The Soviet space program (Russian: Космическая программа СССР, Romanized: Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR), was the space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet space program was active 1955, until the Dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Soviet investigations in rocketry began with the formation of a research laboratory in 1921, but these efforts were hampered by the devastating war with Germany. The Soviet program was notable in setting many records in space exploration, including the first intercontinental missile that launched the first satellite. Furthermore, The Soviet space program sent the first animal into Earth orbit in 1957, placed the first human in space in 1961, brought the first woman in space in 1963, the first spacewalk in 1965. Other milestones included computerized robotic missions exploring the Moon starting in 1959, with the second mission being the first to reach the surface of the Moon, recording the first image of the far side of the Moon, and achieving the first soft landing on the Moon. The Soviet program also achieved the first space rover deployment in 1966 and sent the first robotic probe that automatically extracted a sample of lunar regolith and brought it to Earth in 1970. The Soviet program was also responsible for leading the first interplanetary probes to Venus and Mars and made successful soft landings on these planets in the 1960s and 1970s. It put the first space station into low Earth orbit in 1971 and the first modular space station in 1986. Its Interkosmos program was also notable for sending the first citizen of a country other than the United States or Soviet Union into space.
After the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet and US space programs utilized German technology. Eventually, the program was managed under Sergei Korolev, who led the program based on unique ideas derived by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, sometimes known as the father of theoretical astronautics. Contrary to its American, European, and Chinese competitors, who had their programs run under a single coordinating agency, the Soviet space program was divided and split among several internally competing design bureaus led by Korolev, Kerimov, Keldysh, Yangel, Glushko, Chelomey, Makeyev, Chertok and Reshetnev.
Origins
Early Russian-Soviet efforts
The theory of space exploration had a solid basis in the Russian Empire before the First World War with the writings of the Russian and Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935), who published pioneering papers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on astronautic theory, including calculating the Rocket equation and in 1929 introduced the concept of the multi-staged rocket. Additional astronautic and spaceflight theory was also provided by the Ukrainian and Soviet engineer and mathematician Yuri Kondratyuk who developed the first known lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR), a key concept for landing and return spaceflight from Earth to the Moon. The LOR was later used for the plotting of the first actual human spaceflight to the Moon. Both theoretical and practical aspects of spaceflight was also provided by the Latvian pioneer of rocketry and spaceflight Friedrich Zander, including suggesting in a 1925 paper that a spacecraft traveling between two planets could be accelerated at the beginning of its trajectory and decelerated at the end of its trajectory by using the gravity of the two planets' moons — a method known as gravity assist.
Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL)
The first Soviet development of rockets was in 1921 when the Soviet military sanctioned the start of a small research laboratory to explore solid fuel rockets, led by Nikolai Tikhomirov, a chemical engineer and supported by Vladimir Artemyev a Soviet engineer. Tikhomirov had commenced studying solid and Liquid-fueled rockets in 1894, and in 1915 he lodged a patent for "self-propelled aerial and water-surface mines." In 1928 the laboratory was renamed the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL). The First test-firing of a solid fuel rocket was carried out in March 1928, which flew for about 1,300 meters. Further developments in the early 1930s were led by Georgy Langemak. and 1932 in-air test firings of RS-82 missiles from an Tupolev I-4 armed with six launchers successfully took place.
Sergey Korolev
A key contributor to early soviet efforts came from a young Ukrainian aircraft engineer Sergey Korolev, who would later become the de facto head of the Soviet space program. In 1926 an advanced student, Korolev was mentored by the famous Soviet aircraft designer Andrey Tupolev, who was a professor at his University. In 1930 while working as a lead engineer on the Tupolev TB-3 heavy bomber he became interested in the possibilities of liquid-fueled rocket engines to propel airplanes. This led to contact with Zander, and sparked his interest in space exploration and rocketry.
Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD)
Practical aspects built on early experiments carried out by members of the 'Group for the Study of Reactive Motion' (better known by its Russian acronym "GIRD") in the 1930s, where Zander, Korolev and other pioneers such as the Russian engineers Mikhail Tikhonravov, Leonid Dushkin, Vladimir Vetchinkin and Yuriy Pobedonostsev worked together. On August 18, 1933, the Leningrad branch of GIRD, led by Tikhonravov, launched the first hybrid propellant rocket, the GIRD-09, and on November 25, 1933, the Soviet's first liquid-fueled rocket GIRD-X.
Reactive Scientific Research Institute (RNII)
In 1933 GIRD was merged with GDL to form the Reactive Scientific Research Institute (RNII), which brought together the best of the Soviet rocket talent, including Korolev, Langemak, Ivan Kleymyonov and former GDL engine designer Valentin Glushko. Early success of RNII included the conception in 1936 and first flight in 1941 of the RP-318 the Soviets first rocket-powered aircraft and the RS-82 and RS-132 missiles entered service by 1937, which became the basis for development in 1938 and serial production from 1940 to 1941 of the Katyusha multiple rocket launcher, another advance in the reactive propulsion field. RNII's research and development were very important for later achievements of the Soviet rocket and space programs.
During the 1930s Soviet rocket technology was comparable to Germany's, but complications from the Great Patriotic War severely damaged its progress. In November 1937, Kleymyonov and Langemak were arrested and executed, where as Glushko and many other leading engineers were imprisoned in work camps. Korolev was arrested in June 1938 and sent to a work camp camp in Kolyma in June 1939. However, due to intervention by Tupolev, he was relocated to a prison for scientists and engineers in September 1940.
