanetary automated stations (space probes) Luna (Moon), Mars, and Venera (Venus), as well as the superheavy rocket N-1 for manned flights to the Moon. Korolev was the technical supervisor of preparation and implementation of all manned missions of Vostok and Voskhod spacecrafts. On April 14, 1947, Korolev was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Artillery Sciences; on October 23, 1953, he became a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; finally, on June 20, 1958, he was elected a Full Member (Academician) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. For his outstanding achievements in the development of rocket engineering and cosmonautics, he was awarded with the title of the Hero of the Socialist Labor (two times, in 1956 and 1961), with many orders and medals; in 1957, Korolev became a winner of the Lenin Prize. Korolev died on January 14, 1966, at the age of 59 years, during surgery. His name became known to the entire world only after this sorrowful date [16−18]. The founder of the Soviet rocket engine building, V.P. Glushko (Fig. 11) was born on September 2, 1908 in Odessa in a rich family of a retired warrant officer. He became interested in cosmonautics after reading the books by Jules Verne (“From the Gun to the Moon” and “Around the Moon”) and Ya.I. Perelman (1882−1942) (“Interplanetary Travels”). Since September 26, 1923, he started communications with K.E. Tsiolkovsky. In 1924, Glushko performed observations of the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Sun, and started to write popular science papers on astronautics. In the same year, he prepared a manuscript of the book entitled “Problems of Exploitation of Planets” in two volumes (“On the Future of the Earth” and “On the Future of the Humankind”), but he did not manage to publish it. In 1925, Glushko became a voluntary student of the Physical Department of the Physical-Mathematical Faculty of the Leningrad University; one year later, he became an actual second-year student. During his student years, he developed a project of a heliorocket glider with an electrothermal jet engine. Since May 15, 1929, he worked at GDL, where he was invited to organize a sector on electrothermal jet engine development. Since the beginning of 1930, being advised by the Head of the Leningrad GasDynamic Laboratory, B.S. Petropavlovsky (1898−1933), Glushko started to work on the development of a liquid-propellant engine. In January 1934, together with the laboratory, he moved to Moscow to continue his activities within the Rocket Research Institute. Under Glushko’s supervision, the Gas-Dynamic Laboratory developed test jet engines (liquid-propellant engines) from ORM-1 with a thrust of 20 kgf (200 N) to ORM-52 with a thrust of 300 kgf (3 kN); these activities were continued at the Rocket Research Institute where engines from ORM53 to ORM-70 were developed.

Fig. 11. V.P. Glushko. 174

On August 15, 1939, Glushko was sentenced to eight years of work camps and was sent to the Special Technical Bureau of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs at the Aviation Engine Building Plant No. 82 in Tushino. In summer 1940, Glushko’s team arrived in Kazan, in the Special Department No. 28 of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs at the Aviation Engine Building Plant No. 27. When this plant was united with the Aviation Plant No. 16 evacuated from Voronezh, a Special Design Bureau of the 4th Special Department of the People’ Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR was founded. On January 10, 1942, the Special Design Bureau and Department No. 28 were transformed to the Design Bureau OKB-16, which included KB-2 dealing with the development of liquid-propellant rocket engines, headed by the Designer-in-Chief V.P. Glushko. By mid-1942, KB-2 designed a single-block 300 kgf thrust liquid-propellant engine RD-1 with a turbopump; based on this engine, Korolev’s team developed a rocket powerplant (RU-1) by May 1943. Official tests of RD-1 were performed in August 1943; on October 1, 1943, a newly equipped bomber Pe-2 performed the first flight with an operating rocket power-plant. More than 200 engines (RD-1 and RD-1KhZ) were fabricated. For creating the RD-1 liquid-propellant engine, Glushko was unbound ahead of time with his convictions cancelled in August 1944. He was fully exonerated only on September 29, 1956. On December 7, 1944, the Special Design Bureau of the 4th Special Department of the People’ Commissariat of Internal Affairs was transformed to OKB-SD (Special Design Bureau of Special Engines). In September 1945, a large team of workers of NII-1 (former NII-3) was awarded for creating the RD-1KhZ engine; Glushko was awarded with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and Korolev was awarded with the Order “Sign of Honor.” Since June to December 1945 and since May to December 1946, Glushko was in Germany, where he studied the structure and characteristics of the liquid-propellant engine of the A-4 missile. On June 7, 1946, the Head of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, M.V. Khrunichev (1901−1961) signed an order on organizing production of this engine at the aviation plant No. 456 located in Khimki (Moscow region). Soon Glushko was appointed the Head of the Special Design Bureau OKB-456 at this plant (later, this design bureau merged with the plant, and the resultant enterprise was called Energomash) and was the Designer-in-Chief until 1974, when he became the Designerin-Chief and the General Manager of the Energiya Science and Production Enterprise (now Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation named after S.P. Korolev). At OKB-456 and Energomash, Glushko supervised the production of powerful oxygen-alcohol engines RD -100 (analog of the engine of the A-4 missile), RD-101, and RD-103, oxygen-kerosene engines RD-107, RD-108, and RD-111, oxygen-hydrazine engine RD119, nitrogen-acid-kerosene engine RD-214, nitrogen-acid-hydrazine engines RD-216, RD-219, and RD-253, fluorine-ammonia engine RD-301, and some other rocket engines, as well as the superheavy Energiya launcher. In 1935, V.P. Glushko and G.E. Langemak published a book entitled “Rockets, their structure and application.” In 1948, BMHES published Glushko’s course of lectures entitled “Fundamentals of liquid-propellant rocket engines.” The next Glushko’s book entitled “Sources of energy and their application in rocket engines” was published in 1955. In 1969, the Mashinostroenie publishing house translated Glushko’s book entitled “Rocket engines of the Gas-Dynamic Laboratory and Special Design Bureau. 1929−1969” into five languages. Three editions of his book entitled “Development of rocket building and cosmonautics in the USSR” were issued in 1973, 1981, and 1987; his book entitled “Path of rocket engineering” was published in 1977. He was the editor 175

of the Cosmonautics Encyclopedia (in 1968, 1970, and 1985) and many volumes of reference books on thermodynamic properties of combustion products and other substances (in 1956–1982). He initiated founding the Center of Data on Thermodynamic Properties of Individual Substances (Thermocenter of the Russian Academy of Sciences, now named after Academician V.P. Glushko) on the basis of the Department of Chemical Thermodynamics of the Institute of High Temperatures in Moscow. On October 23, 1953, V.P. Glushko was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; on June 20, 1958, he was elected a Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (in the field of combustion engineering); finally, on December 31, 1976, he was elected a Full Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He was awarded with two titles of the Hero of Socialist Labor (in 1956 and 1961), five Orders of Lenin (in 1956, 1958, 1968, 1975, and 1978), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (in 1945), the Order of October Revolution (in 1971), and many medals, including the Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR No. 2 (medal No. 1 was invested to S.P. Korolev in 1958). Glushko was the winner of the Lenin Prize (in 1957 for creating RD-107 and RD-108 engines) and two State Prizes (in 1967 and 1984 for reference books on thermodynamic properties of substances). On March 23, 1988, Glushko chaired his last Meeting of Designers-in-Chief. He died in a hospital on January 10, 1989 and was buried on the Novodevich’e Cemetery [19, 20]. ON THE EVE OF THE BREAKTHROUGH TO SPACE

Preliminary investigations aimed at the development of the A-4 ballistic missile with a takeoff mass of 12 700 kg and design range of 275 km, capable of carrying a 1000-kg warhead, were started in Germany in summer 1936. By the end of 1937, about 120 scientists and hundreds of workers were involved in the project of the pioneering heavy guided missile under supervision of von Braun and Riedel. The Designer-in-Chief of the engine was Walter Till, and the technologist responsible for the engine was Walter Riedel. To develop a new guidance system, they designed a half-scaled missile A-5 with a length of 5.83 m, body diameter of 0.78 m, and takeoff mass of 900 kg. A total of 25 test launches of A-5 were performed until 1941. The firing tests of the combustion chamber of the liquid-propellant engine with a thrust of 250 kN for the A-4 missile were started in 1940. On March 21, 1940, the continuous operation of the engine on a test facility during 60 seconds was reached [21]. The first experimental launch of A-4, which took place on June 13, 1942, was not successful. Because of the failure of the control system, the missile fell into the sea approximately 1 km away from the launch pad and exploded in 1.5 minutes after takeoff. The second launch on August 16, 1942 also ended with an accident. This time, the missile successfully passed through the “sonic barrier,” but the nose cone broke away, and the missile deviated from its track at the 45th second of flight and broke into pieces. The first successful flight was performed only on October 3, 1942 (Fig. 12), when the missile No. 4 lifted to 85 km, covered 190 km, and exploded in four kilometers from the target. Thirty one tests were performed until July 1943, but many of them ended with explosions, failures of the fuel injection system, fires of the propulsion power-plant, and deviations of the missile from the trajectory. Since September 8, 1944, massive firing of the England territory by A-4 (V-2) missiles was started. As was mentioned by the English historian Irving, a total of 6103 V-2 missiles were fabricated at the Mittelwerk underground plant (5789) and at the test plant in Peenemünde (314). Out of 4300 fired missiles, 1402 were targeted to England (1054 missiles reached the targets), and others were targeted to Belgium and other places [22−24]. 176

