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Episodes Tagged with "Proton"

Posted on November 19, 2015

Chief Designer Mishin proposed a two-launch “stopover” scenario for the piloted flight to the moon. This was similar to one of NASA’s earth orbit rendezvous modes to reach the moon. The gist of the plan was, the UR-500K would insert the 7K-L1 into or...

Vladimir_Chelomei

Proton 7K-L1 launch vehicle configuration

K140 orbit 5

Posted on December 3, 2015

With the success of Kosmos 146 and in spite of the failures of the first three 7K-Ok’s it was now time to plan for a Soyuz manned mission. The planned involved the launch and docking of two piloted Soyuzes. Soyuz 7K-OK production model number 4 was a...

VladimirKomarov_sketch

7k-0k and l1

Kosmos-146

Posted on December 10, 2015

“I was the last one to see him alive and I told him ‘See you soon!’” Yuri Gagarin, recalls bidding farewell to his friend Kamarov in Soyuz 1.

3-soyuz1_01

2- Soyuz 1

1-GagarinKamarov

Posted on December 17, 2015

“It’s a terrible scene. Komarov burned up. All the instruments burned. We must quickly find out what prevented the main parachute from unlatching.” Chief Designer Mishin after he arrived at the Soyuz 1 crash site.

3-VladimirKomarov_Soyuz1

2-soyuz-1-crash

1-Soyuz 1 crash site

Posted on January 7, 2016

After 1957, the Soviets became accustomed to achieving “world firsts” in space accomplishments. Nevertheless, 10 years later they were not confident that they could pull off the world’s first fully automatic rendezvous and docking of two un-piloted S...

3-Igla_docking_system_antennas-fr

2-Armen Sergeyevich Mnatsakanyan Main designer of Igla and Kurs

1-Mishin at Baykonur in 1967

Posted on March 3, 2016

When we left the Soviet Union they had somewhat successfully landed a probe on Venus and they had completed the automatic docking of two Soyuz 7K-OK spacecrafts.  However they did not reach their goal of a circumlunar flight in time for the 50th anni...

3-ProtonZond

2-Mishin-AganzanovChertok

1-L1-Zond

Posted on March 16, 2016

The first attempt for a Zond 4 follow-up launched on April 22.  It failed when the Launch Escape System sent an erroneous abort command at T+260 seconds and shut down the Proton booster’s second stage. The escape rocket fired and pulled the descent m...

3-Scientist observing lunar tort

2-Zond-5 has delivered two tortoises back to the Earth

1-Zond 5 Makes Lunar Round-Trip

Posted on May 4, 2016

Trouble began on the sixth day of the flight, November 17. The capsule developed an atmospheric  leak, the pressure first dropping from 760 to 380 mm of Mercury.  With the drop in cabin pressure all the animal test subjects died.  It would have kille...

3-Zond 6 Double-dip reentry

2-Zond 6 Mission Profile

1-Proton-K with 7K-L1

Posted on March 1, 2024

At this point in 1973, the Soviets were attempting to fly 2 types of space station, the long duration orbital station scientific version called DOS.  The other station was a military spy space station equipped with a machine gun, called Almaz or OPS ...

P3-Mars6

R.a6d481c335118ac2c93ae8a890c6241b

P2-Mars_4-5

P1-Salyut2-Almaz-OPS

Posted on March 15, 2024

This second generation of the Soyuz spacecraft, the Soyuz 7k-T was flown on Soyuz 12 through Soyuz 40 missions from 1973–1981. The new 7K-T spacecraft was designed to accommodate only two cosmonauts who would wear pressure suits at all times during l...

P1-soyuz-12

P3-soyuz-13_orion

P2-soyuz-13_4

Posted on May 17, 2024

Salyut 3 featured a “self-defense” gun purportedly designed by Alexander Nudelman for station use. Some reports suggest it was outfitted with a Nudelman-Rikhter “Vulkan” gun, a modified version of the 23mm Nudelman aircraft cannon, or conceivably a N...

P3-Yuri_Petrovich_Artyukhin

P2-Pop

P1-Almaz_drawing.svg

Posted on June 1, 2024

Initially, the rendezvous with Salyut 3 proceeded smoothly. However, as the Soyuz spacecraft approached the station, a critical problem arose. The Igla rendezvous system, designed to guide the spacecraft to the station, malfunctioned.

P1-Salyut 3 cutaway

P2-Sarafanov

Untitled

Posted on June 15, 2024

The Salyut 4 space station, designated DOS-4, marked the second phase of the Soviet Union’s civilian space station program. It was an improved version of the failed Salyut 2 station, with several notable enhancements.

P3-Salyut 4

P2-Salyut 4 Dos 4

P1-Salyuts

Posted on December 18, 2014

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, th...

Vladimir_Chelomei

soyuzabv2

chertok_2

Chelomey_VN

330px-Soyuz_7K-OK(A)_drawing.svg

Posted on January 1, 2015

After Voskhod-2, an ideological vacuum, disorder, and vacillation cropped up in the Soviet maned space program. There was no clear-cut answer to which project should be the priority, a new series of Voskhods, artificial gravity experiments, or the co...

Proton_K

1024px-Space_Shuttle_vs_Soyuz_TM_-_to_scale_drawing

Igla_docking_system_antennas-fr

Posted on January 8, 2015

“In those days, the Party organizations in industry were not only involved with policy, ideology, and the “struggle against nonconformist thought,” but tried to get involved in technology and production engineering. Wielding real authority over peopl...

soyompan

7kokDocking Simulators

7kok Assembly

Posted on January 15, 2015

After many delays in launching the first Soyuz due to design complications, equipment deliveries, the learning curve for testing new designs, unreasonable launch dates, persecution from the communist party, and the death of Chief Designer Korolev.  T...

Cartoon 96

7k-ok diagram

7k-0kInterior

Posted on January 22, 2015

The first Soyuz test flight was a catastrophic failure.   Due to negligence, the attitude control system malfunctioned and used all of its fuel before a rendezvous could be attempted or even the second Soyuz rocket could be launched.  When the Soviet...

mySuperLamePic_b0a4aa7cdc35b6d47a9f9f615817e06f

soyouz2520interieur2520051

Kerim Kerimov

GPN-2002-000184

Dmitri_Ustinov