Sergey Korolyov: Encyclopedia II - Sergey Korolyov - Space program

Sergey Korolyov - Space program

In spite of the Soviet progress on ICBM technology, Korolev was preoccupied with the use of rockets for space travel. In 1953 he first proposed the use of the R-7 design for launching a satellite into orbit. He pushed his ideas with the Russian Academy of Sciences, including a concept for sending a dog into space. He also had to overcome resistance in the military and among party members.

In 1957, during the International Geophysical Year, the concept of launching a satellite began to appear in the American press. The US government was not well disposed toward the idea of spending millions of dollars on this concept, and so it was effectively frozen for a period. However Korolev's group followed the Western press, and they thought it possible to beat the US to the punch. He was finally able to win over support because of competition with the U.S. by suggesting that the USSR should try to be the first country to launch a satellite.

The actual development of Sputnik was performed in less than a month. This was a very simple design, consisting of little more than a polished metal sphere, a transmitter, thermal measuring instruments, and batteries. Korolev personally managed the assembly, and the work was very hectic. Finally on October 4th, 1957, launched on a rocket that had only successfully launched once, the satellite was placed in orbit.

The effect of this launch was electric, and produced many political ramifications for the future. Khrushchev was pleased with this success, and decided that it should be followed up by a new achievement in time for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. This was less than a month away, on November 3rd. The result was Sputnik 2.

This new spacecraft would weigh six times the mass of the Sputnik 1, and would include as a payload the dog Laika. The entire vehicle was designed from scratch within four weeks, with no time for testing or quality checks. It was successfully launched on November 3rd, and the dog was placed in orbit and still alive though it died soon after due to heat exhaustion.

Alas this string of successes ran out with the launch of Sputnik 3. This instrument-laden spacecraft was sent into orbit on May 15th the following year. However the tape recorder that was to store the data failed after launch. As a result the discovery and mapping of the Van Allen radiation belts were left to the American's Explorer 4 in July. What the Sputnik 3 did do, however, was to leave little doubt with the American government about the Soviet's pending ICBM capability.

Sergey Korolyov - Moon

Korolev now turned his attention to reaching the Moon. A modified version of the R-7 launch vehicle would be used, with a new upper stage. The engine for this final stage was the first designed to be fired in outer space. The first three probes sent to the Moon in 1958 failed. The Luna 1 mission in 1959 was intended to impact the surface, but missed by about 6,000 km. Another probe failed and then the Luna 2 successfully impacted the surface, giving the Soviets another first. This was followed by an even greater success with Luna 3. It was launched only two years after Sputnik 1, and was the first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon.

Korolev's group was also working on ambitious programs for missions to the Mars and Venus, putting a man in orbit, launching communication, spy and weather satellites, and making a soft-landing on the Moon. A radio communication center needed to be built in the Crimea to control the spacecraft.

Sergey Korolyov - Manned flight

Korolev's planning for the manned mission had begun back in 1958, when design studies were made on the future Vostok spacecraft. It was to hold a single passenger in a space suit, and be fully automated. The capsule had an escape mechanism for problems prior to launch, and a soft-landing and ejection system during the recovery.

On May 15, 1960 an unmanned prototype performed 64 orbits of the Earth, but failed to return. Four tests were then sent into orbit carrying dogs, of which the last two were fully successful. After gaining approval from the government, a modified version of the R-7 was used to launch Yuri Alexeevich Gagarin into orbit on April 12, 1961, the first man in space. He returned to Earth via a parachute after ejecting at an altitude of 7 km.

This was followed up by additional Vostok flights, culminating with 81 orbits completed with Vostok 5 and the launch of the first woman cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6.

Following Vostok Korolev planned to move forward with Soyuz craft that would be able to dock with other craft in orbit and exchange crews. However he was directed by Khruschev to cheaply produce more 'firsts' for the manned programme. Korolev was reported to have resisted the idea, since he currently lacked a rocket of sufficient capability to lift a three-man capsule into space. However Khruschev was not interested in technical excuses and let it be known that if Korolev couldn't do it, he would hand the work off to his rival Vladimir Chelomei.

Sergey Korolyov - Voskhod

To complete this task his group designed the Voskhod, an incremental improvement on the Vostok. One of the difficulties in the design of the Voskhod was the need to land it via parachute. The three-person crew could not bail out and land by parachute, since the altitude would not be survivable. So the craft would need much larger parachutes in order to land safely. However some tests with the craft resulted in failures, causing the death of some test animals. This gave Korolev pause, but the problem was solved through the use of new parachute material.

The resulting Voskhod was a stripped-down vehicle from which any excess weight had been removed. Even the crew were placed on a special diet to reduce their weight. The vehicle was launched into space at close to the maximum launch weight of the Vostok rocket, requiring the consumption of the entire fuel supply.

This spacecraft made one unmanned test flight, then on October 12, 1964 a crew of three cosmonauts was launched into space and made sixteen orbits. This craft was designed to perform a soft landing, thus eliminating a need for the ejection system. The crew was also sent into orbit without space suits, another risky move.

With the Americans planning a space walk with their Gemini program, the soviets decided to trump them again by performing a space walk on the second Voskhod launch. After rapidly adding an airlock, the Voskhod 2 was launched on March 18, 1965, and Alexei Leonov performed the world's first space walk. The flight very nearly ended in disaster and plans for further Voskhod missions were shelved. In the meantime the change of Soviet leadership with the fall of Kruschev meant that Korolev was back in favour and given charge of beating the US to landing a man on the moon.

For the moon race, Korolev's staff designed the immense N1 rocket. He also had in work the design for the Soyuz manned spacecraft, as well as the Luna vehicles that would soft landed on the Moon and unmanned missions to Mars and Venus. But, unexpectedly, he was to die before he could see his various plans brought to fruition.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Space program", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki