Аннотация: Sergei Korolev and the creation of manned orbital stations. An essay on the history of Soviet cosmos.
Sergei Korolev and the creation of manned orbital stations. An essay on the history of Soviet cosmos.
An orbital manned space station combines several "qualities". Firstly, the station has many (some) "properties" of an artificial satellite; secondly, it is a spaceship; thirdly, it is a "habitable" ["manned"] "device" (on a permanent or periodic basis) (the term "automatic" station is used for uninhabited stations), fourthly, the station is characterized by an increased saturation with scientific equipment and instruments.
Thus, after the creation of the R-5 Pobeda a ballistic missile in 1953, after the launch of an artificial Earth satellite in 1957 and after the world's first manned flight into space in 1961, Sergei Korolev created all the prerequisites for a designing and for a launching of an orbital manned ("habitable") space station.
The first satellite was launched in 1957. In the plans and works of Vladimir Chelomey, satellites appear in 1960 - even before the first manned flight into space. These are reconnaissance satellites, that is, they are saturated with scientific equipment and apparatus.
It the same time, in 1960, Vladimir Chelomey began to create an intercontinental ballistic missile (UR-200). This rocket was not accepted for operation. In 1965, work on this project was discontinued.
The satellites developed by Vladimir Chelomey were launched using the R-7 (Semyorka) rocket developed by Sergei Korolev. Part of the work on preparing satellites for launch was carried out at the research and production base of Sergei Korolev.
The simplified satellite (Kosmos-102), created by Vladimir Chelomey, was launched by the R-7 rocket on December 27, 1965.
Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth along a relatively low near-earth orbit. After the successful launch of the first man into space in 1961, the question of creating a heavy (interplanetary) rocket arose logically.
Such a works (a developments) were carring out by Sergei Korolev. After the success of 1961, orders for the creation of such missiles were distributed between Korolev, Chelomey, Yangel.
In 1962, Vladimir Chelomey began work on the UR-500 (Proton) heavy rocket (heavy booster). (The first launch of the UR-500 with the Proton-1 heavy research satellite took place on July 16, 1965).
On October 12, 1964, the Voskhod 1, a multi-seat (crewed) spacecraft, was launched.
A combining of the "properties" of a multi-seat spacecraft and of a research satellite gives an orbital-manned space station.
On the same day, October 12, 1964, at a meeting of the leading specialists of his OKB-52 Vladimir Chelomey proposed a project of the Almaz manned orbital space station. In a sense, this was the development of the idea of a reconnaissance, of a research satellite.
The Almaz project has withstood the competition with the Soyuz-R project, which was proposed by Dmitri Kozlov, chief designer of Branch No. 3 of OKB-1. (The head of OKB-1 was Sergei Korolev).
The leading designer of the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Mechanical Engineering (ЦКБЭМ) (завод ? 88) (Sergei Korolev headed this organization till the fatal surgery on January 14, 1966) Yuri Semyonov, - since 1972 the chief designer of spaceships and stations, - insistently insistently asked, demanded Vladimir Chelomey to the transfer of four hulls of the station "Almaz" - on the basis of a government decision. (Yuri Semyonov was married to the daughter of a member of the Politburo Andrei Kirilenko. By this time, Sergei Khrushchev had resigned from the team of Vladimir Chelomey).
At the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Mechanical Engineering (ЦКБЭМ), the space station hull, manufactured according to the Almaz project, was equipped with equipment for the Soyuz spacecraft and was launched into space on April 19, 1971 under the name Salyut. For the launch, the Proton rocket (developed under the leadership of Vladimir Chelomey) was used.
The Almaz project was followed by the Salyut project, by Mir and by ISS.
The Salyut-8 became the base unit of the Mir orbital station, and the Salyut-9 served as the basis for the Zvezda service module docked to the ISS on July 26, 2000.
June 27, 2021 09:27
Translation from Russian into English: June 27, 2021 14:29.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Сергей Королёв и создание орбитальных пилотируемых станций. Очерк истории советского космоса'.