In June 1944, the English got the first reliable information and some parts of the A-4 missile that fell down in Sweden [23]. A little bit later, at the request of W. Churchill, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, joint search of the English and Russian specialists was started on the freed Polish territory near Dębica, which was the place of a German reserve research test field. Using the found fragments, specialists managed to recover the structure of the entire missile and were astonished with the parameters of the liquid-propellant engine of the A-4 missile. Since the end of April 1945, comprehensive activities on studying German machinery were performed on the German territory. About 300 specialists were sent from the USSR to Germany, including Yu.A. Pobedonostsev (1907−1973), N.A. Pilyugin (1908−1982), M.S. Ryazansky (1909−1987), B.E. Chertok (born in 1912), V.P. Glushko, S.P. Korolev, and other future Designers-in-Chief and founders of the Soviet rocket and space industry [18, 25, 26]. By mid-summer 1947, the Nordhausen Institute in Germany and NII-88 in Podlipki (now Korolev) prepared two lots of ten A-4 missiles each. The first launch of the A-4 missile was performed on October 18, 1947, in the new State Central Test Range Kapustin Yar. Eleven missiles were fired during a month, and only five of them reached the target [22]. The Americans performed the first firing test of the captured A-4 missile on the White Sands test field on March 15, 1946 and started regular test launches in the vertical direction since April 16. By the end of October 1951, they used 69 A-4 missiles for studying the upper atmosphere. Approximately two thirds of these missiles went up above 80 km and provided obtaining valuable scientific information [27]. On May 13, 1946, I.V. Stalin (1879−1953) signed a secret decree No. 1017-419ss (ss means top secret) of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on issues of jet-driven armament, dealing with the development of missiles in the Soviet Union. Based on this decree, a new Special Committee (No. 2) at the Council of Ministers of the USSR was founded; it was chaired by G.M. Malenkov (before that, there was the Council on Radio Location (radars), which was transformed in 1947 to the Special Committee No. 3, and the Special Committee No. 1 on nuclear engineering). The responsible ministry for the development and production of missiles with liquid-propellant engines was the Ministry of Armament, and the Minister of Armament, D.F. Ustinov, was appointed the Deputy Chairman of the Special Committee No. 2. The decree No. 1017-419ss included founding a research institute of jet-driven armament and a design bureau on the basis of plant No. 88 (NII-88), other research institutes and design bureaus, State Central Test Range for Rocket vehicles, and military regiment for ballistic missiles; the responsibilities of the ministries involved were clearly described. The primary tasks

Fig. 12. Take-off of the A-4 missile. 177

were reproduction of V-2 long-range missile and Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile. The goals of Soviet specialists working in Germany were clearly identified, and a decision was made to move the design bureau and German specialists from Germany to the USSR by the end of 1946. The issues of feeding the specialists and training new specialists in institutes and universities were also taken into account [28]. Despite the after-war devastation and the difficult economical situation in the country, long-range ballistic missiles R-1 (analog of A-4), R-2, R-5, R-11, and submarine-based missile R-11FM, as well as the R-5M with a nuclear warhead were created and commissioned within a very short time at Department No. 3 of the Special Design Bureau SKB-88 and OKB-1 of NII-88 under supervision of S.P. Korolev. For the first time in the world, the R-5M missile transported a real nuclear warhead to a distance of 1200 km on February 2, 1956. For creating the R-5M (8K51) nuclear missile, the members of the first Council of Designers-in-Chief S.P. Korolev, V.P. Barmin, V.P. Glushko, V.I. Kuznetsov, N.A. Pilyugin, M.S. Ryazansky, and Korolev’s Deputy V.P. Mishin (1917−2001) were awarded with the titles of the Heroes of Socialist Labor [28, 29]. Now the Soviet designers faced the task to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (8 000−10 000 km). Owing to decreasing the structure mass ratio μstr = Мstr/М0 = (М0 − Мprop)/М0, where Мstr is the mass of the structure together with the payload, М0 is the takeoff mass of the missile, and Мprop is the mass of the main and auxiliary components of the propellant, from 0.32 (R-1) to 0.15 (R-5) and 0.08 (Thor, USA) and to using more efficient oxygen-kerosene engines, the flight range of single-stage missiles was increased to 3 000−3 500 km approximately during a decade. Attempts of further increasing the flight range by simply increasing the takeoff mass were unreasonable: principally new decisions were needed. The first step in this direction was made by the German scientist Eugen Sanger (1905−1964). Together with his wife, I. Bredt, he prepared a secret report in 1944, where he considered a project of a rocket plane with a takeoff mass of 100 metric tons and flight range of more than 10 000 km. He planned to reach such a flight range by using gliding over a wavy trajectory after the rocket plane reached the altitude of several tens or hundreds of kilometers. An alternative to this idea was the use of multi-stage rockets proposed by K.E. Tsiolkovsky and other pioneers of rocket engineering. The most rational path of further development of rocket engineering could be finally chosen only on the basis of a comprehensive analysis and careful calculations. In the USSR, such studies were inspired by Academician M.V. Keldysh (Fig. 13) whose one-century anniversary was celebrated in February 2011 as an important event for academic community and public in Russia and other countries. The famous Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics, mechanics, and cosmonautics, and an outstanding organizer of science, Mstislav Keldysh (1911.02.10−1978.06.24) was born in Riga in a family of a famous engineer and a Professor of the Riga Polytechnic Institute. In 1931, he graduated from the Physical-Mathematical Faculty of the Moscow State University and started to work at TsAGI, where he covered the path from an engineer to the Head of the Department Fig. 13. M.V. Keldysh. 178

of Dynamic Strength. During the years he spent working at TSAGI, Keldysh made a tremendous contribution to solving the problem of flutter of wings and control surfaces of high-speed planes and also wobbling (self-excited oscillations) of the front wheel of the three-wheel landing gear. He started his teaching activity when he was still a student at the university. In 1932−1953 (with a break during the war), he was a lecturer at the Moscow State University, being an Associate Professor of the PhysicalMathematical Faculty, and then a Professor of the Mechanical-Mathematical Faculty and the Head of one chair of the Physical-Technical Faculty. Simultaneously, Keldysh worked since 1933 at the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1966, the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR). In autumn 1934, he became a post-graduate student of this institute; his supervisor was Professor M.A. Lavrentyev (1900−1980). He was awarded with the title of the Candidate (PhD) of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1935 (without defending a dissertation) and with the title of the Candidate of Technical Sciences in 1936 (also without defending a dissertation). On January 26, 1938, Keldysh defended a Doctor’s dissertation in physics and mathematics on the topic “Presenting polynomials of functions of a complex variable and harmonic functions in the form of series” [31]. For his outstanding contribution to the development of aviation, Keldysh was awarded with the Stalin (State) Prize of the second degree for his academic works on preventing airplane fracture in 1942, with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1943, and with the second Order of the Red Banner of Labor and with the Order of Lenin in 1945. He was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR by the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1943 and a Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR by the Department of Engineering Sciences in 1946; in the same year, he was awarded with the second Stalin Prize of the second degree for his work on wobbling of the front wheel of the three-wheel landing gear. On December 2, 1946, Keldysh was appointed the Head of the Research Institute of Jet Aviation (NII-1 at the Ministry of Aviation Industry). At that time, the situation at the institute was rather difficult. By the order of M.V. Khrunichev, the team headed by A.M. Lyulka, a designer of airplane engines, was separated from NII-1 on March 30, 1946. The joint order of the Ministry of Aviation Industry and the Ministry of Agricultural Engineering separated Yu.A. Pobedonostsev’s Department with all topics on jet-driven armament on May 24, 1946. Finally, Department No. 1, which served as a basis for the Design Bureau OKB-4 headed by M.R. Bisnovat, a designer of air-to-air missiles, was separated from the institute on June 7, 1946. The young Academician, who was 35 years old, had to solve not only the urgent scientific problems, but also many organizational issues. On February 22, 1947, in his letter to Khrunichev, Keldysh clearly defined the main directions of activities of NII-1, which included investigations of the processes in rocket engines and air-breathing engines, the properties of various fuels and oxidizers, automatic control systems, strength of jet engines, and ground-based and in-flight testing experimental prototypes. Particular attention was paid to creating test facilities for testing rocket engines with a thrust up to 2 MN and more [32]. Keldysh’s organizational talent was fully manifested in 1961−1975, when he worked as the President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In his interview in 1981, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine, Academician B.E. Paton characterized Keldysh’s activity as follows: “There was one specific feature of mentality that singled out Keldysh as a researcher and as an organizer of science: he captured the essence of the problem faster and more exactly than many others” [33]. For his outstanding contribution to the development of science, rocket engineering, and cosmonautics, Keldysh was awarded with three titles of the Hero of Socialist Labor 179

