1.
Yuri Gagarin
–
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became a celebrity, and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as crew to the Soyuz 1 mission. Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed. The Yuri Gagarin Medal is awarded in his honor, Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino, near Gzhatsk, on 9 March 1934. His parents worked on a farm, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin as a carpenter and bricklayer. Yuri was the third of four children, older brother Valentin, older sister Zoya, like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered during Nazi occupation in World War II. Klushino was occupied in November 1941 during the German advance on Moscow, and an officer took over the Gagarin residence. The family was allowed to build a mud hut, approximately 3 by 3 metres inside, on the land behind their house and his two older siblings were deported by the Germans to Poland for slave labour in 1943, and did not return until after the war in 1945. In 1946, the moved to Gzhatsk, where Gagarin continued his secondary education. After graduating in 1951 from both the grade and the vocational school, he was selected for further training at the Saratov Industrial Technical School. While in Saratov, Gagarin volunteered for training as a Soviet air cadet at a local flying club. He also earned money as a part-time dock laborer on the Volga River. After graduating from the school in 1955, the Soviet Army drafted Gagarin. On a recommendation, Gagarin was sent to the First Chkalov Air Force Pilots School in Orenburg, post-graduation, he was assigned to the Luostari airbase in Murmansk Oblast, close to the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. He became a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Forces on 5 November 1957, in 1960, after much searching and a selection process, Yuri Gagarin was chosen with 19 other pilots for the Soviet space program. Gagarin was further selected for a training group known as the Sochi Six
Yuri Gagarin
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Gagarin on a visit to Sweden, 1964
Yuri Gagarin
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Valentina Gagarina, Sima Eivazova and Yuri Gagarin in Bulgaria in 1966
Yuri Gagarin
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Vostok I capsule on display at the
RKK Energiya museum
Yuri Gagarin
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Gagarin in
Warsaw, 1961
2.
Soviet manned lunar programs
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The Proton-based Zond program was canceled in 1970, and the N1 / L3 program was terminated de facto in 1974 and officially canceled in 1976. Details of both Soviet programs were kept secret until 1990 when the government allowed them to be published under the policy of glasnost. As early as 1961, the Soviet leadership had made public pronouncements about landing a man on the Moon and establishing a lunar base, sergei Korolev, the senior Soviet rocket engineer, was more interested in launching a heavy orbital station and in manned flights to Mars and Venus. With this in mind, Korolev began the development of the super-heavy N-1 rocket with a 75-ton payload, the components would then be delivered by the proven middle R-7 rocket. After developing the N1, beginning in 1963, Korolev began to plan a Moon landing mission using two launches and docking, later Korolev managed to increase the payload of the N1 to 92-93 tons, providing enough power to accomplish the mission with a single launch. Another main space design bureau headed by Vladimir Chelomei proposed a competing cislunar orbiting mission using a heavy UR-500K rocket, later, Chelomei also proposed a Moon landing program with a super-heavy UR-700 rocket and a LK-700 spacecraft. The Soviet government issued a response to the American Apollo challenge after three years, Korolev organized full scale development of both programs, but died after surgery in January 1966. According to a government decree of February 1967, the first manned flyby was scheduled for mid-1967, korolevs death, along with various technical and administrative reasons, as well as a lack of financial support, resulted in both programs being delayed. One group was commanded by Vladimir Komarov and included Yuri Gagarin, and was to prepare for qualification flights of the Soyuz in Earth orbit, Komarov later died in the Soyuz 1 spaceflight when his parachute malfunctioned causing his capsule to smash into the earth at high speed. The second group was led by Alexei Leonov and concentrated on the landing mission, as a result, Leonov has the strongest claim to have been the Soviets first choice for the first man on the Moon. After Komarovs death in Soyuz 1 in 1967, Gagarin was taken out of training, a total of 18 missions were related to the N1-L3 project. Launched by a 3-staged Proton rocket, the L1 was a spacecraft from the Soyuz family, planned for 8 December 1968 for priority over the US, a first manned mission of the L1 was canceled due to the insufficient readiness of the capsule and rocket. After Apollo 8 won the first phase of the Moon Race at the end of 1968, a few reserve units of L1 made unpiloted flights, but by the end of 1970, this program was canceled. The manned landing plan adopted a method to the single launch. The Lunokhods were also equipped with controls for the cosmonauts. The N1 rocket would carry the L3 Moon expedition complex. A variant of the Soyuz craft, the Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl command ship, the 7K-OK was half the mass of the three-man Apollo orbital command ship. The Lunniy Korabl accommodated only one cosmonaut, so in the Soviet plan, the mass of the LK was 40% of the mass of the Apollo lunar lander
Soviet manned lunar programs
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Artist's depiction of TMK-MAVR on a
Venus flyby
Soviet manned lunar programs
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Zond (Soyuz 7K-L1) circumlunar spacecraft.
Soviet manned lunar programs
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In the Ocean of Storms, a 1967 Soviet painting by
Alexey Leonov and Andrei Sokolov, depicts a traveler examining the Luna 9 braking rocket and landing capsule which had performed the first unmanned moon landing in 1966. Leonov, who made the first
spacewalk, was at this time generally viewed as the Soviet cosmonaut most likely to become the first human on the Moon.
Soviet manned lunar programs
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Soyuz 7K-LOK
rendering.
3.
Luna programme
–
The Luna programme, occasionally called Lunik or Lunnik by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, each designed as either an orbiter or lander and they also performed many experiments, studying the Moons chemical composition, gravity, temperature, and radiation. Twenty-four spacecraft were formally given the Luna designation, although more were launched and those that failed to reach orbit were not publicly acknowledged at the time, and not assigned a Luna number. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given Cosmos designations, the estimated cost of the Luna programme was about $4.5 billion. Luna 1 missed its intended impact with the Moon and became the first spacecraft to fall into orbit around the Sun, Luna 2 mission successfully hit the Moons surface, becoming the first man-made object to reach the Moon. Luna 3 rounded the Moon later that year, and returned the first photographs of its far side, Luna 9 became the first probe to achieve a soft landing on another planetary body. It returned five black and white stereoscopic circular panoramas, which were the first close-up shots of the Lunar surface, Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon. Luna 17 and Luna 21 carried the Lunokhod vehicles, which roamed around on the Moons terrain, another major achievement of the Luna programme, with Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24, was the ability to collect samples of lunar soil and return them to Earth. The programme returned 0.326 kg of lunar samples, the Luna missions were the first space-exploration sample return missions to rely solely on advanced robotics. Luna 15, also designed to return samples from the lunar surface. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were already on the surface when Luna 15 began its descent. While the programme was active, it was Soviet practice not to any details of missions which had failed to achieve orbit. When details of Soviet launches were later disclosed, no launches of Luna spacecraft were found to have occurred on those dates
Luna programme
Luna programme
Luna programme
Luna programme
4.
Russian space program
–
The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is the governmental body responsible for the space science program of Russia and general aerospace research. The Corporation was established on the basis of the now-defunct Federal Space Agency on December 28,2015, Roscosmos was previously known as the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. The headquarters of Roscosmos are located in Moscow, while the main Mission Control space center is located in the city of Korolev. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center is in Star City, the Launch facilities used are Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and Vostochny Cosmodrome being built in the Russian Far East in Amur Oblast. The current Director since January 2015 is Igor Komarov, in 2015 the Russian government merged Roscosmos with the United Rocket and Space Corporation, the re-nationalized Russian space industry, to create the Roscosmos State Corporation. The Soviet space program did not have central executive agencies, instead, its organizational architecture was multi-centered, it was the design bureaus and the council of designers that had the most say, not the political leadership. The creation of a central agency after the separation of Russia from the Soviet Union was therefore a new development, Russian Space Agency was formed on February 25,1992, by a decree of President Yeltsin. Yuri Koptev, who had worked with designing Mars landers at NPO Lavochkin. In the early years, the agency suffered from lack of authority as the design bureaus fought to protect their own spheres of operation. For example, the decision to keep Mir in operation beyond 1999 was not taken by the agency, instead, another example is that the decision to develop the new Angara rocket was rather a function of Khrunichevs ability to attract resources than a conscious long-term decision by the agency. The 1990s saw serious financial problems because of decreased cash flow and this resulted in Roscosmos leading role in commercial satellite launches and space tourism. In March 2004, director Yuri Koptev was replaced by Anatoly Perminov, the Russian economy boomed throughout 2005 from high prices for exports, such as oil and gas, the outlook for future funding in 2006 appeared more favorable. The budget for 2006 was as high as 25 billion rubles, under the current 10-year budget approved, the budget of the Space Agency shall increase 5–10% per year, providing the space agency with a constant influx of money. In addition to the budget, Roscosmos plans to have over 130 billion rubles flowing into its budget by other means, such as industry investments and it is around the time US-based The Planetary Society entered a partnership with Roscosmos. In 2011, the government spent 115 billion rubles in the space programs. The proposed project core budget for 2013 to be around 128.3 billion rubles, the budget for the whole space program is,169.8 billion rubles. By 2015, the amount of the budget can be increased to 199.2 billion rubles, priorities of the Russian space program include the new Angara rocket family and development of new communications, navigation and remote Earth sensing spacecraft. The GLONASS global navigation system has for many years been one of the top priorities and has been given its own budget line in the federal space budget
Russian space program
Russian space program
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Logo of Roscosmos
Russian space program
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Cosmonaut on EVA (February 2012)
Russian space program
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The
Zarya module was the first module of the ISS, launched in 1998.
5.
Vostok programme
–
The Vostok programme was a Soviet human spaceflight project to put the first Soviet citizens into low Earth orbit and return them safely. Competing with the United States Project Mercury, it succeeded in placing the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space, the Vostok capsule was developed from the Zenit spy satellite project and adapted the Vostok launch rocket from the existing R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile design. The name Vostok was treated as classified information until Gagarins flight was first publicly disclosed to the world press, the programme carried out six manned spaceflights between 1961 and 1963. The longest flight lasted five days, and the last four were launched in pairs. This exceeded Project Mercurys demonstrated capability of just over 34 hours longest flight, Vostok was succeeded by two Voskhod programme flights in 1964 and 1965, which used three- and two-man modifications of the Vostok capsule and a larger launch rocket. The worlds first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, had put into orbit by the Soviets in 1957. The next milestone in the history of exploration would be to put a human in space. By January 1959, the Soviets had begun preparations for human spaceflight, the candidates had to be intelligent, comfortable in high-stress situations, and physically fit. Chief designer of the Soviet space program, Sergei Korolev, decided that the cosmonauts must be male, the final specifications for cosmonauts were approved in June 1959. By September interviews with potential cosmonauts had begun, although the pilots were not told they might be flying into space, one of the physicians in charge of the selection process believed that some pilots had figured this out. By the end of 1959,20 men had been selected, Korolev insisted on having a larger group than NASAs seven astronaut team. Of these 20, five were outside the age range. Unlike NASAs astronaut group, this group did not particularly consist of experienced pilots, the Soviet spacecraft were more automated than the American counterparts, so significant piloting experience was not necessary. Vershinin assigned the already famous aviator Nikolai Kamanin to supervise operations at the facility, by March, most of the cosmonauts had arrived at the training facility, on March 7 Vershinin gave a welcome speech, and those who were present were formally inducted into the cosmonaut group. By mid-June all twenty were permanently stationed at the center, in March the cosmonauts were started on a daily fitness regime, and were taught classes on topics such as rocket space systems, navigation, geophysics, and astronomy. The move officially took place on June 29,1960, at the Gromov Flight Research Institute, a spacecraft simulator had been built, and it was called the TDK-1. Due to the inefficiency of training all 20 cosmonauts in the simulator and this group, which would be known as The Vanguard Six, was decided on May 30,1960, and initially consisted of Gagarin, Kartashov, Nikolayev, Popovich, Titov, and Varlamov. Alexei Leonov recalls that these six were the shortest six out of the group of 20, in July, shortly after relocation to Star City, two of the six would be replaced, on medical grounds
Vostok programme
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Model of Vostok spacecraft with third stage of launcher
6.
Voskhod programme
–
The Voskhod program was the second Soviet human spaceflight project. Two one-day manned missions were flown using the Voskhod spacecraft and rocket, one in 1964 and one in 1965, Voskhod development was both a follow-on to the Vostok program and a recycling of components left over from that programs cancellation following its first six flights. The Voskhod program was superseded by the Soyuz program, the Voskhod spacecraft was basically a Vostok spacecraft that had a backup, solid-fueled retrorocket added to the top of the descent module. As it was heavier, the launch vehicle would be the 11A57. The ejection seat was removed and two or three crew couches were added to the interior at a 90-degree angle to that of the Vostok crew position. However, the position of the controls was not changed. In the case of Voskhod 2, an inflatable exterior airlock was also added to the descent module opposite the entry hatch, the airlock was jettisoned after use. This apparatus was needed because the vehicle avionics and environmental systems were air-cooled, a solid-fueled braking rocket was also added to the parachute lines to provide for a softer landing at touchdown. This was necessary because, unlike the Vostok, the Voskhod descent module landed with the crewmen still inside, unlike Vostok and the later Soyuz, Voskhod had no launch abort system, meaning that the crew lacked any means of escape from a malfunctioning launch vehicle. Voskhod had a backup retrorocket on top of the capsule in case the main one failed. While Vostok lacked this feature, it was not considered a problem since the spacecraft would decay from orbit within 10 days, relatively lightweight Voskhod was well below the 11A57 boosters lift capacity, meaning that it launched into a much higher orbit and would not decay as quickly. The Voskhod flights, with dates, Kosmos 47 – Unmanned test flight of the Voskhod hardware. Kosmos 57 – Unmanned test flight, unsuccessful, Kosmos 110 – Unmanned, sent two dogs, Veterok and Ugolyok, on a 22-day flight, launched 22 February 1966 and landed 16 March. Although achieving the first EVA became the success of the program. After those goals were realized, the program planned to focus on other advances the spacecraft could accomplish, such as longer duration, however, there were delays preparing for Voskhod 3, and during that time the Gemini program accomplished most of what had been planned for future Voskhods. Voskhod manned space project on Encyclopedia Astronautica
Voskhod programme
–
Voskhod 1 and 2 spacecraft
7.
Soyuz programme
–
It was the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok and Voskhod programme. The programme consists of the Soyuz spacecraft and the Soyuz rocket and is now the responsibility of the Russian Federal Space Agency, since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, all human spaceflights to and from the International Space Station have been carried out using Soyuz. The launch vehicles used in the Soyuz expendable launch system are manufactured at the Progress State Research and Production Rocket Space Center in Samara, there were 11 Soyuz launches in 2001 and 9 in 2002. The Spaceport’s new Soyuz launch site has been handling Soyuz launches since 21 October 2011, as of July 2014,8 Soyuz launches had been made from French Guiana, all successful. The basic Soyuz spacecraft design was the basis for many projects and this and the initial civilian designs were done under the Soviet Chief Designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who did not live to see the craft take flight. Several military derivatives took precedence in the Soviet design process, though they never came to pass, finally, the Progress series of unmanned cargo ships for the Salyut and Mir space laboratories used the automatic navigation and docking mechanism of Soyuz. While not a derivative, the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft follows the basic template originally pioneered by Soyuz. See List of Soviet manned space missions and List of Russian manned space missions Shenzhou, a Chinese spacecraft influenced by Soyuz Space Shuttle Buran Space accidents and incidents
Soyuz programme
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Soyuz spacecraft from the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Soyuz programme
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Soyuz rocket on launch pad.
Soyuz programme
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Soyuz TMA-3 launch
Soyuz programme
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Soyuz 19 as seen from the
Apollo spacecraft during
ASTP Mission July, 1975
8.
Salyut programme
–
The Salyut programme was the first space station programme undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations, Salyut 1, the first station in the program, became the worlds first crewed space station. Mir-2, the spacecraft from the Salyut series, became one of the first modules of the ISS. The first module of the ISS, the Russian-made Zarya, relied heavily on technologies developed in the Salyut programme, for Salyut, small modifications had to be made to the docking port of the OPS to accommodate Soyuz spacecraft in addition to TKS spacecraft. In an effort by OKB-1 to catch up with OKB-52, they took Chelomeis Almaz-OPS hull design and this was done beginning with conceptual work in August 1969. Initially the space stations were to be named Zarya, the Russian word for Dawn, out of the total of 1,697 days of occupancy that all Salyut crews achieved, Salyut 6 and 7 accounted for 1,499. Furthermore, the Functional Cargo Block space station modules were derived from the Almaz programme, Salyut 1 was launched on 19 April 1971. It was the first space station to orbit the Earth and its first crew launched in Soyuz 10 but were unable to board due to a failure in the docking mechanism, its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 productive days. Salyut 1 was moved to an orbit between July and August 1971 to ensure that it would not be destroyed prematurely through orbital decay. In the meantime, Soyuz capsules were being substantially re-designed to allow suits to be worn during launch, docking maneuvers. After 175 days in space, the first real space station came to an end, DOS-2 was launched on 29 July 1972. It was similar in design to Salyut 1, the second stage of its Proton rocket failed, DOS-2 never reached orbit and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Salyut 2 was launched on 4 April 1973, on 11 April 1973, seven days after launch, an unexplainable accident caused both solar panels to be torn loose from the space station, cutting off all power. Salyut 2 re-entered on 28 May 1973, the module DOS-3 was launched on 11 May 1973 – three days before the launch of Skylab – and was slated to become the next civilian space station with a Salyut designation. Due to errors in the control system while out of range from ground control. Since the spacecraft was already in orbit and had registered by Western radar. It re-entered Earths atmosphere a week later, and burned up on re-entry, Salyut 3 was launched on 25 June 1974. Like Salyut 2, it was another Almaz military space station, although unlike its predecessor and it was used to test a wide variety of reconnaissance sensors, returning a canister of film for analysis
Salyut programme
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Salyut 7, the final Salyut station to be launched, as seen from the departing
Soyuz T-13 spacecraft
Salyut programme
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The large horizontal arrows trace the evolution of the two Soviet space station programs DOS (top) and Almaz-OPS (bottom)
Salyut programme
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Salyut 1, the first space station in the history of space flight, is seen here with the docked Soyuz 10 spacecraft.
Salyut programme
–
DOS-5 (
Salyut 6) space station with two docked spacecraft
9.
Mir
–
Mir was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, run by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996 and it had a greater mass than any previous spacecraft. At the time it was the largest artificial satellite in orbit and it holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with Valeri Polyakov spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half out of its fifteen-year lifespan. Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the stage in the Soviet Unions space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the module or base block, was launched in 1986. Proton rockets were used to all of its components except for the docking module. When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components, power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays attached directly to the modules. The station was maintained at an orbit between 296 km and 421 km altitude and traveled at an speed of 27,700 km/h. Mir was deorbited in March 2001 after funding was cut off, the cost of the Mir programme was estimated by former RKA General Director Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime. Mir was authorized on a 17 February 1976 decree, to design a model of the Salyut DOS-17K space stations. Four Salyut space stations had been launched since 1971, with three more being launched during Mirs development, by August 1978, this had evolved to the final configuration of one aft port and five ports in a spherical compartment at the forward end of the station. It was originally planned that the ports would connect to 7. 5-tonne modules derived from the Soyuz spacecraft and these modules would have used a Soyuz propulsion module, as in Soyuz and Progress, and the descent and orbital modules would have been replaced with a long laboratory module. However, following a February 1979 governmental resolution, the programme was consolidated with Vladimir Chelomeis manned Almaz military space station programme, the docking ports were reinforced to accommodate 20-tonne space station modules based on the TKS spacecraft. NPO Energia was responsible for the space station, with work subcontracted to KB Salyut, due to ongoing work on the Energia rocket and Salyut 7, Soyuz-T. KB Salyut began work in 1979, and drawings were released in 1982 and 1983, by early 1984, work on Mir had halted while all resources were being put into the Buran programme in order to prepare the Buran spacecraft for flight testing. Funding resumed in early 1984 when Valentin Glushko was ordered by the Central Committees Secretary for Space and Defence to orbit Mir by early 1986 and it was clear that the planned processing flow could not be followed and still meet the 1986 launch date. It was decided on Cosmonauts Day 1985 to ship the flight model of the block to the Baikonur cosmodrome and conduct the systems testing
Mir
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Mir
Mir
–
A diagram showing the Konus drogue and module movements around Mir' s docking node
Mir
–
Kvant-1 (Astrophysics Module)
Mir
–
Kvant-2 (Augmentation Module)
10.
Zond program
–
Zond was the name given to two distinct series of Soviet unmanned space program undertaken from 1964 to 1970. The first series based on 3MV planetary probe was intended to gather information about nearby planets, the first three missions were based on the model 3MV planetary probe, intended to explore Venus and Mars. After two failures, Zond 3 was sent on a test mission, becoming the second spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon and it then continued out to the orbit of Mars in order to test telemetry and spacecraft systems. The missions 4 through 8 were test flights under for the Soviet Moonshot during the Moon race, the Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft was used for the Moon-aimed missions, stripped down to make it possible to launch around the Moon from the Earth. They were launched on the Proton rocket which was just powerful enough to send the Zond on a return trajectory around the Moon without going into lunar orbit. With minor modification, Zond was capable of carrying two cosmonauts, in the beginning there were serious reliability problems with both the new Proton rocket and the similarly new Soyuz spacecraft, but the test flights pressed ahead with some glitches. The majority of test flights from 1967–1970 showed problems during re-entry, the Zond spacecraft made only unmanned automatic flights. Four of these suffered malfunctions that would have injured or killed any crew, instrumentation flown on these missions gathered data on micrometeor flux, solar and cosmic rays, magnetic fields, radio emissions, and solar wind. Many photographs were taken and biological payloads were also flown, cosmos 154 Launched 8 April 1967 Prototype Soyuz 7K-L1P launched by Proton and failed to go into planned translunar trajectory. Zond 1967A Launched 28 September 1967 Fell off course 60 seconds after launch, escape tower took Zond capsule safely away. Attempted Lunar flyby Zond 1967B Launched 22 November 1967 Second stage failure, attempted Lunar flyby Zond 4 Launched 2 March 1968 Study of remote regions of circumterrestrial space, development of new on-board systems and units of space stations. Returned to Earth 7 March 1968—Self destruct system automatically blew up the capsule at 10 to 15 km altitude, Zond 1968A Launched 23 April 1968 Second stage failed 260 seconds after launch. Attempted Lunar flyby Zond 1968B Launched 21 July 1968 Block D stage exploded on pad, the first spacecraft to circle the Moon and return to land on Earth. Zond 6 Launched 10 November 1968 Circumlunar 14 November 1968 Returned to Earth 17 November 1968 Zond 1969A Launched 20 January 1969 Stage two shutdown 25 seconds early, attempted Lunar flyby Zond L1S-1 Launched 21 February 1969 First stage failure. Capsule escape system fired 70 seconds after launch, attempted Lunar orbiter and N1 rocket test Zond L1S-2 Launched 3 July 1969 First stage failure
Zond program
–
Zond 2 (interplanetary) part of 3MV family
Zond program
–
Zond with L3 stages in assembly hangar
Zond program
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Proton 7K-L1 with Zond rollout
Zond program
–
Soyuz 7K-OK (1967–1970)
11.
N1-L3
–
The Proton-based Zond program was canceled in 1970, and the N1 / L3 program was terminated de facto in 1974 and officially canceled in 1976. Details of both Soviet programs were kept secret until 1990 when the government allowed them to be published under the policy of glasnost. As early as 1961, the Soviet leadership had made public pronouncements about landing a man on the Moon and establishing a lunar base, sergei Korolev, the senior Soviet rocket engineer, was more interested in launching a heavy orbital station and in manned flights to Mars and Venus. With this in mind, Korolev began the development of the super-heavy N-1 rocket with a 75-ton payload, the components would then be delivered by the proven middle R-7 rocket. After developing the N1, beginning in 1963, Korolev began to plan a Moon landing mission using two launches and docking, later Korolev managed to increase the payload of the N1 to 92-93 tons, providing enough power to accomplish the mission with a single launch. Another main space design bureau headed by Vladimir Chelomei proposed a competing cislunar orbiting mission using a heavy UR-500K rocket, later, Chelomei also proposed a Moon landing program with a super-heavy UR-700 rocket and a LK-700 spacecraft. The Soviet government issued a response to the American Apollo challenge after three years, Korolev organized full scale development of both programs, but died after surgery in January 1966. According to a government decree of February 1967, the first manned flyby was scheduled for mid-1967, korolevs death, along with various technical and administrative reasons, as well as a lack of financial support, resulted in both programs being delayed. One group was commanded by Vladimir Komarov and included Yuri Gagarin, and was to prepare for qualification flights of the Soyuz in Earth orbit, Komarov later died in the Soyuz 1 spaceflight when his parachute malfunctioned causing his capsule to smash into the earth at high speed. The second group was led by Alexei Leonov and concentrated on the landing mission, as a result, Leonov has the strongest claim to have been the Soviets first choice for the first man on the Moon. After Komarovs death in Soyuz 1 in 1967, Gagarin was taken out of training, a total of 18 missions were related to the N1-L3 project. Launched by a 3-staged Proton rocket, the L1 was a spacecraft from the Soyuz family, planned for 8 December 1968 for priority over the US, a first manned mission of the L1 was canceled due to the insufficient readiness of the capsule and rocket. After Apollo 8 won the first phase of the Moon Race at the end of 1968, a few reserve units of L1 made unpiloted flights, but by the end of 1970, this program was canceled. The manned landing plan adopted a method to the single launch. The Lunokhods were also equipped with controls for the cosmonauts. The N1 rocket would carry the L3 Moon expedition complex. A variant of the Soyuz craft, the Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl command ship, the 7K-OK was half the mass of the three-man Apollo orbital command ship. The Lunniy Korabl accommodated only one cosmonaut, so in the Soviet plan, the mass of the LK was 40% of the mass of the Apollo lunar lander
N1-L3
–
Artist's depiction of TMK-MAVR on a
Venus flyby
N1-L3
–
Zond (Soyuz 7K-L1) circumlunar spacecraft.
N1-L3
–
In the Ocean of Storms, a 1967 Soviet painting by
Alexey Leonov and Andrei Sokolov, depicts a traveler examining the Luna 9 braking rocket and landing capsule which had performed the first unmanned moon landing in 1966. Leonov, who made the first
spacewalk, was at this time generally viewed as the Soviet cosmonaut most likely to become the first human on the Moon.
N1-L3
–
Soyuz 7K-LOK
rendering.
12.