The Great Patriotic War
During World War II rocketry efforts were carried out by three Soviet design bureaus. RNII continued to develop and improve solid fuel rockets, including the RS-82 and RS-132 missiles and the Katyusha rocket launcher, where Pobedonostsev and Tikhonravov continued to work on rocket design. In 1944 RNII was renamed Scientific Research Institute No 1 (NII-I) and combined with design bureau OKB-293, led by Soviet engineer Viktor Bolkhovitinov, whom developed, with Aleksei Isaev, Boris Chertok, Leonid Voskresensky and Nikolay Pilyugin a short-range rocket powered interceptor called Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1.
Special Design Bureau for Special Engines (OKB-SD) was led by Glushko and focused on developing auxiliary liquid-fueled rocket engines to assist takeoff and climbing of prop aircraft, including the RD-IKhZ, RD-2 and RD-3. In 1944, the RD-1 kHz auxiliary rocket motor was tested in a fast-climb Lavochkin La-7R for protection of the capital from high-altitude Luftwaffe attacks. In 1942 Korolev was transferred to OKB-SD, where he proposed development of the long range missiles D-1 and D-2.
The third design bureau was Plant No 51 (OKB-51), led by Soviet Ukrainian Engineer Vladimir Chelomey, where he created the first Soviet pulsating air jet engine in 1942.
Early German influence
During the Great Patriotic War, NAZI Germany developed rocket technology that was more advanced than the Allies and a race commenced between the Soviet Union and the United States to capture and exploit the technology. Soviet rocket specialist were sent to Germany in 1945 to obtain V-2 rockets and worked with German specialists in Germany, later moves to the Soviet Union, to understand and replicate the technology. The involvement of German scientists and engineers was an essential catalyst to early Soviet efforts in the field. In 1945 and 1946 the use of German expertise was invaluable in reducing the time needed to master the intricacies of the V-2 rocket, establishing production of the R-1 rocket and enable a base for further developments. As such, after 1947 the Soviets made very little use of German specialists and their influence on the future Soviet rocket program was marginal.
Projects and accomplishments
Completed projects
The Soviet space program's projects include:
- Almaz space stations
- Cosmos satellites
- Foton
- Luna Moon flybys, orbiters, impacts, landers, rovers, sample returns
- Mars probe program
- Meteor meteorological satellites
- Molniya communications satellites
- Mir space station
- Proton satellites
- Phobos Mars probes program
- Salyut space stations
- Soyuz program spacecraft
- Sputnik satellites
- TKS spacecraft
- Venera Venus probes program
- Vega program Venus and comet Halley probes program
- Vostok program spacecraft
- Voskhod program spacecraft
- Zond program
Notable firsts
Two days after the United States announced its intention to launch an artificial satellite, on July 31, 1955, the Soviet Union announced its intention to do the same. Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957, beating the United States and stunning people the world over. The Soviet space program pioneered many aspects of space exploration:
- 1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile and orbital launch vehicle, the R-7 Semyorka.
- 1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1.
- 1957: First animal in Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2.
- 1959: First rocket ignition in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity, Luna 1.
- 1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.
- 1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Heliocentric orbit, Luna 1.
- 1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2.
- 1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3.
- 1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5.
- 1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1.
- 1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok program.
- 1961: First person to spend over 24 hours in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space).
- 1962: First dual crewed spaceflight, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4.
- 1962: First probe launched to Mars, Mars 1.
- 1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6.
- 1964: First multi-person crew (3), Voskhod 1.
- 1965: First extra-vehicular activity (EVA), by Alexsei Leonov, Voskhod 2.
- 1965: First radio telescope in space, Zond 3.
- 1965: First probe to hit another planet of the Solar System (Venus), Venera 3.
- 1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the Moon, Luna 9.
- 1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10.
- 1966: first image of the whole Earth disk, Molniya 1.
- 1967: First uncrewed rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188.
- 1968: First living beings to reach the Moon (circumlunar flights) and return unharmed to Earth, Russian tortoises and other lifeforms on Zond 5.
- 1969: First docking between two crewed craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5.
- 1970: First soil samples automatically extracted and returned to Earth from another celestial body, Luna 16.
- 1970: First robotic space rover, Lunokhod 1 on the Moon.
- 1970: First full interplanetary travel with a soft landing and useful data transmission. Data received from the surface of another planet of the Solar System (Venus), Venera 7
- 1971: First space station, Salyut 1.
- 1971: First probe to impact the surface of Mars, Mars 2.
- 1971: First probe to land on Mars, Mars 3.
- 1971: First armed space station, Almaz.
- 1975: First probe to orbit Venus, to make a soft landing on Venus, first photos from the surface of Venus, Venera 9.
- 1980: First Latin American, Cuban and person with African ancestry in space, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez on Soyuz 38.
- 1984: First woman to walk in space, Svetlana Savitskaya (Salyut 7 space station).
- 1986: First crew to visit two separate space stations (Mir and Salyut 7).
- 1986: First probes to deploy robotic balloons into Venus atmosphere and to return pictures of a comet during close flyby Vega 1, Vega 2.
- 1986: First permanently crewed space station, Mir, 1986–2001, with a permanent presence on board (1989–1999).
- 1987: First crew to spend over one year in space, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov on board of Soyuz TM-4 – Mir.
- 1988: First fully automated flight of a spaceplane (Buran).