(1956, 1961, and 1971), seven Orders of Lenin, and other orders and medals. In 1957, he was awarded with the Lenin Prize for launching the first artificial satellite of the Earth. He was also an Honorary Member of Academies of Sciences of many countries and an Honorable Professor of some foreign universities. In January 1973, Keldysh had a serious operation and prematurely died in summer 1978. As the Soviet Union did not possess powerful strategic aviation, in contrast to the USA, the problem to reach the territory of a potential enemy was extremely urgent. Both airplanes and missiles were considered as carriers of nuclear and later thermonuclear warheads. The studies performed in 1947 by NII-1 headed by Keldysh showed that the rocket-plane with a takeoff mass of 100 tons, which was proposed by E. Sanger, could not ensure the predicted flight range at that level of technology, even with the use of a wavy skipping trajectory. It was concluded that the flight range of 10 000 km with the same takeoff mass of 100 metric tons could only be reached by using simultaneously a rocket engine (with a specific impulse of 3000 m/s or more) and a supersonic airbreathing engine (scramjet). In their report, the authors proposed a long-range airplane with combined propulsion (Fig. 14) and considered its elements in detail. Recent calculations performed at the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences showed that the main advantage of skipping flight with periodic actuation of the scramjet is not an increase in the flight range (as it was assumed previously), but is significant (approximately by an order of magnitude) reduction of thermal loads on the vehicle structure owing to decreasing its aerodynamic heating during the periods of its residence in rarefied atmospheric layers [34]. The next research activities performed by Keldysh and co-authors in 1953 at the Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR were theoretical investigations of flight dynamics of component long-range cruise missiles [32]. Soon the results of those research activities were used to develop the Burya and Buran intercontinental cruise missiles at the design bureaus headed by S.A. Lavochkin and V.M. Myasishchev; scientific aspects of these design bureaus were supervised by Keldysh. In 1948, Keldysh was invited for consultations to NII-88, where he met S.P. Korolev. Since that time, their fruitful creative work finally turned Keldysh away from aviation to rocket engineering and cosmonautics. One of the first examples of their joint activities was participation in the program aimed at studying the upper atmosphere with the use of missiles for scientific and defense purposes. Launches of geophysical (research) missiles created on the basis of R-1, R-2, R-5, and R-11 military missiles were started in the USSR on May 24, 1949. On December 4, 1950, the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a decree on research and development activities on the topic N-3 “Studying the prospects of creating long-range missiles with the flight range of 5 000−10 000 km and the warhead mass of 1−10 tons.” These activities involved 15 basic design bureaus and research institutes. In 1951, based on the technical task of Korolev’s OKB-1, within the framework of the N-3 topic, S.S. Kamynin and D.E. Okhotsimsky under Keldysh’s supervision at the Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR performed a comprehensive Fig. 14. Sketch of a long-range cruise missile. 180

study of characteristics of missiles obtained by uniting three or five identical missiles; such combinations were called packets by M.K. Tikhonravov. The basic missiles used in the study of ballistic characteristics of component missiles were the single-stage missiles R-2 and R-3 with takeoff masses of 20.3 and 71 metric tons and specific impulse of the rocket engine in vacuum of 2 200 and 2 790 m/s, respectively [32]. The R-2 missile had been already tested by that time, while the draft project of the R-3 missile designed for delivering a 3-ton warhead to a distance of 3000 km was considered at the Scientific and Technical Council of NII-88 in early December 1949. A careful analysis of characteristics of the component missiles with a simple structure and with a feeding structure (with the fuel poured from one missile to another during the flight) with simultaneous or paired jettisoning of four side missiles of the first stage, underloading of the fuel in the tanks of similar missiles of the first stage, etc., showed that the final velocities developed by these missiles are not strongly different. The calculations showed that a packet of three R-3 missiles with a takeoff mass G0 ≈ 200 tons and a payload mass of 3 and 10 tons can develop the final velocities (with the atmospheric drag being neglected) V ≈ 7 500 and 5 500 m/s and cover the distances L ≈ 10 000 and 4 000 km, respectively [32]. It was demonstrated that the use of more than three stages is not beneficial for reaching this flight range (Fig. 15). Though the simple packet structure was worse than the usual staged missile by 18 % in terms of the mass efficiency, it was still attractive for designers because all engines could be fired simultaneously during the launch. At that time, nobody had any experience in igniting powerful rocket engines at high altitudes, and the development of such an engine could take a long time. It was the conclusions of that paper that allowed Korolev to reject the development of the R-3 intermediate range missile in due time and to start the development of the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile with the packet structure. Such a risky action under Stalin’s regime could be taken only by a true patriot of the country, a resolute person firmly confident in his correctness. That action ensured a fast breakthrough of the Soviet Union to space and made Korolev famous all over the world (unfortunately, it happened only after his death).

Fig. 15. Final velocity (а) and flight range (b) of a packet of missiles. I ⎯ payload of 3 tons, II ⎯ payload of 10 tons, number of stages: 1 (1), 2 (2), 3 (3), and 4 (4).

181

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DREAM

The design bureau headed by Korolev started to consider various configurations of the long-range ballistic missile with the flight range of 7 000 km in 1951. In addition to ballistic missiles, they also considered cruise missiles [35]. Before the famous R-7 was finally chosen, approximately 60 configurations were considered [16]. The decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the development of ballistic and cruise long-range missiles capable of reaching the USA territory was signed by Stalin on February 13, 1953. In addition to other topics, this document included the topic T-1 on theoretical and experimental investigations aimed at creating a two-stage ballistic missile with a flight range of 7 000−8 000 km, which was a detailed continuation of the topic N-3. A specific task of the topic T-1 was the development of a draft structure of a intercontinental ballistic missile with a weight up to 170 tons equipped with a separated nuclear warhead with a mass of 3 tons. Already in May 1953, the missile configuration was approved at OKB-1, and a special department (in what follows, the Ministry of General-Purpose Engineering of the USSR) was founded in June 1953 for project implementation. In that project, the marching rocket engines of both stages had one chamber each and had a thrust of 800 kN with the pressure in the combustion chamber equal to 60 atm. Such chambers, however, displayed a tendency to pulsation combustion resulting in chamber fracture; therefore, Glushko had to develop engines with four chambers [36]. In October 1953, by the decree of V.A. Malyshev, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, who replaced L.P. Beriya at the position of the Head of the First Main Department (nuclear agency), the nuclear warhead was replaced by a thermonuclear warhead. The mass of the thermonuclear device was increased to 3 tons, and the total mass of the warhead was increased to 5.5 metric tons; the flight range had to be unchanged: 7 000−8 000 km. This decision was difficult for designers and manufacturers; they had to revise the missile structure that was partly developed. Nevertheless, this decision largely determined the success of the USSR in the first years of space conquering. Based on Korolev’s instructions, the task of missile optimization in accordance with the new tactical and technical requirements was solved by D.E. Okhotsimsky under Keldysh’s supervision at the Department of Applied Mathematics of the Steklov Mathematical Institute [37]. The Designers-in-Chief of various systems of the future rocket and their first deputies met to discuss the development of the new intercontinental ballistic missile in January and February 1954. They decided to use a unified engine on all modules of the first and second stages of the missile, to limit the outer size of these modules to the size that allowed railroad transportation, to hang the missile on the launch pad on special jettisoned frames, and to use steering engines for the second stage, which simultaneously ensured an exact final level of thrust. The decree No. 956-408ss of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the development, manufacturing, and testing of the R-7 two-stage ICBM designed to carry a thermonuclear warhead was issued on May 20, 1954. Already on June 24, OKB-1 finalized the draft project of the missile with a takeoff mass of 260 tons and thrust of 3.6 MN. The missile consisting of a packet of five individual modules was developed by the design department headed by S.S. Kryukov (1918−2005). The draft project of R-7 (article 8K71) was approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on November 20, 1954. Korolev approved the theoretical drawings of the missile on March 11, 1955 and the materials of the refined draft project on July 25, 1956. By that time, the takeoff mass of this missile reached 273.5 metric tons. 182

On the initiative of V.P. Mishin, Korolev’s deputy, who was an active supporter of replacing jet rudders by steering rocket engines both on the core module and on the boosters of the first stage, the former A.M. Isaev’s design bureau specialists M.V. Melnikov, I.O. Raikov, and B.A. Sokolov were invited to participate in the development of steering engines. The use of steering engines not only increased the efficiency of the main rocket engines owing to elimination of the hazardous drag of jet rudders, but also made it possible to decrease the engine’s afterburning (residual) impulse strongly affecting the accuracy of hitting the target. After the first flight tests of R-7, Glushko noticeably improved his famous RD-107 and RD-108 engines, uniting them into a single module with the steering engines designed by M.V. Melnikov [16, 28]. The State Central Test Range Kapustin Yar in the Astrakhan region, where the first ballistic and anti-aircraft missiles were tested, was obviously too small for testing the R-7 ICBM. A new test range No. 5 of the Ministry of Defense (NIIP-5 MO), future Baikonur launch site, was created by the decree 292-181ss (dated February 12, 1955) of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the USSR near the Tyura-Tam station of the Kzyl-Ordinsk region of Kazakhstan, 400 km to the south-west of the actual town of Baikonur. Construction of the first assembly-test building on site No. 2 was started in June, and construction of the first launch pad (site No. 1) was started on July 20, 1955. A pit 45 m deep, 250 m long, and more than 100 m wide was dug for the future Gagarin’s launch. In April–July 1956, the plant at NII-88 manufactured two sets of the core (A) and side (B) modules for rig tests and three mock-ups of R-7 for ground-based tests. In December 1956, the first flight specimen of the 8K71 (No. M1-4SL) was manufactured for on-site tests at the Department No. 2 of NII-88. The first firing test of module B was performed on August 15 near Zagorsk, the first test of module A was performed on December 27, and the entire packet was tested on February 20, 1957. The experiments included five firing tests of the booster modules, three tests of the core module, and two tests of the assembled packet (on February 20, and March 3, 1957). The first missile No. M1-5 (5L) arrived at the launch pad (site No. 2) on March 3, 1957. It was launched on May 15 at 19:00 Moscow time. The fire in the tail compartment caused by leakage of the fuel pipeline terminated propulsion and led to separation of booster module D at the 98th second of flight, after which the missile lost stability. At the 103rd second, a command from the emergency system cut off the rocket engines of the remaining modules. Individual fragments of the missile fell onto the ground along the flight trajectory from 196 to 319 km from the launch pad. The second missile could not be launched either, and it had to be returned to the plant. On July 12, because of an erroneous command of the guidance system (in terms of rolling), missile No. 7 (M1-7) started to rotate at the 38th second and soon disintegrated into separate fragments. The first success was achieved on August 21, when R-7 No. 8 (Fig. 16) reached Kamchatka, but its dummy warhead was destroyed and burned during atmospheric reentry. The same happened on September 7, 1957, during the fifth launch of the missile [16, 21]. Two next 8K71 ICBMs of the first series were modified to 8K71PS launchers. The scientists and designers used the involuntary pause in the tests to perform additional studies of thermal protection of the missile conical warhead and to fabricate new warheads with spherical bluntness of the nose part. The second stage of in-flight design tests of R-7 was performed from January 30 to July 10, 1958. Out of six launched missiles, two were used to launch the third artificial satellite of the Earth. The most successful launch within this series was that performed on March 29, 1958, when the dummy warhead reached the target with overshooting by 7.5 km and deviation to the right by 1.1 km [28]. 183

