Dec 18

Space Rocket History #93 – Soyuz Development – Part 2 – Rivals

The circumlunar plan involved 3 new spacecrafts. First the Soyuz A 7K spacecraft, capable of carrying three men, (2 men for a circumlunar flight) into space and returning them to earth. The 5.5 ton spacecraft has three modules, the orbital module, the re-entry module, and the service module.

The second new spacecraft is the Soyuz B 9K booster stage, with a fueled mass of 18 tons. After docking with the 7K, the 9K is capable of boosting the combined spacecraft out of earth orbit on a course to the moon.

The third new space craft is called Soyuz V 11k tanker. It has a mass of 5 tons. It is used to ferry fuel from the earth to the 9K Booster. It will take 4 tankers to fill the 9K booster with enough fuel to push the Soyuz 7K on a path to the moon.

Soyuz A, B, V

Soyuz A, B, V

Vladimir Chelomey

Vladimir Chelomey

Boris Chertok

Boris Chertok

Soyuz 7K-OK

Soyuz 7K-OK

Jan 09

Space Rocket History #45 – Voskhod-1with Kamarov, Yegorov, and Feoktistov – Part 2

From the Control center Yuri Gagarin’s kept the crew informed on everything taking place on the now deserted launching site. Finally the command was given: “Stand by!” Now, It would be a matter or minutes before the launch. Commands followed in quick succession. The flight recorder was switched on, the engines started up. There was not much noise at first. But, after the command “Main Engine” the noise and the vibration grew stronger. The final command came at 07:30 UT “Start!”

Cosomonauts

Cosomonauts

Voskhod Capsule

Voskhod capsule

Voskhod Production

Voskhod Production

Ready to Launch

Ready to Launch

Launch

Launch

Stamp

Stamp

Jan 02

Space Rocket History #44 – Voskhod-1with Kamarov, Yegorov, and Feoktistov – Part 1

Premiere Khrushchev was not willing to wait until Soyuz for another space first.  Khrushchev believed, There could be no final victories in the race for space propaganda.  He knew the US was working on project Gemini which would carry two astronauts in 1965.  So, as a means to upstage the US, Khrushchev ordered Chief Designer Korolev to fit three cosmonauts into the Voskhod spacecraft that was designed for two…

By Dave

By Dave

Yegorov

Yegorov

Feoktistov

Feoktistov

Komarov

Komarov

Voskhod 1 and 2

Voskhod 1 and 2

Mission Patch

Mission Patch

Dec 12

Space Rocket History #42 – Satellite Killer – Polyot-1

The Space Age had barely begun when Soviet engineers started planning ways to destroy enemy satellites. Some Western analysts have speculated that a design for an anti-satellite weapon system was started at Korolev’s OKB-1 bureau as early as 1956…

polyot1

Polyot-1

Credit: © Dietrich Haeseler

Credit: © Dietrich Haeseler

poletdh2

Credit: © Dietrich Haeseler

space rocket history pic45

By Dave