TMK
–
TMK was the designation of a Soviet space exploration project to send a manned flight to Mars and Venus without landing. The TMK-1 spacecraft was due to be launched in 1971 and make a three-year-long flight including a Mars flyby, expanded project variations, such as the TMK-E, Mavr or KK, including a Venus flyby, electric propulsion or a manned Mars landing were also proposed. The TMK project was planned as an answer from the Soviet Union to the United States manned Moon landings, a previous Martian Piloted Complex mission was proposed in 1956. The project was never completed because the required N1 rocket never flew successfully, the first flight to Mars of the TMK-1 was planned to begin on June 8,1971. The 75 metric ton TMK-1 spacecraft would take a crew of three on a Mars flyby mission, after a 10½ month flight the crew would race past Mars, dropping remote-controlled landers, and then be flung into an Earth-return trajectory. Earth return would happen on July 10,1974, after a voyage of three years, one month, and two days, total volume of the section would be 25 cubic meters. The spacecraft would be powered by electric engines and five landers would deliver a nuclear-powered Mars Train on the surface for a one-year mission. The TMK-E would be capable of a flight to Mars and return. It would measure 175 m in length and house a crew of six, six landing craft were included, two for the crew and four for the Mars Train vehicles. A variation of the TMK mission planning involved a flyby of Venus on the return voyage, in 1966, a final version of the TMK studies was known as KK - Space Complex for Delivering a Piloted Expedition to Mars. Nuclear electric propulsion was to be used for the 630-day mission, Mars stay duration would be 30 days
TMK
–
Artist's depiction of TMK-MAVR on a
Venus flyby
13.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
–
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 part of a programme known as the Spiral was a manned test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing. It was a result of a Soviet project to create an orbital spaceplane. The MiG105 was nicknamed Lapot Russian, лапоть, or bast shoe for the shape of its nose, the program was also known as EPOS. Work on this project began in 1965, two years after Dyna-Soars cancellation. The project was halted in 1969, to be resurrected in 1974 in response to the U. S. The test vehicle made its first subsonic free-flight test in 1976 and it was flown by pilot Aviard G. Fastovets to the Zhukovskii flight test center, a distance of 30.5 kilometres. Flight tests, totaling eight in all, continued sporadically until 1978, the actual space plane project was cancelled when the decision was made to instead proceed with the Buran project. The MiG test vehicle itself still exists and is currently on display at the Monino Air Force Museum in Russia, gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy was the leader of the Spiral development programme. Although having basically the same mission, Dyna-Soar and Spiral were radically different vehicles, for example, While the X-20 Dyna-Soar was designed for launch atop a conventional expendable rocket such as the Titan III-C or Saturn I, Soviet engineers opted for a midair launch scheme for Spiral. The mothership was to have built by the Tupolev Design Bureau and utilize many of the same technologies developed for the Tu-144 supersonic transport. Dyna-Soar was designed as a body, while Spiral was a conventional delta that featured an innovative variable-dihedral wing. During launch and reentry, these were folded upward at 60 degrees, after dropping to subsonic speeds post-reentry, the pilot lowered the wings into the horizontal position, giving the spaceplane better re-entry and flight characteristics. Spiral was built to allow for a landing and go-around maneuver in case of a missed landing approach. An air intake for a single Kolesov turbojet was mounted beneath the central vertical stabilizer and this was protected during launch and re-entry by a clamshell door which opened at subsonic speeds. By comparison, Dyna-Soar was designed primarily for a once-off, unpowered deadstick landing, high temperature superalloy metals such as niobium, molybdenum, tungsten and rene 41 were to have been used in the heatshield structure of the X-20. Several BOR craft were flown to test this concept, much like the Space Shuttle, Dyna-Soar was designed with a small payload bay behind the pressurized crew module. This could be used for lofting small satellites, carrying surveillance equipment, Spiral, on the other hand, was intended to carry only its pilot. Both Dyna-Soar and Spiral were designed to land on skids, the landing skids on Dyna-Soar were designed to deploy from insulated doors on the underside of the vehicle, like a conventional aircraft
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
–
MiG-105
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
–
Gherman Titov, the second
cosmonaut and the main test pilot of the MiG-105.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
–
BOR-2
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105
–
BOR-4
14.
Almaz
–
The Almaz program was a highly secretive Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976, Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5, to cover the military nature of the program the three launched Almaz stations were designated as civilian Salyut space stations. Salyut 2 failed shortly after achieving orbit, but Salyut 3, following Salyut 5, the Soviet Ministry of Defence judged in 1978 that the time consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits relative to automatic reconnaissance satellites. The space stations cores were known internally as OPS, from Orbital Piloted Station, the heritage of the Almaz program continues, with the ISS module Zarya being one example. Vladimir Chelomei at the OKB-52 design bureau promoted Almaz as a response to the US Air Forces Manned Orbiting Laboratory project, MOL had been widely publicized in the US press in the early 1960s, which provided Chelomei plenty of material to use to lobby for a Soviet response. The OPS would have a diameter of 4.15 metres, a mass of roughly 20 tonnes. As with MOL/Gemini, once in orbit the crew would access the lab through a hatch in the shield at the bottom of the VA capsule. After an extended stay of 30 to 60 days of military observation, unlike the American MOL design, the Soviets designed the Almaz to be recrewed and resupplied. For this, they created the TKS resupply craft, which consisted of an FGB, at the station, one docking port would be available to receive the TKS craft once the previous crew had left the station in their VA capsule. While the MOL was canceled in 1969, the Almaz program was integrated into the Salyut programme, plans called for the first three Almaz stations to be visited by three two-month-long expeditions each. The Almaz APOS design, without VA spacecraft, would evolve into the Almaz OPS station cores of the Salyut programme, in addition to reconnaissance equipment, Almaz was equipped with a unique 23mm Rikhter rapid-fire cannon mounted on the forward belly of the station. This revolver cannon was modified from the tail-gun of the Tu-22 bomber and was capable of a rate of fire of 1800-2000 rounds per minute. Each 168 gram or 173 gram projectile flew at a speed of 850 m/s relative to the station, the cannon had a supply of 32 rounds and was tested at the end of the mission, when the station was operating in unmanned mode. To aim the cannon, which was on a fixed mounting, the Almaz series remain, to this day, the only armed, crewed military spacecraft ever flown. Salyut 3/OPS-2 conducted a successful remote test firing with the station unmanned due to concerns over excessive vibration and noise. OPS-4 was to have featured two rockets instead of the cannon, but this system has not been shown publicly. Three Almaz OPS space stations were flown from 1973 to 1976 in the Salyut programme, Salyut 2, Salyut 3, the partially outfitted hulls of Almaz-205 and Almaz-206 are today in the property of Excalibur Almaz, a company that plans to launch these as manned space stations. The first Almaz station, announced as Salyut 2, it was launched on April 3,1973, for purposes of military secrecy, it was publicly designated Salyut 2 upon reaching orbit
Almaz
–
Line drawing of an Almaz space station
15.
TKS (spacecraft)
–
The TKS spacecraft was a Soviet spacecraft conceived in the late 1960s for resupply flights to the military Almaz space station. The Functional Cargo Block of the TKS spacecraft later formed the basis of space station modules. And the Functional Cargo Block which, in order to resupply an Almaz space station, carried docking hardware, tanks, furthermore, the FGB carried the on-orbit maneuvering engines for the TKS. The FGB could also be used alone as a cargo module without an VA spacecraft. The VA spacecraft on the hand was also intended to be launched as Almaz APOS, mated with an Almaz-OPS space station core as the primary orbital maneuvering system. As of August 2009, Excalibur Almaz planned to use the VA capsule as low-cost cargo return vehicles. The TKS spacecraft was designed by Vladimir Chelomei and V. N. Bugayskiy as a spacecraft launched with Proton rocket alternative to the Soyuz spacecraft for use with Almaz space stations. Development began in 1965, the Almaz programme had been abandoned by the time the first TKS spacecraft flew in 1977. The VA spacecraft was flown separately on four test missions with two craft per launch to test the design, as well as one all-up test mission and three resupply missions. The project had evolved with space station Modulny based on the TKS design outline, reworked to dock with Salyut 7, Mir. This development was designated FGB, or Functional Cargo Block, the TKS spacecraft consisted of an 11F74 Vozvraschaemyi Apparat, attached to an 11F77 Transportniy Korabl Snabzheniya. The TKS VA spacecraft was itself a very compact and efficient spacecraft, typically it would reenter the atmosphere within 2 orbits, but could fly autonomously for up to 31 hours. Although extensively flight tested, it never flew with a crew on board, the VA design was derived from the planned capsule for the Chelomeis LK-1 manned circumlunar spacecraft of the 1960s. It was also the basis for Chelomeis LK-700 Lunar Lander crew capsule, the VA looked somewhat similar to the Apollo capsule, but was 30% smaller than its NASA counterpart. The FGB was entered from the VA spacecraft via a short tunnel, at the aft end a pilot station was equipped with controls and windows for manual docking with the Almaz space station. The docking port was located here. Operational TKS spacecraft would have delivered KSI film return capsules to Almaz stations and these would have been stored around the docking port for transfer to the film capsule airlock for loading. VA #009L/P and VA #009P/P, Launched on 1977-08-04, launch vehicle failure forty seconds into the flight on a suborbital test of two VA spacecraft
TKS (spacecraft)
–
A model of an TKS spacecraft. On the left is the cylindrical
Functional Cargo Block with attached solar panels. In the middle is the
VA spacecraft, with the conical VA return capsule for the crew and the VA's orbital manoeuvring engines in the long nose section. Standing right front is the
launch escape system, which would have been attached to the top of the VA's nose section during launch and jettisoned after a successful launch.
TKS (spacecraft)
–
TKS spacecraft
TKS (spacecraft)
–
TKS VA return capsule of
Kosmos 1443
TKS (spacecraft)
–
Zarya module as seen from STS-88
16.
Energia
–
Energia was a Soviet rocket that was designed by NPO Energia to serve as a heavy-lift expendable launch system as well as a booster for the Buran spacecraft. Control system main developer enterprise was the NPO Electropribor, the Energia used four strap-on boosters each powered by a four-chamber RD-170 engine burning kerosene/LOX, and a central core stage with 4 one-chamber RD-0120 engines fueled by liquid hydrogen/LOX. The rocket had the capacity to place about 100 tonnes in Low Earth orbit, up to 20 tonnes to geostationary orbit, work on the Energia/Buran system began in 1976 after the decision was made to cancel the unsuccessful N1. The cancelled N1 rocket-based Manned Lunar Launch Facilities and Infrastructure were used for Energia, Energia also replaced the Vulkan concept, which was a design based on the Proton and using the same hypergolic propellants, but much larger and more powerful. The Vulkan designation was given to a variation of the Energia which has eight boosters. This configuration required the addition of a stage to perform the final orbital insertion. Due to the termination of the Buran programme the Energia program was concluded after only two launches, and further the payload on the first launch didnt perform the final boost properly, the Energia was first test-launched on 15 May 1987, with the Polyus spacecraft as the payload. The intended orbit was altitude 280 km, inclination 64. 6°, the two stages of the Energia launcher functioned as designed, but due to a software error in its attitude control system, Polyus orbital insertion motor failed to inject the payload into orbit. Instead, the Polyus reentered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, the second flight, and the first one where payload successfully reached orbit, was launched on 15 November 1988. This mission launched the unmanned Soviet Shuttle vehicle, Buran, at apogee, the Buran spacecraft made a 66.7 m/s burn to reach a final orbit of 251 km x 263 km. Production of Energia rockets ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, ever since, there have been persistent rumors of the renewal of production, but given the current political realities, that is highly unlikely. While the Energia is no longer in production, the Zenit boosters are still in production, the four strap-on liquid-fuel boosters, which burned kerosene and liquid oxygen, were the basis of the Zenit rocket which used the same engines. The engine is the four combustion chamber RD-170 and its derivative, the RD-171, is still used on the Zenit rocket. In August 2016, plans were announced to develop a super heavy-lift launch vehicle from existing Energia components instead of pushing the less-powerful Angara A5V project, three major variants were conceptualized after the original configuration, each with vastly different payloads. The Energia M was the smallest design configuration, the number of Zenit boosters was reduced from four to two, and instead of four RD-0120 engines in the core, it had only one. It was designed to replace the Proton rocket, but lost the 1993 competition to the Angara rocket, Energia II, named Uragan, was a rocket proposed to be fully reusable with the design feature to land on a conventional airfield. S. The Energia II core as proposed would be capable of re-entering and gliding to a landing, the final unflown configuration was also the largest. With eight Zenit booster rockets and an Energia-M core as the upper stage, the development of rocket-carrier Vulcan and the refurbishment of the Energia launch pad for its launches was in progress in 1990-1993
Energia
–
Energia transported to the launchpad in Baikonur
Energia
–
Energia II ("Uragan") rocket was planned to be completely reusable and would be able to land on a conventional airfield.
Energia
–
Derivatives
17.
Buran programme
–
The Buran-class space shuttle orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket as a launch vehicle. The Buran programme was started by the Soviet Union as a response to the United States Space Shuttle program, the project was the largest and the most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration. Development work included sending BOR-5 test vehicles on multiple sub-orbital test flights, Buran completed one unmanned orbital spaceflight in 1988 before its cancellation in 1993. Orbiter K1, which flew the test flight in 1988 was crushed in a collapse on 12 May 2002 in Kazakhstan. The OK-GLI resides in Technikmuseum Speyer, although Soviet/Russian Buran spacecraft was similar in appearance to NASAs Space Shuttle, and could similarly operate as a re-entry spaceplane, its internal and functional design was distinct. For example, the engines during launch were on the Energia rocket and were not taken into orbit by the spacecraft. Smaller rocket engines on the body provided propulsion in orbit. The Buran orbital vehicle programme was developed in response to the U. S, Space Shuttle programme, which in the 1980s raised considerable concerns among the Soviet military and especially Defense Minister Dmitriy Ustinov. An authoritative chronicler of the Soviet and later Russian space programmes, the Soviet government asked the TsNIIMash for an expert opinion. Institute director, Yuri Mozzhorin, recalls that for a time the institute could not envisage a civilian payload large enough to require a vehicle of that capacity. Officially, the Buran orbital vehicle was designed for the delivery to orbit and return to Earth of spacecraft, cosmonauts, before the Mriya was ready, the Myasishchev VM-T Atlant, a variant on the Soviet Myasishchev M-4 Molot bomber, fulfilled the same role. The Soviet reusable space-craft programme has its roots in the beginning of the space age. The idea of Soviet reusable space flight is very old, though it was neither continuous, before Buran, no project of the programme reached production. The idea saw its first iteration in the Burya high-altitude jet aircraft, several test flights are known, before it was cancelled by order of the Central Committee. The Burya had the goal of delivering a nuclear payload, presumably to the United States, the cancellation was based on a final decision to develop ICBMs. The next iteration of the idea was Zvezda from the early 1960s, decades later, another project with the same name was used as a service module for the International Space Station. After Zvezda, there was a hiatus in reusable projects until Buran, the development of the Buran began in the early 1970s as a response to the U. S. Soviet officials were concerned about a military threat posed by the U. S
Buran programme
–
Orbiter K1 on launch
pad 110/37 in November 1988
Buran programme
–
Amusement rides and Buran shuttle test vehicle OK-7M/OK-TVA at
Gorky Park in Moscow.
Buran programme
–
[1] 1988 1989
Buran programme
18.
Bion (satellite)
–
The Bion satellites, also named Biocosmos, were a series of Soviet biosatellites. They were part of the Kosmos satellites, the Soviet biosatellite program began in 1966 with Kosmos 110, and resumed in 1973 with Kosmos 605. Cooperation in space ventures between the Soviet Union and the United States was initiated in 1971, with the signing of the United States and Soviet Union in Science and Applications Agreement. The Soviet Union first offered to fly US experiments on a Kosmos biosatellite in 1974, the offer was realized in 1975 when the first joint U. S. /Soviet research were carried out on the Kosmos 782 mission. The Bion spacecraft were based on the Zenit and launches began in 1973 with primary emphasis on the problems of radiation effects on human beings, launches in the program included Kosmos 110,605,690,782, plus Nauka modules flown on Zenit-2M reconnaissance satellites. 90 kg of equipment could be contained in the external Nauka module, the Soviet/Russian Bion program provided U. S. investigators a platform for launching Fundamental Space Biology and biomedical experiments into space. The Bion program, which began in 1966, included a series of missions that flew biological experiments using primates, rodents, insects, cells, NASA became involved in the program in 1975 and participated in 9 of the 11 Bion missions. NASA ended its participation in the program with the Bion 11 mission launched in December 1996, the collaboration resulted in the flight of more than 100 U. S. experiments, one-half of all U. S. Life Sciences flight experiments accomplished with non-human subjects, the missions ranged from five days to around 22 days. In 2005 the Bion program was resumed with three new satellites of the modified Bion-M type – the first flight was launched April 19,2013 from Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. All the gerbils died due to a failure, but condition of the rest of the experiments. Half the mice died as was predicted, Zenit Satellites - Bion Variant Astronautix, Bion TsSKB, Bion images RW Ballard, and JP Connolly. Joint research in biology and medicine on Kosmos biosatellites
Bion (satellite)
–
A Bion spacecraft, on display
Bion (satellite)
–
An artist's concept of a Bion satellite in orbit
19.