Fig. 16. R-7 ballistic missile at the launch pad.

The study of problems associated with launching artificial satellites of the Earth was started in the USSR by the team headed by M.K. Tikhonravov (1900−1974, Fig. 17) in 1948. Before that, at the beginning of 1932, the team headed by Tikhonravov was involved in designing liquid-propellant rocket engines at GIRD. On August 17, 1933, the maiden flight of the GIRD-09 missile designed by Tikhonravov took place at the test field in Nakhabino near Moscow. Based on the experimental missile 05, the Rocket Research Institute designed a high-altitude missile called Aviavnito with a length of 3.22 m, diameter of 300 mm, and takeoff mass of 97 kg. It was equipped with an oxygen-alcohol rocket engine 21k with a thrust of 300 kgf (3 kN), which was designed by L.S. Dushkin (1910−1990) [10]. During the second launch on August 15, 1937, this missile went up to an altitude above 2 400 m. Before WWII, Tikhonravov worked at NII-3 (former Rocket Research Institute) and took part in creating the pioneering multiple launch rocket system called Katyusha; during WWII, he worked on the development of a rocket plane with an index of 302. After the war, he prepared a draft project of the VR-190 rocket designed for lifting two pilots to an altitude of 190 km. On April 12, 1946, the VR-190 project was considered by the expert commission of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, which was headed by Academician S.A. Khristianovich (1908−2000), but our country could not afford space flights at that difficult time. After moving from NII-1 (former NII-3) at NII-4 of the Academy of Artillery Sciences, the P.I. Ivanov’s Department headed by Tikhonravov started to study problems associated with ensuring long flight ranges in 1947. Having analyzed the capabilities of various configurations, Tikhonravov decided to use the “rocket packet” originating from Tsiolkovsky’s squadron of rockets. The results obtained showed that component rockets do not have any principal or technical constraints that would prevent covering arbitrarily large distances. Opponents, however, told that these results are fantastic and not needed for anybody. In 1949, Ivanov’s department was closed down, and Tikhonravov was dismissed from the position of the Deputy Director of the institute and became a consultant. Learning about Tikhonravov’s situation, Korolev wrote a technical task for research and development works for NII-4 on missile packets on December 16, 1949. After that, a new research team was organized at the institute. Tikhonravov reported the results of the research

Fig. 17. M.K. Tikhonravov. 184

and development activities on missile packets and their prospects at the First ScientificTechnical Conference of NII-4 held on March 15−16, 1950. The preliminary report on the topic N-3 was submitted to OKB-1 at the end of that year, and the next reports (in April and September 1951) contained a detailed analysis of the simplest packets composed of three R-2 and R-3 missiles (similar to those studied by Keldysh’s team at the Mathematical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR). A possibility of using such a packet for launching the artificial Earth’s satellite was also foreseen. The activities on studying various problems associated with creating component missiles were continued until 1953. The problems of satellite launching were first studied in Tikhonravov’s team at their personal discretion, and those works were officially recognized only in September 1953. A draft project of an oriented automated artificial Earth’s satellite with reentry cartridges was developed by the end of 1955. After the governmental decision on satellite development, Tikhonravov and his assistant L.N. Soldatova moved from NII-1 to OKB-1 of NII-88, based on Korolev’s request. They were followed by G.Yu. Maksimov and by the future designer of the first Soviet manned spacecraft (and also a cosmonaut) K.P. Feoktistov (1926−2009). At OKB-1, the main efforts of Tikhonravov’s department were aimed at studying the problems associated with designing of spacecrafts for various purposes, accuracy of their insertion into the orbit, supply of electrical energy, rendezvous of two spacecrafts on the orbit, etc. For the launch of the first Earth’s satellite, Tikhonravov was awarded with the Lenin Prize; for the first manned flight of Yury Gagarin, he was awarded with the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor. On August 25, 1963, Tikhonravov became Korolev’s deputy, but Mishin, who became Korolev’s successor, moved him to the background [38, 39]. The idea of creating satellites was on the frontier of science and engineering in many countries almost immediately after the development of long-range missiles. At the Second International Congress on Astronautics held in London in September 1951, the members of the British Interplanetary Society K. Gatland, A. Kunesch, and A. Dixon made a presentation on the minimum size of missiles for artificial satellites. In that presentation, they analyzed the characteristics of three-stage missiles with the takeoff masse of 16 800, 62 400, and 90 900 kg; two latter missiles were designed for launching a 100-kg satellite [1]. On March 16, 1954, Keldysh as a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR chaired a meeting where Tikhonravov reported his project of the artificial Earth’s satellite. Already on May 26, Korolev wrote a letter to D.F. Ustinov, the Minister of Defense Industry, with Tikhonravov’s memo “On the artificial Earth’s satellite,” where he proposed to start research activities on designing such a satellite [35, 40]. This proposal was approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR in August 1954. The works on satellite development became much more intense after the worldwide community decided to announce the International Geophysical Year (IGY) for the period of July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958. On October 4, 1954, the IGY committee urged the leading countries to consider the possibility of launching small artificial Earth’s satellites for scientific purposes during the IGY. The USA officially supported this idea on July 29, 1955, when the President Eisenhower reported his intention to launch a satellite to the Congress. On August 3, the Vanguard project was adopted; launching of the first satellite was planned for July 1957. At the VIth International Congress on Astronautics held in Copenhagen also in August, the USA and USSR officially confirmed their intention to launch artificial Earth’s satellites during the IGY. The decree of the Soviet government on the development of a research satellite (object D) with a mass of 1 000−1 400 kg was issued on January 30, 1956. The draft project of object D was approved already in July, but fabrication of scientific instrumentation for this satellite was delayed. For this reason, Korolev had to propose 185

Fig. 18. Assembly fitter V.Ya. Skoptsov with the first satellite PS-1.

in January 1957 to launch two simple satellites equipped with a couple of radio transmitters only instead of the planned research laboratory as soon as possible. Soon Keldysh was appointed the Chairman of a special commission at the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR on artificial Earth’s satellites, which was later transformed to the Interdepartmental Scientific-Technical Council on space research at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The decree No. 171-83ss of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on launching and tracking the flight of these satellites was issued on February 15, and the final configuration of the simple satellite PS-1 was approved on June 24 [28, 35]. Direct preparation to launching the first satellite (article M1-PS), which was a 83.6-kg polished sphere 58 cm in diameter with four pin antennas 2.4−2.9 m long (Fig. 18), was started at NIIP-5 of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR on September 22. The light-weight ICBM M1-1SP (8K71PS) was launched on October 4, 1957 at 22:28:34 Moscow time. PS-1 was launched to an orbit with a perigee altitude of 228 km, apogee altitude of 947 km, and inclination of 65.1° to the equatorial plane. The first satellite survived for 92 days and burned in the atmosphere on January 4, 1958 [10]. The second stage of the missile with a mass of about 7 700 kg, which stayed on the same orbit and could be easily seen with a naked eye as a running star, survived in space until December 2, 1957. The second satellite PS-2, which was the second stage of the missile with an instrumental module and a container with a dog called Laika, was launched on November 3, 1957 and stayed on the orbit until April 14, 1958. The third Soviet satellite (object D No. 2) with a mass of 1 327 kg, which was equipped with 12 scientific instruments, reached the orbit on May 15, 1958 during the second attempt (the launch of the spacecraft No. 1 on April 27 ended with a failure of the upgraded missile 8А91 No. B1-2 at 96.5 s after the take-off). It transmitted scientific data until June 3 when the onboard batteries became completely empty. After those launches, the pioneering launcher of the 8A91, which was equipped with more powerful rocket engines 8D76 (RD-107) and 8D77 (RD-108), was called Sputnik (Fig. 19, а). Fig. 19. Launchers Sputnik (а), Jupiter-C (b), and Vanguard (c). 186

