The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program: 50 Years After Sputnik, New Frontiers (Springer Praxis Books Space Exploration)

374 Pages·2007·16.37 MB·English

by  Brian Harvey

The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program
50 Years After Sputnik, New Frontiers
Brian Harvey
The Rebirth of the
Russian Space Program
50 Years After Sputnik, New Frontiers
J^K. Published in association with s~ y?
<£J Springer Praxis Publishing PRAXIS
Chichester, UK
Mr Brian Harvey
Terenure
Dublin 6W
Ireland
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION
SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason, M.Sc, B.Sc, Ph.D.
ISBN 978-0-387-71354-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York
Springer is part of Springer-Science + Business Media (springer.com)
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© Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2007
Printed in Germany
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Cover design: Jim Wilkie
Project management: Originator Publishing Services Ltd, Gt Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK
Printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Author's preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
About the book xii
List of figures xiii
List of maps xix
List of tables xxi
List of abbreviations and acronyms xxiii
1 Almost the end 1
The admiration of the world 5
The collapse 7
Back on Mir: the long recovery 11
Almost the end: conclusions 16
2 Building the International Space Station 17
Origins of ISS 17
Paving the way for ISS: the last phases of Mir 19
Winding Mir down: "grief in our hearts" 25
The mark of Cassandra 29
Building the ISS 35
Waiting for Mir 2 37
Delay, delay and delay 39
Zvezda, 12th July 2000 40
Soyuz as lifeboat 43
Space station routine 46
vi Contents
Space station depends on Russia 57
Completing the space station 67
Building the International Space Station: conclusions 74
References 75
3 Scientific and applications programs 77
Comsats: the Soviet inheritance 77
Comsats: the new generation 83
Weather satellites 87
Earth resources: Resurs DK, Sich M, Monitor 89
Materials-processing: Foton 94
Science: Koronas, Spektr 96
Small satellites 100
The unmanned program: conclusions 101
References 103
4 Military programs 105
Photo-reconnaissance 106
Close-look: Yantar 4K2 Kobalt 109
Mapping: Yantar 1KFT Kometa 110
Instant intelligence: Yantar 4KS2 Neman Ill
Orlets and the rivers: Don and Yenisey 112
Space telescope: Araks 114
Electronic intelligence: Tselina 116
Maritime electronic intelligence: US P Legenda 118
Military communications: Strela, Gonetz, Potok 121
Navigation satellites: Parus, Nadezhda 124
Navigation: GLONASS 127
Military early warning system: Oko, Prognoz 132
The military space program: conclusions 136
References 138
5 Launchers and engines 139
Old reliable 139
New upper stages: Ikar, Fregat 142
Rus program 144
Cosmos 3M 151
Proton and Proton M 155
Proton M 160
Tsyklon 164
Zenit 167
Ukrainian rockets to the Pacific: Zenit 3SL, the Sea Launch 170
Rockot 175
Strela rocket 179
START 180
Contents vii
Dnepr 182
Volna, Shtil and relatives 185
New rocket: Angara 187
Russian rocket engines 192
GDL/Energomash: the most powerful rockets in the world 193
RD-180 powers the Atlas 196
Kosberg bureau/KBKhA in Voronezh 199
Isayev bureau/KhimMash 200
And from history, Kuznetsov's NK-33 201
Future launch vehicle and engine programs: Ural, Barzugin 201
Reliability 203
Conclusions: rockets and rocket engines 205
References 205
6 Launch sites 207
Baikonour 208
Plesetsk 221
Svobodny-Blagoveshensk 227
Dombarovska/Yasny 229
Soyuz a Kourou, French Guyana 229
Kapustin Yar: the Volgograd station 234
Alcantara 235
Recovery zones 237
De-orbit zones 244
Other ground facilities 246
Star Town, TsPK 246
Mission control Korolev: TsUP 254
Military mission control 257
Tracking and control 257
Cosmodromes and ground facilities: conclusions 262
References 263
7 The design bureaus 265
Energiya—premier design bureau 266
Chelomei's bureau and derivatives 269
NPO Lavochkin 270
NPO Yuzhnoye: missile lines "like sausages" 273
NPO PM, builder of comsats 276
KB Arsenal: the oldest design bureau 277
TsSKB Samara: continuous production from 1957 277
NPO Polyot 279
Organization of the space program 279
New space agency 281
Russia's space budget 283
From commercialization to space tourism 285
viii Contents
Participation in the global commercial space community 293
Cooperation: rogue states 302
Cooperation: China 306
Cooperation: India 310
Organization: conclusions 312
References 313
8 Resurgent—the new projects 315
The federal space plan 317
Replacing the Soyuz: Kliper 318
Return to the moon: Luna Glob 325