GLONASS
–
GLONASS, or Global Navigation Satellite System, is a space-based satellite navigation system operating in the radionavigation-satellite service and used by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. It provides an alternative to GPS and is the second alternative navigational system in operation with global coverage, smartphones generally tend to use the same chipsets and the versions used since 2015 receive GLONASS signals and positioning information along with GPS. Since 2012, GLONASS was the second most used positioning system in mobile phones after GPS, the system has the advantage that smartphone users receive a more accurate reception identifying location to within 2 meters. Development of GLONASS began in the Soviet Union in 1976, beginning on 12 October 1982, numerous rocket launches added satellites to the system until the constellation was completed in 1995. After a decline in capacity during the late 1990s, in 2001, under Vladimir Putins presidency, GLONASS is the most expensive program of the Russian Federal Space Agency, consuming a third of its budget in 2010. By 2010, GLONASS had achieved 100% coverage of Russias territory and in October 2011, the GLONASS satellites designs have undergone several upgrades, with the latest version being GLONASS-K. GLONASS is a satellite navigation system, providing real time position and velocity determination for military. The satellites are located in middle circular orbit at 19,100 kilometres altitude with a 64.8 degree inclination, GLONASS orbit makes it especially suited for usage in high latitudes, where getting a GPS signal can be problematic. The constellation operates in three planes, with eight evenly spaced satellites on each. A fully operational constellation with global coverage consists of 24 satellites, to get a position fix the receiver must be in the range of at least four satellites. GLONASS satellites transmit two types of signal, open standard-precision signal L1OF/L2OF, and obfuscated high-precision signal L1SF/L2SF, the signals use similar DSSS encoding and binary phase-shift keying modulation as in GPS signals.0 MHz, known as the L1 band. The center frequency is 1602 MHz + n ×0.5625 MHz, signals are transmitted in a 38° cone, using right-hand circular polarization, at an EIRP between 25 and 27 dBW. The L2 band signals use the same FDMA as the L1 band signals, but transmit straddling 1246 MHz with the center frequency 1246 MHz + n×0.4375 MHz, the pseudo-random code is generated with a 9-stage shift register operating with a period of 1 ms. The navigational message is modulated at 50 bits per second, the superframe of the open signal is 7500 bits long and consists of 5 frames of 30 seconds, taking 150 seconds to transmit the continuous message. Each frame is 1500 bits long and consists of 15 strings of 100 bits, with 85 bits for data and check-sum bits, and 15 bits for time mark. Strings 1-4 provide immediate data for the satellite, and are repeated every frame, the data include ephemeris, clock and frequency offsets. Strings 5-15 provide non-immediate data for each satellite in the constellation, with frames I-IV each describing five satellites, the almanac uses modified Keplerian parameters and is updated daily. The details of the signal have not been disclosed
GLONASS
–
GLONASS logo
GLONASS
–
A model of a
GLONASS-K satellite displayed at CeBit 2011
GLONASS
–
President
Vladimir Putin with a GLONASS car navigation device. As President, Putin paid special attention to the development of GLONASS.
GLONASS
–
A Russian military rugged, combined GLONASS/GPS receiver
20.
Molniya (satellite)
–
Molniya were military communications satellites used by the Soviet Union. The satellites were placed into highly elliptical orbits known as Molniya orbits, characterised by an inclination of +63.4 degrees. Such orbits allowed them to remain visible to sites in polar regions for extended periods, the Molniya program was authorized by a government decree in late 1960. The first launch took place on June 4,1964 and ended in failure when the 8K78 booster core stage lost thrust 287 seconds into launch due to a servo motor. The next attempt was on August 22 and reached orbit successfully, publicly referred to as Kosmos 41, it nonetheless operated for nine months. The first operational satellite, Molniya 1-01, was launched on April 23,1965. Since October 1967, Molniya satellites have used by Russia to broadcast their national Orbita television network. Molniya-1 spacecraft Molniya, A short history of development Molniya constellation Molniya 1-4
Molniya (satellite)
–
Molniya 1
21.
Meteor (satellite)
–
The Meteor spacecraft are weather observation satellites launched by the USSR and Russia. The Meteor satellite series was developed during the 1960s, the Meteor satellites were designed to monitor atmospheric and sea-surface temperatures, humidity, radiation, sea ice conditions, snow-cover, and clouds. Meteor 1-26 is considered to be the most likely candidate for a the 7 January 2016 satellite near collision, meteor-1 launches Meteor-2-21/Fizeau is the twenty-first and last in the Meteor-2 series of Russian meteorological satellites, which were launched 22 times from 1975 to 1993. ILRS Mission Support Status, Satellite Laser Ranging tracking support of satellite was discontinued in October 1998. What makes Meteor-2-21 distinctive from the other meteorological satellites is its unique retroreflector array, Fizeau is named after a French physicist, Armand Fizeau, who in 1851 conducted an experiment which tested for the aether convection coefficient. SLR tracking of this satellite was used for orbit determination. The Fizeau experiment tests the theory of special relativity – that distance events that are simultaneous for one observer will not be simultaneous for an observer in motion relative to the first. The central cube is made of fused silica and has a two-lobe Far Field Diffraction Pattern providing nearly equal intensities for compensated and uncompensated velocity aberration, both outer reflectors have aluminum coating on the reflecting surfaces and near-diffraction-limited FFDPs. One of the end reflectors is made of fused silica with an index of refraction of 1.46, the other end reflector is made of fused glass with an index of refraction of 1.62 and should provide a perfect compensation of the velocity aberration. SLR full-rate data from MOBLAS4, MOBLAS7, and Maidanak seem to confirm the presence of the influence of the Fizeau effect. Resur-1, another Russian satellite launched in 1994, has 2 corner cubes reflectors with near diffraction-limited FFDPs, WESTPAC, a future SLR satellite, will verify indisputably the existence or otherwise of the Fizeau effect. All the satellites were launched on Tsyklon-3 rockets and these satellites provide weather information including data on clouds, ice and snow cover, atmospheric radiation and humidity. The Meteor-3 class of satellites orbit in a higher altitude than the Meteor-2 class of satellites thus providing more coverage of the Earths surface. The Meteor-3 has the payload as the Meteor-2 but also includes an advanced scanning radiometer with better spectral and spatial resolution. Meteorological data is transmitted to four sites in the former Soviet Union in conjunction with about 80 other smaller sites. Meteor-3 launches Meteor-3-5, launched in 1991, is in a higher orbit than Meteor-2-21. Mechanically, it is similar to Meteor-2-21, which satellite was in operation depended on the sun angles and consequently the seasons. Meteor-3-5 was usually the summer satellite while 2-21 was in operation for approximately the half-year centered on winter, the satellite carried the second Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer aloft as the first and the last American-built instrument to fly on a Soviet spacecraft
Meteor (satellite)
–
Model of a Meteor-2 satellite
Meteor (satellite)
–
Meteor-3M satellite atop its
Zenit-2 launcher
Meteor (satellite)
–
Meteor-3M satellite
22.
Zenit (satellite)
–
Zenit was a series of military photoreconnaissance satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1994. To conceal their nature, all flights were given the public Kosmos designation, over a 33 year period, over five hundred Zenits were flown making it the most numerous type of satellite in the history of spaceflight. The basic design of the Zenit satellites was similar to the Vostok manned spacecraft, sharing the return and it consisted of a spherical re-entry capsule 2.3 m in diameter with a mass of around 2400 kg. This capsule contained the system, its film, recovery beacons, parachutes. The total length in orbit was around 5 m and the mass was between 4600 kg and 4740 kg. Unlike the American Corona spacecraft, the capsule carried both the film and the cameras and kept them in a temperature controlled pressurised environment. This simplified the design and engineering of the system but added considerably to the mass of the satellite. An advantage was that cameras could be reused, early Zenits were launched using the Vostok rocket, later versions used the Voskhod and the Soyuz rockets. The first flights were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome but subsequent launches also took place at Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Most Zenits flew in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of around 200 km. By 1958, the OKB-1 design bureau was simultaneously working on Object OD-1 and this may have been a political manoeuvre that would enable him to continue the manned space program and avoid diverting more of OKB-1’s resources into Object OD-1. Spacecraft 1K would be a prototype, 2K was to be a reconnaissance satellite. The name Vostok was also used for all three of these craft. But in 1961 the name became known as the name of Yuri Gagarins spacecraft so the Vostok 2 reconnaissance satellite was renamed Zenit 2. The first Zenit launch attempt took place on 11 December 1961, but there was a fault in the third stage. The second attempt — publicly referred to as Kosmos 4 — was successfully launched on 26 April 1962, however a failure in the orientation system meant few useful pictures were obtained, usable pictures had a resolution of about 5 to 7 meters. Launch #3 on June 1 failed dramatically when the one of the 8A92 boosters strap-ons shut down at liftoff and fell onto the pad, the rest of the launch vehicle crashed 300 meters away. This accident caused damage to LC-1, delaying the flights of Vostok 3
Zenit (satellite)
–
Zenit re-entry capsule, showing camera ports
23.
Lunokhod programme
–
Lunokhod was a series of Soviet robotic lunar rovers designed to land on the Moon between 1969 and 1977. The 1969 Lunokhod 1A was destroyed during launch, the 1970 Lunokhod 1, the successful missions were in operation concurrently with the Zond and Luna series of Moon flyby, orbiter and landing missions. The Lunokhods were primarily designed to support the Soviet manned moon missions during Moon race, the Lunokhods were transported to the lunar surface by Luna spacecraft, which were launched by Proton-K rockets. The moon lander part of the Luna spacecraft for Lunokhods were similar to the ones for sample return missions, the Lunokhods were designed by Alexander Kemurdzhian at Lavochkin. Not until the 1997 Mars Pathfinder was another remote-controlled vehicle put on an extraterrestrial body, Lunokhods original primary mission was the back-up for L3 manned moon expeditions and for the later Zvezda lunar base. LK-R used as an escape craft in case of disability to start from Moon of LK and Lunokhods used by cosmonaut for transfer to LK-R in necessity. This manned version of Lunokhod were additionally equipped with oxygen stock with hose socket, standing pads, in mid-1968, at the facility KIP-10 or NIP-10 in the secret village Shkolnoye, near Simferopol, a lunodrom was built. It covered an area of one hectare and was similar to some parts of the lunar surface. It was constructed using more than 3,000 cubic meters of soil, the whole area was surrounded with bricks, painted in gray and black. It was used to analyze problems with the Lunokhod chassis and to cosmonauts skill of control the one, the facility was one of a network of ten facilities which contain earth satellite vehicle tracking equipment and provide command/control for Soviet near-space civil and military events. Additionally, this facility was support all lunar programs of Soviet Union in association with the Evpatoria Deep Space Tracking Facility, at least four complete vehicles were constructed, with the serial numbers 201,203,204 and 205. After years of engineering development and training, the first Lunokhod was launched on February 19,1969. Within a few seconds the rocket disintegrated and the first Lunokhod was lost, the rest of the world did not learn of the rockets valuable payload until years later. The failure resulted in the heat source, Polonium 210. After the destruction of the original Lunokhod, Soviet engineers began work immediately on another lunar vehicle, Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers successfully landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17, Lunokhod 1 was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world. Luna 17 was launched on November 10,1970 at 14,44,01 UTC, after reaching Earth parking orbit, the final stage of Luna 17s launching rocket fired to place it into a trajectory towards the Moon. After two course correction manoeuvres it entered orbit on November 15,1970 at 22,00 UTC
Lunokhod programme
–
The Lunokhod mission diagram.
Lunokhod programme
–
Soviet moonrover
Lunokhod programme
–
Parabolic dish TNA-400 and abandoned NIP-10
Lunokhod programme
–
Model of Lunokhod series Soviet Moon exploration robot vehicle
24.
Mars program
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The Mars program was a series of unmanned spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included flyby probes, early Mars spacecraft were small, and launched by Molniya rockets. Starting with two failures in 1969, the heavier Proton-K rocket was used to launch larger 5 tonne spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter, the orbiter bus design was likely somewhat rushed into service and immature, considering that it performed very reliably in the Venera variant after 1975. The names of the Mars missions do not need to be translated, as the word Mars is spelled and pronounced approximately the same way in English and Russian. In addition to the Mars program, the Soviet Union also sent a probe to Mars as part of the Zond program, Zond 2, two more spacecraft were sent during the Phobos program. In 1996, Russia launched Mars 96, its first interplanetary mission since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet attempts to send a probe to Mars were the two Mars 1M spacecraft, which each had a mass of about 650 kg. Both were launched in 1960 and failed to achieve orbit, the spacecraft were dubbed Marsnik by the Western media. Mars 1 was launched in 1962 but failed en route to Mars, Mars 2M No.521 and Mars 2M No.522, known in the West as Mars 1969A and B, were heavier spacecraft with masses of 5 tonnes. They were launched by Proton-K rockets, and consisted of orbiters, the Mars 4M spacecraft, Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander, which became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of Mars. The descent module entered the Martian atmosphere at roughly 6.0 km/s at a steeper angle than planned, the descent system malfunctioned and the lander crashed at 45°S 30°W, delivering the Soviet Union coat of arms to the surface. Meanwhile, the engine performed a burn to put the spacecraft into a 1380 x 24,940 km. Scientific instruments were turned on for about 30 minutes near periapsis. The descent module entered the Martian atmosphere at roughly 5.7 km/s, through aerodynamic braking, parachutes, and retrorockets, the lander achieved a soft landing at 45°S 158°W and began operations. However, after 20 seconds the instruments stopped working for unknown reasons, Mars 3 lander still managed to transmit a portion of the first picture of Martian surface. Meanwhile, the orbiter had suffered from a loss of fuel. The engine instead performed a burn to put the spacecraft into a long 12-day-19-hour period orbit about Mars with an inclination thought to be similar to that of Mars 2. Both landers had a small Mars rover on board, which would move across the surface on skis while connected to the lander with a 15-meter umbilical. Two small metal rods were used for obstacle avoidance, as radio signals from Earth would take too long to drive the rovers using remote control
Mars program
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Mars 1 stamp
Mars program
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Mars 2 stamp
Mars program
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Current
Mars program
25.
Phobos program
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The Phobos program was an unmanned space mission consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. Phobos 1 was launched on 7 July 1988, and Phobos 2 on 12 July 1988, Phobos 1 suffered a terminal failure en route to Mars. Phobos 2 attained Mars orbit, but contact was lost before the final phase, Phobos 1 and 2 were of a new spacecraft design, succeeding the type used in the Venera planetary missions of 1975–1985, last used during the Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions to Comet Halley. They each had a mass of 2600 kg, the program featured cooperation from 14 other nations, including Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, France, West Germany, and the United States. The main section of the spacecraft consisted of a pressurized toroidal electronics section, below these were mounted four spherical tanks containing hydrazine for attitude control and, after the main propulsion module was to be jettisoned, orbit adjustment. A total of 28 thrusters were mounted on the tanks, with additional thrusters mounted on the spacecraft body. Attitude was maintained through the use of a control system, with pointing maintained with Sun. Phobos 1 operated nominally until an expected communications session on September 2,1988 failed to occur, the failure of controllers to regain contact with the spacecraft was traced to an error in the software uploaded on August 29/August 30, which had deactivated the attitude thrusters. By losing its lock on the Sun, the spacecraft could no longer properly orient its solar arrays, software instructions to turn off the probes attitude control, normally a fatal operation, were part of a routine used when testing the spacecraft on the ground. Normally this routine would be removed before launch, however, the software was coded in PROMs, and so removing the test code would have required removing and replacing the entire computer. Because of time pressure from the launch, engineers decided to leave the command sequence in. However, an error in constructing an upload sequence resulted in the command executing. Phobos 2 was launched on July 12,1988, and entered orbit on January 29,1989, Phobos 2 operated nominally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases on January 29,1989, gathering data on the Sun, the interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos. Phobos 2 investigated Marss surface and atmosphere and returned 37 images of Phobos with a resolution of up to 40 meters, Phobos probes carried several instruments, solar x-ray and ultraviolet telescopes, a neutron spectrometer and the Grunt radar experiment designed to study the surface relief of Phobos. These observations made it possible to retrieve the first mineralogical maps of the planet and its satellite, ISM was developed at IAS and DESPA with support from CNES. List of instruments, VSK TV imaging system PROP-F hopping lander, Z. Sagdeev & A. V. Zakharov. Brief history of the Phobos mission
Phobos program
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Current
Phobos program
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Sample image taken by the Phobos 2 probe. Enhanced image released by the IKI. Taken 430 km away with a resolution of 80/420 m.
Phobos program
Phobos program
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On Earth
26.
Mars 1M
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Mars 1M was a series of two unmanned spacecraft which were used in the first Soviet missions to explore Mars. They were the earliest missions of the Mars program, the Western media dubbed the spacecraft Marsnik, a portmanteau of Mars and Sputnik. Mars 1M No.1, known in the west as Marsnik 1, Mars 1960A, in 1962, NASA Administrator James E. Webb informed the United States Congress that NASA believed the mission was an attempt at a Mars flyby probe. Some Soviet scientists involved with the program at that claim no knowledge of this mission. However, V. G. Perminov, the designer of planetary spacecraft at the Lavochkin design bureau. Mars 1M No.2, known in the west as Marsnik 2, Korabl 5, both Mars 1M spacecraft were launched by Molniya rockets. Mars 1M No.2 reached an altitude of 120 km before reentry, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had planned to bring models of the Mars probes for showcasing at his visit to the UN that month, but as both launches failed, they remained packed. These instruments were mounted on the outside of the spacecraft, a photo-television camera was held in a sealed module in the spacecraft and could take pictures through a viewport when a sensor indicated the Sun-illuminated martian surface was in view. Attitude was controlled by a Sun-star sensor with attitude correction performed by a dimethylhydrazine/nitric acid bipropellant rocket engine, the spacecraft orientation was to be maintained so that the solar panels faced the Sun throughout the flight. Power was provided by the two-square meter solar panels which charged silver-zinc batteries, radio communications were made using a decimeter band transmitter via the high gain antenna for spacecraft commands and telemetry. Radio bearing was used to maintain the orientation to Earth. Images were to be transferred using an 8-cm wavelength transmitter through the high-gain antenna, a fourth stage was added to the booster, the Molniya or 8K78, the new launcher was designated SL-6/A-2-e. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics, the Soviet Mars program, Professor Chris Mihos, Case Western Reserve University The beginnings of planetary exploration, Andrew J. LePage, The Space Review, Oct 112010
Mars 1M
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Mars 1M spacecraft
Mars 1M
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Current
Mars 1M
27.