On January 28, 1958, Academician Keldysh wrote a classified letter to Korolev, where he supported solving the problem of launching a rocket to the Moon with flying around it for taking photographs of the back side of the Moon. He expressed his confidence that the development, design, and fabrication of the Moon rocket could be finished in two or three years under conditions of hard work and permanent versatile help. Keldysh talked about flying around the Moon and taking photographs at the meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR back in September 1956 [32]. Korolev did not have a habit of putting interesting ideas aside. By that time, the development of the three-stage variant of the R-7 rocket at OKB-1 was in full swing. The decree of the government of the USSR on creating a launcher on the basis of the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile for reaching the escape velocity (for launching the first Moon probes) was officially issued on March 20, 1958. The third stage of the rocket (module E with an initial mass of 8 tons) was equipped with the RO-6 (8D714) engine developed together by OKB-1 and OKB-154 headed by S.A. Kosberg (1903−1965); this engine had a thrust of 49 kN and operation duration of 450 s [41]. After a small pause caused by fabrication and preparation of this rocket, which was indexed by 8K72, and a new lot of R-7 ICBMs to the next test series, space launches were revived in the USSR. The first three launches of the 8K72 launcher aimed at direct hit on the Moon failed: the first stage was destroyed because of the emergence of resonant phenomena (on 1958.09.23 and 1958.10.12), and the second-stage engine terminated its operation because the pinion of the reductor of the hydrogen peroxide pump drive was broken (on 1958.12.4). Dangerous self-excited oscillations of pressure in combustion chambers of rocket engines, which were induced by elastic bending of the rocket body and splashing of the liquid in the fuel tanks, could be eliminated by using hydraulic dampers in liquid oxygen pipelines [28, 42]. The second reason for the accident was eliminated after the repeated failure, which happened on September 31, 1959 during the launch of the R-7 ICBM. On January 2, 1959, Luna-1 reached the escape velocity for the first time and flew at a distance of about 6 000 km from the Moon surface. The next launch on June 18, 1959, however, was again a failure of the second stage of the launcher. It was only Luna-2, a spacecraft of the E-1 series, that started on September 12 and hited the Moon surface in 38 hours and 21 minutes of flight; thus, the main task of this spacecrafts was fulfilled. Using the results of this flight, researchers learned that the Moon has no its own magnetic field and radiation belts. On October 4, 1959, Luna-3 was launched. It had a mass of 278.5 kg, and it was the first Soviet satellite of the E-2 series that had a orientation system and a complicated onboard radio system. The guidance system was developed at NII-1 by the young team headed by B.V. Rauschenbach (1915−2001). On October 7, Luna-3 photographed the back side of the Moon from a distance of about 7 000 km; after that, it performed a gravitational maneuver (for the first time in the world) and moved toward the Earth for returning the scientific data [10, 28]. The US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics started to study various issues of creating an artificial satellite back in 1945. Already in 1946, within the research project of the RAND Company, they analyzed the possibility of launching such a satellite in the near future in much detail. On June 25, 1954, at the meeting at the Navy Research Laboratory in Washington, von Braun proposed an Orbiter project, which involved launching an artificial satellite with a mass of 2.3 kg by the Redstone rocket. Independent projects of satellite launching were soon put forward by the Navy Research Laboratory and by the US Air Force. The Vanguard project proposed by NRL implied creating a launcher driven by the Viking and Aerobee 187

high-altitude rockets supplemented with a specially developed solid-propellant third stage, while the USAF project involved the use of the future ICBM called Atlas. By 1956, von Braun’s team made the Redstone rocket longer, forced its engine, and put two upper stages consisting of a packet of four plus one small solid-propellant rockets called Baby Sergeant. This rocket (Jupiter-C), which was designed for studying the high-velocity reentry problems of warheads into the dense atmosphere, reached an altitude of 1 094 km on September 20, 1956 and covered a distance of 5 310 km [1]. If one more stage were added, it could have launched the satellite to the orbit; nevertheless, Pentagon never gave any response to the request of von Braun and the US Army to use a spare Jupiter-C rocket (rocket No. 29). Von Braun’s team did not receive permission for launching an American satellite until the first Soviet artificial satellite was on the orbit. In case of an accident with the Vanguard launcher, the Minister of Defense of the USA ordered to prepare the Jupiter-C launcher with a satellite on November 8, 1957 (Fig. 19, b). Indeed, during the first attempt on December 6, the engine of the first stage of Vanguard (Fig. 19, с) switched off in two seconds after the launcher takeoff. During the rocket explosion, the satellite with a diameter of 16.3 cm and mass of 1.47 kg flew away from the rocket and rolled over the ground with an operating radio beacon. It was only after that accident that von Braun’s team got permission to launch the first American satellite with their rocket. The upper stages for satellite launching were packets of eleven, four, and one engine. The Explorer-1 satellite with a mass of 14 kg, which was the fourth stage of the rocket equipped with an instrumental module, was launched from the Canaveral peninsular by the Jupiter-C (Juno 1) launcher late in the evening on January 31, 1958 (03:48 on February 1, Greenwich time). It was in operation until May 23 and allowed American scientists to discover the radiation belts of the Earth, which became known as the van Allen belts, named after the author of their discovery. This event was followed by launching Vanguard-1 (1958.03.17) and Explorer-3 (1958.03.26) [10, 12]. In subsequent years, both the USSR and USA launched satellites designed for various purposes and interplanetary probes rather frequently, but with alternating success. The first launchers, except for Vanguard, were developed on the basis of modified intermediate range and intercontinental ballistic missiles, which were still at the stage of flight, design, or military testing and were not very reliable. This was the reason for failures of many launches because of malfunction of the launcher or equipment of satellites at the beginning of the space era, but the humankind had already started its path into space and nothing could stop it. By mid-1960s, the number of launcher failures was reduced and rarely exceeded 5−10 % of the total number of launches. MANNED MISSIONS TO SPACE

Before the first satellites were launched, both the USSR and USA started preliminary activities aimed at launching a human being to the near-Earth orbit. In OKB-1, Tikhonravov’s department started to design a manned vehicle at the beginning of 1957. On February 15, 1958, Korolev posed a particular task to develop a satellite vehicle for the three-stage 8K72 launcher created on the basis of the R-7 long-range ballistic missile. In the presentation “On promising activities on space conquering” prepared together with Tikhonravov in summer 1958, Korolev considered, among other works, the possibility of creating a satellite operating in space for 10 days in 1958−1960 and a spacecraft with a crew of 2-3 pilots in 1961−1965. He was sure that fulfillment of tasks planned for the near future could lead to manned missions to Mars and Venus, as well as manned missions to the Moon and constructing a permanent settlement there [35]. 188

Fig. 20. One of the first versions of the Vostok spacecraft. 1 ⎯ adapter module, 2 ⎯ reentry capsule, 3 ⎯ instrumental module, 4 ⎯ retrorocket, 5 ⎯ jettisoned cone.

On September 15, 1958, Korolev approved the draft project of Tikhonravov’s department on the OD-2 object (spacecraft with one pilot onboard). To save time and simplify the structure of the first spacecraft, they proposed to use a spherical reentry capsule whose attitude was controlled by displacement of the center of mass. In one of the first versions, the reentry capsule was placed behind the retrorocket and instrumental module (Fig. 20). During further development, the spacecraft was transformed to a modular structure, where the reentry capsule was located in front of the configuration; the diameter and mass of the reentry capsule were 2.3 m and 2.4 metric tons, respectively (Figs. 21 and 22, а). The instrumental module with the maximum diameter of 2.43 m and mass of 2.3 tons was made in the form of two truncated cones connected to each other. The reentry capsule was attached to the instrumental module by metallic strips. Sixteen spherical balloons with compressed nitrogen for operation of the life support system designed for functioning during 10 days were located near the junction of the two modules. Various systems of the spacecraft contained 421 electron lamps, 600 transistors, 56 electric engines, and approximately 800 relays and switches. The spacecraft attitude was changed by two pairs of eight gas-jet nozzles with a thrust of 14.7 N. Deceleration before the beginning of reentry was provided by the TDU-1 retrorocket designed at OKB-2 headed by A.M. Isaev; it provided a thrust of 15.8 kN and operation time of 45 seconds. The maximum loads on the reentry capsule entering the atmosphere reached 8−10 g. Landing of the reentry capsule with a velocity of 10 m/s was ensured by the main parachute with an area of 574 m2 . The cosmonaut was ejected at an altitude of seven kilometers with a velocity of 200 m/s. He landed with a velocity of 5 m/s using a parachute with an area 2 of 83.5 m [10, 41]. As the Vostok spacecraft had no backup retrorocket, it was inserted

Fig. 21. Vostok spacecraft at the assembly-test building. 189

Fig. 22. Vostok (а) and Mercury (b) spacecrafts. 1 ⎯ reentry capsule, 2 ⎯ spherical balloons, 3 ⎯ instrumental module, 4 ⎯ retrorocket, 5 ⎯ windows, 6 ⎯ fairing, 7 ⎯ parachute container.

to low orbits so that it could perform unassisted landing (in the case of retrorocket malfunction) in several days due to natural braking in the upper layers of the atmosphere. To study the behavior of living organisms under microgravity conditions, 29 launches of the R-1, R-2, and R-5 rockets to altitudes of 88 to 475 km were performed from July 22, 1951 till September 16, 1960 from the Kapustin Yar launch site in the USSR. Some animals died because of the failure of the parachute system or other equipment, but some mongrels managed to reach space altitudes several times. In November 1957, the dog called Laika was launched to the orbital flight, and it became possible to return animals from space to the Earth since 1960. In the USA, a monkey called Albert was launched to the space altitude in the A-4 rocket on June 18, 1948, but he died during the flight. Three launches of the Aerobee rocket with animals onboard were performed in 1951−52. The flights performed on September 20, 1951 and May 21, 1952 were successful. Nine flights with mice (Vikki, Weasel, and Bengy), monkeys (Old Reliable, Able, Baker, Sam, and Miss Sam), and other biological objects were performed in 1958−1961. A successful suborbital flight on the Mercury-Redstone rocket No. 2 with the chimpanzee called Ham was performed on January 31, 1961 [43]. On May 22, 1959, the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a decree No. 569-264ss on the topic Vostok on the development of a simplified experimental spacecraft Vostok-1 (plant index 1K) for further development of the structure of the photoreconnaissance satellite Vostok-2 (2K, future Zenit-2) and the manned spacecraft Vostok-3 (3K). Before the project was formally approved by the government, the drawings for the spacecraft body had been already submitted to the Pilot Plant. By the end of the year, the first spacecraft for ground-based testing of electronic equipment was ready. Intense testing of the reentry capsule was performed in winter 1959−1960 to test automatic landing and ejecting of the cosmonaut’s chair with a dummy by dropping it from airplanes. On December 10, 1959, the USSR government issued a special decree No. 1386-618 ss on the manned spacecraft. The development of the Vostok system was supervised by the Council of Designers-in-Chief, where S.P. Korolev was responsible for the overall organization of activities and for launcher and spacecraft development, V.P. Glushko was responsible for the engines of the first and second stages of the launcher, M.S. Ryazansky was responsible for the control, observation, and communication radio systems, N.A. Pilyugin was responsible for the launcher guidance systems and instruments of the reentry capsule, V.P. Barmin was responsible for the launch complex, V.I. Kuznetsov was responsible for the gyroscopes of the control systems, 190

Table 1 Launch date

Vehicle

1960.05.15

Vostok 1-KP (first)

1960.07.28

Vostok 1K

1960.08.19

Mass, kg 4540

Orbit altitude, km perigee apogee 312 369

Comment Technological spacecraft Explosion of the launcher at the 23rd second Landing on 1960.08.20 Blasting of the spacecraft on 1960.12.02 Falling near Tura

−

−

−

Vostok 1KA (second)

4600

306

339

1960.12.01

Vostok 1KA (third)

4563

180

249

1960.12.22

Vostok 1KA

−

−

−

1961.03.09

Vostok 3А (fourth)

4700

183.5

248.8

Simulation of manned flight

1961.03.25

Vostok 3А (fifth)

4695

178

247

Simulation of manned flight

A.F. Bogomolov was responsible for the telemetry system, A.M. Isaev was responsible for the retrorocket, S.A. Kosberg was responsible for the engine of the third stage of the launcher, S.M. Alekseev was responsible for the cosmonaut’s space suit and ejected chair, and V.I. Yazdovsky was responsible for the medical and biological preparation of cosmonauts. The Designer-in-Chief of the spacecraft was K.P. Feoktistov [41]. Implementation of the programs of manned flights and development of the reconnaissance satellite Zenit-2 was appreciably accelerated in summer 1959, when OKB-1 was united with the neighboring Central Research Institute TsNII-58 (former Central Artillery Design Bureau) headed by V.G. Grabin, which provided a powerful industrial basis, and when the team headed by B.V. Rauschenbach was moved from NII-1 to OKB-1 [28]. On April 26, 1960, Korolev approved the draft project of Vostok-1, but the technological spacecraft 1-KP was actually ready, and its first launch was performed on May 15 (Table 1). After four days of flight, because of the failure of the infrared plotter of the local vertical, the spacecraft was incorrectly oriented and acquired additional velocity instead of deceleration and de-orbiting. The reentry capsule passed to a higher orbit and stayed in space until its natural reentry on October 15, 1965. The Vostok spacecrafts were launched by the 8K72K launcher with a height of 38.36 m and takeoff mass from 286.4 to 287 tons, which was created on the basis of the standard R-7 ICBM by adding the third stage (module E) from the Moon rocket 8K72 “Luna” (Fig. 23, а). The first and second stages of the launcher were equipped with the 8D74 (RD-107) and 8D75 (RD-108) engines with a total thrust of about 4 MN near the Earth surface (Table 2) [41].

Fig. 23. Launchers of the first manned spacecrafts Vostok (а), Mercury-Redstone (b), and Atlas (c). 191

Table 2 Launcher

First launch Takeoff mass, tons

Vostok OKB-1, USSR 1960.05.15 287

Number of stages Total height, m

3 38.36

1 25.4

1.5 29.5

3 44.45

2 32.75

3 49.01

Body diameter, m Launch thrust, kN

2.95* 4029

1.78 347

3.05 1600

2.95* 4053

3.05 1912

2.95 4053

Payload mass launched to LEO, tons μpl = Мpl/М0, %

4.73

−

1.38

5.68

3.63

6.56

1.65

−

1.17

1.86

2.33

2.13

Designer

*

Redstone Atlas-D Voskhod OKB-1, Redstone, Convair, USA USSR USA 1960.12.19 1959.04.14 1963.11.16 29.9 117.7 305.4

Titan-2

Soyuz OKB-1, Martin, USA USSR 1964.04.08 1966.11.26 156 307.6

*

Maximum diameter of the core module (of the second stage).

On July 28, 1960, the launch of the next 8K72K launcher with the experimental spacecraft 1K No. 1 with dogs called Lisichka and Chaika onboard ended with an explosion of the combustion chamber of the engine of the booster module G at the 23rd second of flight; fragments of the rocket fell down near the launch site. Less than in a month, the spacecraft 1K No. 2 was successfully inserted into the near-Earth orbit. One day later, on August 20, dogs called Belka and Strelka successfully returned to the Earth for the first time in history. In addition to these two dogs, the vehicle contained rats, mice, insects, and various seeds. By that time, to speed up the works, the designers of the manned spacecraft 3K decided to cancel the development of the ejected sealed capsule for cosmonaut recovery at the altitude of 90 km and some other systems. The simplified version of the Vostok spacecraft was called 3KA. After the successful flight of Belka and Strelka, it was decided to perform the first manned flight in December 1960 after one or two launches of the Vostok 1K spacecraft in October–November and two control launches of Vostok 3A (3KA) in November– December 1960. This decision was stated in the decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1110-462ss dated October 11, 1960. At that time, the main efforts of OKB-1 and its partner enterprises were aimed at providing the launch of the first automatic spacecraft to Mars for taking photographs from the flight trajectory and searching for traces of life on the planet. Despite the tremendous efforts applied, both launches of the Mars spacecrafts performed on October 10 and 14, 1960 ended with a failure of the new four-stage rocket later called Molniya. On October 24, a great catastrophe happened on the 41st site of Baikonur in preparing the first launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile R-16 operating on storable components of the propellant, which was designed by M.K. Yangel (1911−1971). More than 100 people died, including M.I. Nedelin, the first Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Rocket Troops of the USSR, Chief Artillery Marshal (1902−1960). Those events delayed the next test launch of the third spacecraft (1K No. 5) until December 1. The launch was successful; on the next day, however, the spacecraft did not receive a sufficient retroimpulse because of the violation of its stabilization during retrorocket operation and started to descent along a trajectory with a too small slope. To avoid secrets being captured by enemies, unmanned spacecrafts (as well as Zenit reconnaissance spacecrafts) were equipped with a special system for emergency blasting. As it did not receive a signal from the g-load sensor in due time, this system actuated the blasting device, and the mongrel cosmonauts Pchelka and Mushka died. The next failure of the launcher followed on December, 22. This time, because of the failure of the gas 192

generator of the RO-7 rocket engine (8D719), the reentry capsule of the spacecraft 1K No. 6 performed the emergency landing in the taiga 60 km from Tura in the Krasnoyarsk Region. Owing to accidental malfunction of the ejection device, the dogs called Shutka and Kometa remained in the capsule and did not freeze in that cold weather. Four days later, they were extracted safe and sound from the container by the search team headed by Arvid Pallo. As the development and testing of the 8K72K launcher and Vostok spacecraft were continued, a team of young pilots to be trained for space flights was selected in accordance with the decrees of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 22-100ss dated January 5, 1959 and No. 569-264ss dated May 22, 1959. The first team of 20 candidates for becoming cosmonauts was finally formed by June 17, 1960. A “group of six” consisting of captains P. Popovich and A. Nikolaev and senior lieutenants Yu. Gagarin, G. Titov, V. Varlamov, and A. Kartashov was chosen for more intense training. Later, because of injuries during training and swimming, Kartashov and Varlamov were replaced with V. Bykovsky and G. Nelyubov. Successfully passing the exams, the six “students” got the cosmonaut positions on January 25, 1961 and were enrolled to the Center of Training Cosmonauts of the Air Force of the USSR (Fig. 24) [41]. On March 9 and 25, 1961, qualification launches of the spacecraft 3KA Nos. 1 and 2 with dummies and dogs called Chernushka and Zvezdochka were performed. They completely simulated the future single-orbit flight of the first cosmonaut. When the retrorocket of the spacecraft No. 1 switched off, the sealed socket of the cable-mast connecting the reentry capsule and the instrumental module did not separate in due time. The reentry capsule became free only after the cable-mast burned down; therefore, the real landing point was 412 km away from the nominal planned point. For the same reason, the spacecraft 3KA No. 2 (fifth spaceship-satellite) deviated by 660 km from the planned landing point. It was only after returning of G. Titov from the flight where

Fig. 24. The “group of six” with instructors. Sitting (left to right): A.G. Nikolaev, Yu.A. Gagarin, S.P. Korolev, E.A. Karpov (doctor, first Head of the center of Training Cosmonauts), and N.K. Nikitin (instructor on parachute training). Standing: P.R. Popovich, G.G. Nelyubov, G.S. Titov, and V.F. Bykovsky.