Return to Mars: Phobos Grunt 326
Mars 500: no girls please, we're going to Mars 330
Final remarks 334
References 335
Appendix: Launchings 2000-06 337
Index 345
Author's preface
The rebirth of the Russian space program marks an important event: 50 years since the
first Sputnik was launched on 4th October 1957. At that time, few could have
imagined the dramatic events that lay head. The Soviet Union achieved all the great
firsts in cosmonautics—the first satellite in orbit, the first animal in orbit, the first
laboratory in orbit, the first probe to the Moon, the first probe to photograph its far
side, the first soft landing on the moon, the first man in space, the first woman in space,
the first spacewalk. Except one, the first human landing on the Moon. In 1964, the
Soviet Union decided to contest the decision of the United States to put the first
person on the Moon. The Soviet Union engaged in that race far too late, with divided
organization, and made a gallant but doomed challenge to Apollo.
Undaunted, the Soviet Union rebuilt its space program around orbiting stations,
building the first one, Salyut, and then the first permanent home in space, Mir. The
Soviet Union still achieved many more firsts: the first lunar rover, the first soft landing
on Venus, the first soft landing on Mars, the first recovery of samples from the Moon
by automatic spacecraft.
The original book in this series Race into space—a history of the Soviet space
programme (1988) was written during the heyday of the Soviet space program, when
the Soviet Union was launching over a hundred satellites a year and had a vast
program for the manned and unmanned exploration of space and its application
for practical benefits on Earth. The second book in the series, The new Russian space
program (1995) was compiled during the shock adjustment of the former Soviet space
program to the strained economic realities of life in the Russian Federation. The new
Russian space program took advantage of all the new information that had come to
light about Soviet history: thanks to the policy of openness (glasnost) begun by the last
president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, we were now at last able to learn
about what had really taken place during the time of the Soviet period, as secrets
emerged into the light of day. The third book of this series, Russia in space—the failed
frontier? (2001) looked at the Russian space program in the period from 1992, when
x Author's preface
the Russian Federation came into existence. The title of course posed a question: Had
the Russian romance with cosmonautics run its course and "failed"? This book
chronicled the decline and difficulties of the 1990s, but also showed how the program
had adapted, survived and, sometimes grimly, held on.
Now, the fourth book in the series, The rebirth of the Russian space program looks
at the Russian space program at a convenient marking point, fifty years after Sputnik.
It chronicles developments since the turn of the century, takes a look at the Russian
program as it is now and looks toward the future. This account focuses on the years
2000 to 2006. Readers who wish to study the earlier history should return to Race into
space (for the Soviet period), The new Russian space programme (for the transition)
and Russia in space—the failed frontier? (for the 1990s). By way of definitions, this
book covers primarily the Russian Federation—but it does take in those parts of the
Ukrainian space program rooted in the old Soviet program.
The rebirth of the Russian space program coincides not only with Sputnik but with
the announcement by the government of the federation of a space plan to last to 2015,
an attempt to reinstitute goal-orientated planning in the program. If one looks at the
number of launches per year, Russia remains the leading spacefaring nation in the
world. At the same time, it is obvious that the Russian Federation's space program has
none of the ambition of the American space program, which has now sent extra
ordinary missions to all the corners of the solar system and plans to return astronauts
to the Moon and send them onward to Mars. Unlike the 1960s and 1980s, present-day
Russia has neither the capacity nor the will to challenge American leadership of space
exploration (the Chinese probably do, but that is another story). At the same time,
Russia will remain one of the world's space superpowers, a builder of space stations, a
formidable contributor to the world space industry and science. As this book shows,
the Russian space program is full of activity and life. Fifty years after Sputnik, the
dream lives on.
Brian Harvey
Dublin, Ireland, 2007