RELIKT-1
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RELIKT-1 - a Soviet cosmic microwave background anisotropy experiment on board the Prognoz 9 satellite gave upper limits on the large-scale anisotropy. A reanalysis of the data in the later years claimed a confident blackbody form, nevertheless, the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2006 was awarded to a team of American scientists, who announced the fact on April 23,1992 based on data taken by the COBE spacecraft. This experiment was prepared by the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a map of the sky at 37 GHz was built using an 8 mm band Dicke-type modulation radiometer. The radiometer could not conduct multi-band astronomical observations, the entire sky was observed in 6 months. The angular resolution was 5.5 degrees, with a resolution of 0.6 mK. The galactic microwave flux was measured and the CMB dipole observed, a quadrupole moment was found between 17 and 95 microkelvins rms, with 90% confidence level. The heat radiation map of the Universe served as the emblem of the 1989 international conference The Cosmic Wave Background,25 Years Later in LAquila, Italy. The discovery of anisotropy by the RELIKT-1 spacecraft was first reported officially in January 1992 at the All-Moscow Astronomy Seminar held at Sternberg Astronomical Institute, as a follow-up to RELIKT-1, it was decided in 1986 to study the anisotropy of CMB as part of the Relikt-2 project. The sensitivity of the equipment had greatly increased, the spacecraft was scheduled to launch in 1993-1994, but the launch never took place because of the Soviet Unions break-up and lack of funding. Strukov, I. A. Skulachev, D. P. Deep-Space Measurements of the Microwave Background Anisotropy - First Results of the Relikt Experiment. 1984 Strukov, I. A. Brukhanov, A. A. Skulachev, D. P. Sazhin, M. V. Anisotropy of relic radiation in the RELICT-1 experiment, Physics Letters B, Volume 315, Issue 1-2, p. 198-202. 09/1993 The Relikt Experiment at NASAs LAMBDA
RELIKT-1
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9-year
WMAP image (2012) of the
CMB.
28.
Venera
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The Venera series space probes were developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather data from Venus, Venera being the Russian name for Venus. As with some of the Soviet Unions other planetary probes, the versions were launched in pairs with a second vehicle being launched soon after the first of the pair. Ten probes from the Venera series successfully landed on Venus and transmitted data from the surface of Venus, in addition, thirteen Venera probes successfully transmitted data from the atmosphere of Venus. The later probes in the Venera series successfully carried out their mission, since the surface conditions on Venus are extreme, the probes only survived on the surface for durations varying between 23 minutes up to about two hours. The first Soviet attempt at a flyby probe to Venus was launched on February 4,1961, in keeping with the Soviet policy at that time of not announcing details of failed missions, the launch was announced under the name Tyazhely Sputnik. It is also known as Venera 1VA, Venera 1 and Venera 2 were intended as fly-by probes to fly past Venus without entering orbit. Venera 1 was launched on February 12,1961, telemetry on the probe failed seven days after launch. It is believed to have passed within 100,000 km of Venus, Venera 2 launched on November 12,1965, but also suffered a telemetry failure after leaving Earth orbit. The Venera 3 to 6 probes were similar, weighing approximately one ton, and launched by the Molniya-type booster rocket, they included a cruise bus and a spherical atmospheric entry probe. The probes were optimised for atmospheric measurements, but not equipped with any special landing apparatus, although it was hoped they would reach the surface still functioning, the first probes failed almost immediately, thereby disabling data transmission to Earth. Venera 3 became the first human-made object to impact another planets surface as it crash-landed on March 1,1966, however, as the spacecrafts dataprobes had failed upon atmospheric penetration, no data from within the Venusian boundary were retrieved from the mission. On 18 October 1967, Venera 4 became the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet, realizing the ships would be crushed before reaching the surface, the Soviets launched Venera 5 and Venera 6 as atmospheric probes. The Venera 7 probe was the first one designed to survive Venus surface conditions, still, the control scientists succeeded in extrapolating the pressure from the temperature data, which resulted from the first direct surface measurements. The Doppler measurements of the Venera 4 to 7 probes were the first evidence of the existence of high-speed zonal winds in the Venusian atmosphere, Venera 7s parachute failed shortly before landing very close to the surface. It impacted at 17 metres per second and toppled over, due to the resultant antenna misalignment, the radio signal was very weak, but was detected for 23 more minutes before its batteries expired. Thus, it became, on 15 December 1970, the first human-made probe to transmit data from the surface of Venus, Venera 8 was equipped with an extended set of scientific instruments for studying the surface. The cruise bus of Venera 7 and 8 was similar to that of earlier ones, the lander transmitted data during the descent and landed in sunlight. It measured the level but had no camera
Venera
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Position of Venera landing sites returning images from the surface
Venera
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Location of Soviet Venus landers
Venera
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Surface of Venus imaged by Venera 9 (top) and Venera 10 (bottom)
Venera
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Surface of Venus imaged by Venera 14
29.
Vega program
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The Vega program was a series of Venus missions that also took advantage of the appearance of comet 1P/Halley in 1986. They had a mission to investigate Venus and also flyby Halleys Comet. The flyby of Halleys Comet had been a mission change in the Venera program following on from the cancellation of the American Halley mission in 1981. A later Venera mission was cancelled and the Venus part of the Vega 1 mission was reduced, because of this, the craft was designated Vega, a contraction of Venera and Gallei. The spacecraft design was based on the previous Venera 9 and Venera 10 missions, the two spacecraft were launched on December 15 and 21,1984, respectively. With their redesignated dual missions, the Vega probes became part of the Halley Armada, Vega 1 and Vega 2 were identical sister ships. The spacecraft was a development of the earlier Venera craft and they were designed by Babakin Space Center and constructed as 5VK by Lavochkin at Khimki. The craft was powered by large solar panels and instruments included an antenna dish, cameras, spectrometer, infrared sounder, magnetometers. The 4,920 kg craft was launched by a Proton 8K82K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Tyuratam, both Vega 1 and Vega 2 were three-axis stabilized spacecraft. The spacecraft were equipped with a dual bumper shield for dust protection from Halleys comet, the units were released some days before each arrived at Venus and entered the atmosphere without active inclination changes. Each contained a lander and a balloon explorer, the Vega 1 landers surface experiments were inadvertently activated at 20 km from the surface by an especially hard wind jolt, and so failed to provide results. The Vega 2 lander touched down at 03,00,50 UT on June 15,1985 at 8. 5° S,164. 5° E, the altitude of the touchdown site was 0.1 km above the planetary mean radius. The measured pressure at the site was 91 atm and the temperature was 736 K. The surface sample was found to be an anorthosite-troctolite, the lander transmitted data from the surface for 56 minutes. The instrument pack had enough power for sixty hours of operation and measured temperature, pressure, wind speed. The balloon envelopes were surfaced with polytetrafluoroethylene to resist attack by the corrosive atmosphere, both Vega-1 and Vega-2 balloons operated for more than 46 hrs from injection to the final transmission. The balloons were spherical superpressure types with a diameter of 3.54 metres, a gondola assembly weighing 6.9 kilograms and 1.3 meters long was connected to the balloon envelope by a tether 13 metres long. Total mass of the assembly was 21 kilograms
Vega program
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Vega mission description
Vega program
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Vega solar system probe bus and landing apparatus (model)
Vega program
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1985
USSR miniature sheet dedicated to the program, depicting
Vega 1 spacecraft,
Comet Halley and
Intercosmos logo.
Vega program
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Geography
30.
Expendable launch vehicle
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An expendable launch system is a launch system that uses an expendable launch vehicle to carry a payload into space. The vehicles used in launch systems are designed to be used only once. The vehicle typically consists of several stages, discarded one by one as the vehicle gains altitude. The ELV design differs from that of reusable systems, where the vehicle is launched and recovered more than once. Reuse might seem to make systems like the Space Shuttle more cost effective than ELVs, most satellites are currently launched using expendable launchers, they are perceived as having a low risk of mission failure, a short time to launch and a relatively low cost. Many orbital expendable launchers are derivatives of 1950s-era ballistic missiles, as such, cost was not a major consideration in their design. The largest of these is the Titan IV, the second costliest per-flight launch vehicle in history, on the other hand, a reusable launcher requires stronger parts and additional parts, thus decreasing payload capacity. The Space Shuttle was a national asset, used with great. Only five orbiters were built, and the loss of two cause great concern and a hiatus in Shuttle flights. Expendable launch failures usually caused a much shorter pause, each of which impacted only that model of launcher, for these reasons the Space Shuttle did not reduce the costs of constructing and launching payloads into orbit and did not replace expendable satellite launchers. On March 26,1980, the European Space Agency and the Centre National dEtudes Spatiales created Arianespace, Arianespace produces, operates and markets the Ariane launcher family. By 1995 Arianespace lofted its 100th satellite and by 1997 the Ariane rocket had its 100th launch, arianespaces 23 shareholders represent scientific, technical, financial and political entities from 10 different European countries. The major shareholder is the CNES, with 34. 68% of capital, at the start, NASA subsidized satellite launches, intending to eventually price Shuttle service for the commercial market at long-run marginal cost. On October 30,1984, United States President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Act and this enabled an American industry of private operators of expendable launch systems. Prior to the signing of this law, all commercial satellite launches in the United States were limited to NASAs Space Shuttle, on November 5,1990, United States President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Launch Services Purchase Act. The Russian government sold part of its stake in RSC Energia to private investors in 1994, Energia together with Khrunichev constituted most of the Russian manned space program. In 1997, the Russian government sold off enough of its share to lose the majority position, in 1996 the United States government selected Lockheed Martin and Boeing to each develop Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles to compete for launch contracts and provide assured access to space. The governments acquisition strategy relied on the commercial viability of both vehicles to lower unit costs
Expendable launch vehicle
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A
Delta II ELV launching the
Dawn spacecraft from
CCAFS SLC-17 (left) and a
Proton rocket launching the
Zvezda Service Module for the
International Space Station in 2000
Expendable launch vehicle
Expendable launch vehicle
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General
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