193

Fig. 25. Yu.A. Gagarin.

he had a similar situation that it was recognized that the cables feeding pyrocartridges used for shooting off the socket were erroneously laid through pyroknives and were cut immediately after the signal for separation of the modules was given. The day of the first manned flight to space was rapidly approaching. Both the USSR and the USA were in a hurry. The spacecraft themselves were urgently developed, their life support systems, orientation and control systems, and systems for returning to the Earth and landing were updated, scientific, engineering, medical, biological, and many other problems were solved, production of new materials was initiated, candidates for cosmonauts were selected and trained, networks of command and measurement stations, tracking services, search and evacuation of cosmonauts were created, etc. On March 29, 1961, the State Commission on the first manned flight to space listened to Korolev’s presentation on readiness to flight, and the Military-Industrial Commission decided to perform the next flight of the Vostok spacecraft with the man onboard. On April 3, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR approved the flight. On April 4, K.A. Vershinin, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Forces of the USSR, signed the flight certificates of Yu.A. Gagarin, G.S. Titov, and G.G. Nelyubov. On April 6, S.P. Korolev, M.V. Keldysh, and N.P. Kamanin approved the task for the cosmonaut for the single-orbit flight. On April 8, the open meeting of the State Commission approved Yu.A. Gagarin as the first candidate for the flight and G.S. Titov as the backup pilot [21, 41]. The flight of Yury Gagarin on April 12 was successful, and the former senior lieutenant of the Air Force (Fig. 25) returned to the Earth in the rank of a major. For his heroic flight, he was awarded with the titles of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Honored Master of Sports (for the first world records in the class of orbital space flights), and the pilot of the first class. On April 14, Moscow organized a great reception of the first pilotcosmonaut of the planet. His historical flight aroused much enthusiasm and hope for the travels to Venus and Mars in the near future. Many details of Gagarin’s flight, as well as subsequent flights of Soviet cosmonauts, became known only many years later. In reality, because of the malfunction of the antenna feeding device of the radio control system of the launcher, the engine of the second stage was cut-off later than it was planned. For this reason, the apogee altitude of the Vostok spacecraft was higher than the planned value. On this orbit (Table 3), the spacecraft could stay for 15–20 days; in the case of retrorocket failure, the life support system resources would be obviously insufficient for the cosmonaut to stay alive until natural reentry. During deceleration, the retrorocket switched off a little bit earlier, and the purging gas continuing to enter the steering chambers gave the vehicle a strong swirling impulse. In addition, because of premature de-actuation of the retrorocket, the modules separated by the signal from the thermal sensor at an altitude of 100 km, 194

Table 3 Vehicle

Launch date

Crew

Backup pilots

Spacecraft mass, kg

Orbit altitude, km perigee

apogee

Flight duration, hour:min

Vostok

1961.04.12

Yu.A. Gagarin

Titov G.S.

4 725

181

327

1:48

Vostok -2

1961.08.06

G.S. Titov

Nikolaev A.G.

4 731

183

244

25:18

Vostok -3

1962.08.11

A.G. Nikolaev

Bykovsky V.F.

4 722

180.7

234.6

94:22

Vostok -4

1962.08.12

P.R. Popovich

Komarov V.M.

4 728

179.8

236.7

70:57

Vostok -5

1963.06.14

V.F. Bykovsky

Volynov B.V.

4 720

174.7

222.1

119:07

Vostok -6

1963.06.16

180.9

231.1

70:50

1964.10.12

Solovyeva I.B. Volynov B.V., Katys G.P., Lazarev V.G.

4 713

Voskhod

V.V. Tereshkova V.M. Komarov, K.P. Feoktistov, B.B. Egorov

5 320

177.5

408

24:17

P.I. Belyaev, A.A. Leonov

Gorbatko V.V., Zaikin D.A.

5 682

173.5

497.7

26:02

Voskhod-2 1965.03.18

following the backup scenario. As a result, the capsule landed on the left bank of the Volga River with significant overshooting relative to the planned landing point (Fig. 26). As compared to these serious problems, tearing of the container with the inflatable boat and survival stock during deployment of the main parachute after ejection and involuntary opening of the emergency parachute pack seem to be mere trifles [41, 44, 45]. In 1961−1965, the Soviet Union performed six launches of the Vostok spacecrafts and two flights of multi-seat Voskhod spacecrafts, which were created on the basis of Vostok for fast solving of new prestigious problems (Table 3). The only program that could not be completed was the flight program of Vostok-5 planned for eight days (because the spacecraft orbit was too low). It was planned to perform some more manned missions, including a flight with purely ladies’ crew, but they have never been performed for various reasons. On the initiative of the US Air Force, research activities on a “manned ballistic missile” were started already in the beginning of 1956. Soon after the first Soviet satellite was launched, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) formed a Space task group consisting of 36 people and headed by Robert Gilruth at the Langley Center in Hampton. This group started in-depth investigations of various issues associated with the development of a vehicle for manned missions. After moving to Houston in 1962, this team formed the basis of the Johnson Space Center. On September 1, 1958, the US President D. Eisenhower made the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) responsible for the civil aspects of the US space program. On October 7, 1958, the first CEO of NASA, T.K. Glennan approved the final version of the former project of the US Air Force entitled Man-InSpace-Soonest. This date is considered as the formal beginning of the Project Mercury, though the project acquired this name only on November 26. The Designer-in-Chief of Mercury and other US spacecrafts, including Space Shuttle, was Max Faget. NASA delivered the technical description for spacecraft development to Fig. 26. Reentry capsule of the Vostok spacecraft after landing. 195

Fig. 27. Little Joe rocket with the dummy Mercury spacecraft.

industrial companies on November 17, and the contract on designing and manufacturing of 12 flight copies of Mercury (6 spacecrafts for suborbital missions and 6 spacecrafts for orbital missions) was signed with the winner of this competition, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation on February 6, 1959. Because of the lack of powerful launchers, the developers of the spacecraft, which was most often called the Mercury capsule, had severe limitations in terms of mass and volume. Despite all difficulties, the corporation delivered the first spacecraft to the customer on January 25, 1960. The Mercury spacecraft (see Fig. 22, b) had the shape of a truncated cone with a cylinder, which had a total length of 2.92 m (3.34 m together with the retrorockets and 7.91 m together with the launch abort system), the maximum diameter of 1.89 m, and the mass ranging from 1.83 tons (including the abort system for suborbital missions) up to 1.38 tons (for orbital missions). It was made of high-melting-point titanium and nickel alloys. The solidpropellant abort system was mounted on a jettisoned frame structure. Spacecraft stabilization and orientation was ensured by 18 jet nozzles operating on hydrogen peroxide. For de-orbiting, the spacecraft bottom was equipped with three solidpropellant retrorockets with a thrust of 4.5 kN each and with the operation duration of 10 s, which were actuated one by one with an interval of 5 seconds. After braking, they were separated from the capsule. Actually, only one engine of that type was sufficient for de-orbiting. The Mercury spacecrafts, as well as the USSR Vostok spacecrafts, descended along a ballistic trajectory, but landed in the ocean. Before landing, the frontal thermoprotective shield was jettisoned and pulled out a cushion made of rubber cloth to a length of 1.2 m, but did not tear the latter off, which allowed the capsule to be more stable in water. More than 100 drop tests with dropping the Mercury mockup from airplanes were performed for testing the parachute system in 1959 only. Since August 21, 1959, the USA performed 20 launches of solid-propellant rockets called Little Joe (Fig. 27), liquidpropellant Redstone (Figs. 23, b and 28), Atlas-D (Figs. 23, c and 29), and light solidpropellant launcher called Blue Scout-2 with the linking facility for the spacecraft (Table 4) for testing the launcher, the launch abort system, and the spacecraft equipment. In the USA, seven pilots for the Mercury mission were selected among 508 candidates already on April 2, 1959 (Fig. 30). In contrast Fig. 28. Launch of the Mercury-Redstone rocket. 196

Fig. 29. Take-off of the Atlas-D launcher with the Mercury spacecraft.

to the Soviet candidates for cosmonauts, only a qualified pilot with a B.S. degree and with no less than 1 500 flight hours could become an astronaut. US specialists decided from the very beginning that astronauts will be actively involved into spacecraft control at all flight segments. As our spacecraft were developed to be completely automated, the main criteria for selecting the Soviet cosmonauts were the good health and correct aspects of biography. In principle, the first suborbital flight of the American astronaut could have been performed earlier than Gagarin’s flight, Table 4 Test notation

Date

Place

Comment Operation of the launch abort system 31 min before the launch Thermal protection study, H = 153 km, L = 2 408 km Testing the rocket with the mockup, Н = 59.5 km Launch abort system testing at qmax

LJ-1

Little Joe 1

1959.08.21

Wallops

BJ-1

Big Joe 1 (Atlas 10-D)

1959.09.09

Canaveral

LJ-6

Little Joe 6

1959.10.04

Wallops

LJ-1A

Little Joe 1A

1959.11.04

Wallops

LJ-2

Little Joe 2

1959.12.04

Wallops

LJ-1B

Little Joe 1B

1960.01.21

Wallops

BA-1

Beach Abort

1960.05.09

Wallops

MA-1

Mercury-Atlas 1

1960.07.29

Canaveral

LJ-5

Little Joe 5

1960.11.08

MR-1

Mercury- Redstone 1

1960.11.21

Canaveral

MR-1A Mercury-Redstone 1A

1960.12.19

Canaveral

MR-2

Mercury-Redstone 2

1961.01.31

Canaveral

MA-2

Mercury-Atlas 2

1961.02.21

Canaveral

LJ-5A

Little Joe 5A

1961.03.18

Wallops

MRBD

Mercury-BD

1961.03.24

Canaveral

MA-3

Mercury-Atlas 3

1961.04.25

Canaveral

LJ-5B

Little Joe 5B

1961.04.28

Wallops

MA-4

Mercury-Atlas 4

1961.09.13

Canaveral

MS-1

Mercury-Scout 1

1961.11.01

MA-5

Mercury-Atlas 5

1961.11.29

Canaveral

Launch abort testing with the macaque called Sam Launch abort testing with the macaque Miss Sam Abort system testing during the launch Separation of the capsule from Atlas-D at the 58th second of flight Coupled abort system and spacecraft fell down into the ocean Rocket engine switched off during the launch Successful suborbital flight, Н = 210 km Suborbital flight of the chimpanzee called Ham, Н = 253 km, L = 672 km Successful suborbital flight Premature actuation of the launch abort system Control launch of the launcher with the spacecraft mockup Blasting of the launcher at the 43.3rd second of flight Successful testing of the abort system at qmax Testing the spacecraft in the single-orbit flight Explosion of the Scout-2 launcher at the 43rd second of flight Two-orbits flight of the chimpanzee called Enos

197

Fig. 30. First group of American astronauts ahead of the F-106B aircraft. Left to right: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Shirra, Alan Shepard, and Donald Slaton.

which was a dream of the Head of the Space task group, R. Gilruth. To estimate the last structural changes, however, von Braun insisted on one more unmanned mission of the Mercury-Redstone rocket on March 24, 1961. The launch of Alan Shepard planned for May 2 (Fig. 31) was postponed to May 5 because of thunderstorms. The launch of the first American astronaut was shown on the TV over the entire country. The Freedom-7 capsule splash dawn in 15 minutes 22 seconds after the launch with overshooting of 11 km from the nominal point. Six manned missions were performed within the framework of the Mercury program: two ballistic flight with a modified Redstone rocket and four orbital flights with the Atlas-D launcher (Table 5). On July 21, Virgil Grissom had to jump into the ocean and was close to sinking because the door unexpectedly opened and the waves start to flood the capsule. In addition, because of engine overheating, the pilots of the helicopter flying to the aircraft carrier dropped the valuable cargo into the ocean. The Liberty Bell-7 capsule sank at a depth of 4 890 m. A specialist on deep-diving vehicles, Kurt Newport, who had an idea of saving the capsule, found the latter in the depth of the Atlantic Ocean in early May 1999 and managed to take it up on July 20. After restoring, the Liberty Bell capsule was placed in the Exhibition Hall of the Kennedy Space Center on the Canaveral Peninsula. On May 25, 1961, less than in two weeks after the triumphal flight of Gagarin,

Fig. 31. First astronaut of the USA, A. Shepard. 198

Table 5 Spacecraft weight, kg

Flight duration, hour:min

J. Glenn

1 832

0:15

J. Glenn

1 832

0:16

J. Glenn

S. Carpenter

1 355

4:55

1962.05.24

S. Carpenter

W. Shirra

1 349

4:56

MA-8

1962.10.30

W. Shirra

G. Cooper

1 374

9:13

6-orbits flight

MA-9

1963.05.15

G. Cooper

A. Shepard

1 376

34:20

1.5-day flight

Vehicle

Launch date

MR-3

1961.05.05

A. Shepard

MR-4

1961.07.21

V. Grissom

MA-6

1962.02.20

MA-7

Pilot

Backup pilot

Comment Suborbital flight −″− 3-orbits flight −″−

the new President of the USA D.F. Kennedy addressed the nation and proposed to perform the Moon mission by the end of the decade with safe returning of astronauts to the Earth. The Gemini project was implemented as a preparatory stage of the Apollo program for testing controlled descent and docking of two vehicles in space. From April 8, 1964 to November 15, 1966, this program included two unmanned missions and ten manned missions of two-seat spacecrafts with a mass of 3.2−3.8 tons [10, 41]. The first launch of the Moon rocket Saturn-5 with the height of 110.7 m, diameter of the body of the first two stages of 10.06 m, and takeoff mass of 2 812 tons took place on November 9, 1967 [24]. The main objective of the Apollo program, for which the USA had to pay 24 billion dollars (prices of that time), was reached on July 21, 1969, when the astronauts of the Apollo-11 spacecraft, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin stepped onto the Moon surface for the first time and stayed there for 21 h 36 min. A total of nine Moon missions were performed within the Apollo program, and it was only the Apollo-13 mission that finished with emergency returning of the crew to the Earth. During these missions, 24 astronauts were on the near-Moon orbit, and 12 of them landed on the Moon [41, 46]. When the Apollo program was finished, the USA turned their main attention to creating a reusable aerospace system called Space Shuttle (its development was formally started on July 26, 1972) and then the orbital station called Freedom, which gradually transformed to the International Space Station whose cost was 100 billion dollars (Fig. 32). The first test flight of the Space Shuttle with the Columbia orbiter was performed on April 12, 1981, exactly 20 years after Gagarin’s flight.

Fig. 32. International Space Station (September 2009). 199

Activities on manned missions to the Moon were also underway in the USSR. On June 23, 1960, the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a decree “On creating powerful launchers, space vehicles, and space conquering in 1960−1967,” which included the development of a powerful N-1 launcher capable of inserting 40–50 tons to the low Earth orbit (LEO) and of accelerating 10–20 tons to the escape velocity. It was only the two-seat Soyuz spacecraft that was realized from the previous Korolev’s project of flying around the Moon with the use of a multi-modular packet. The last modifications of the Soyuz spacecraft are still in operation. The next Soviet project of flying around the Moon with the use of the UR-500K–L-1 (Proton K–L-1) rocket system also finished almost without any outcome. In 1967−1970, twelve unmanned launches of this system were performed; only two last launches out of them were completely successful (Zond-7 on 1969.08.08 and Zond-8 on 1970.10.20). The Moon rocket N-1 in terms of its height and mass (105.3 m and 2820 tons) finally turned out to be almost identical to Saturn-5, but the absence of oxygen-hydrogen rocket engines had an adverse effect on the payload mass. Moreover, all four tests of N-1 (on 1969.02.21, 1969.07.03, 1971.06.27, and 1972.11.22) ended with accidents already during operation of the first stage [41, 47]. Unfortunately, the fate of the more successful program Energiya–Buran was also very sad. It was developed under supervision of V.P. Glushko and was cancelled after two successful launches soon after USSR disintegration. Despite certain losses (Soyuz-1, Apollo-1, Soyuz-11, Challenger, and Columbia) on this unknown path, many difficult problems were solved by manned space programs during the half a century after Gagarin’s flight. Real capabilities of humankind in space conquering were demonstrated. On October 15, 2003, the People’ Republic of China joined Russia and the USA who are experienced in manned space missions. The European Space Agency, India, and Japan are also planning to develop manned spacecrafts. Space missions are now performed not only by governmental institutions, but also by private companies. Recently, on December 8, 2010, there was a successful flight of the Falcon-9 launcher with the Dragon reentry capsule, which was developed by the SpaceX American Company. This launcher will soon be able to launch cargo and then astronauts to the International Space Station, partially replacing the Russian vehicles Progress-M and Soyuz-TMA. The first commercial manned missions to altitudes above 100 km in a 7-seat SpaceShipTwo vehicle developed by the Scaled Composites Company by the order of Virgin Galactic of the British entrepreneur Richard Branson are expected already in 2012. REFERENCES 1. V. Ley, Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel, Viking Press, New York, 1958. 2. V.P. Glushko, Development of Rocket Engineering and Cosmonautics in the USSR, Mashinostroenie, Moscow, 1987. 3. S.P. Umansky, Space Travel of Odysseus, Mysl, Moscow, 1988. 4. Pioneers of Rocket Engineering. Kibalchich, Tsiolkovsky, Tsander, and Kondratyuk, Selected Papers, Nauka, Moscow, 1964. 5. Pioneers of Rocket Engineering. Gandswindt, Goddard, Esnault-Pelterie, Oberth, and Hohmann, Selected Papers, Nauka, Moscow, 1964. 6. V.N. Sokolsky, Basic directions of evolution of rocket engineering (up to mid-1940s), in: Investigations in the History and Theory of Development of Aviation and Rocket Science and Engineering, Nauka, Moscow, 1983, No. 2, P. 140−201. 7. A.I. Maksimov, Founder of cosmonautics, Thermophysics and Aeromechanics., 2007, Vol. 14, No. 3, P. 317−328. 8. K.E. Tsiolkovsky, Jet Flying Vehicles, Nauka, Moscow, 1964.

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