Meet NPO Energomash, which recently joined the United Rocket and Space Corporation of Russia. This is where the best and most powerful liquid rocket engines in the world are made. They pulled almost the entire Soviet space program, and now they pull the Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even the American one.
Here, in Khimki near Moscow, engines for the Soviet-Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets were developed; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian Zenit and Dnepr; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first...
1. After checking the passport and the arrival of the accompanying person, we move from the entrance to the plant museum, or as it is called here, the “Demonstration Hall”.
2. The keeper of the hall, Vladimir Sudakov, is the head of the Information Department. Apparently, he copes with his responsibilities well - he was the only one of all my interlocutors who knew who “Zelenyikot” was.
3. Vladimir gave a short but informative tour of the museum.
Do you see a 7 cm spray gun on the table? This is where the entire Soviet and Russian space grew from.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, the head there was Valentin Petrovich Glushko, who later became the general designer of NPO Energomash.
The disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spacecraft. Solar panels were supposed to be placed on the disk. In the background are the first models of liquid rocket engines developed by GDL.
Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. real work began with government funding. Here the GDL already worked together with the Royal GIRD. During wartime, rocket boosters for serial military aircraft were developed at Sharashka. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid engine construction.
But the whole weather was ruined by the Germans, who created the first ballistic missile A4, better known in Russia as the V-2.
Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.
4. First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using entirely Soviet materials. During this period, our engineers were still helped by the Germans. But they tried to keep them away from secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.
5. First of all, the engineers began to boost and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.
6. The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - the pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided the Soviet Union with primacy in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned space exploration to this day.
7. Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.
8. In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply deflect the engine’s main chamber as a whole. The problems with combustion instability were never completely resolved, which is why most engines designed by the Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.
9. In the hall there is only one single-chamber giant, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing version NK-33 for the N1 rocket won.
The difference is that N1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, and Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. This mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this in no way prevents China from now launching its taikonauts using just such a mixture.
10. You can also look at the Proton engine.
11. And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in the Voevoda missiles, widely known under the NATO name “Satan”.
However, now they are also launched under the name “Dnepr” for peaceful purposes.
12. Finally we get to the pearl of the Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.
Today it is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. It surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, versus one in the F-1.
RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project as side booster engines. According to the original design, the boosters were reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times of use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities.
After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket. In Soviet times, it, like the Voevoda, was developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, which ended up abroad after the collapse of the USSR. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, the Sea Launch project began to be implemented jointly with the United States and Norway. Although it never reached profitability, it underwent reorganization and now its future fate is being decided, but the rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space poverty in the 90s and early 2000s.
13. How to achieve mobility of the unit at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, it’s a bullshit question: just 12 layers of metal and additional armor rings, fill between the layers with liquid oxygen - and there are no problems...
This design allows you to rigidly mount the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle using a gimbal. On the engine it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with the red plugs.
14. Americans like to repeat about their space: “We stand on the shoulders of giants.” Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase entirely applies to Russian cosmonautics. Even though the Angara is the brainchild of Russian designers, its engine, the RD-191, goes back evolutionarily to the RD-171.
In the same way, the “half” of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American space program when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked whether there was a propaganda element to this victory - could the Americans have entered into a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space? They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the astonished eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the characteristics of the RD-180 were almost twice those of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power/weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.
Here in the video of testing the Merlin-1D engine you can see a stream of generator gas gushing from a tube next to the nozzle:
15. Finally, the end of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is being considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Sciences, which needed a replacement for the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket accident in October.
16. At the factory, this trinity RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called “liter”, “half liter” and “quarter”.
17. There are a lot of interesting things at the plant, and the main thing was to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a bunch of steel and aluminum blanks.
A Brief History of Rockets
The general principle of jet flight, which formed the basis of all rockets, is simple - some part is separated from the body, setting everything else in motion.
It is unknown who was the first to implement this principle, but various guesses and conjectures bring the genealogy of rocket science right back to Archimedes. What is known for certain about the first such inventions is that they were actively used by the Chinese, who loaded them with gunpowder and launched them into the sky due to the explosion. Thus they created the first solid fuel rockets. European governments showed great interest in missiles early
Second rocket boom
Rockets waited in the wings and waited: in the 1920s, the second rocket boom began, and it is associated primarily with two names.
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a self-taught scientist from the Ryazan province, despite difficulties and obstacles, himself reached many discoveries, without which it would have been impossible to even talk about space. The idea of using liquid fuel, Tsiolkovsky’s formula, which calculates the speed required for flight based on the ratio of the final and initial masses, a multi-stage rocket - all this is his merit. Largely under the influence of his works, domestic rocket science was created and formalized. In the Soviet Union, societies and circles for the study of jet propulsion began to spontaneously arise, including GIRD - a group for the study of jet propulsion, and in 1933, under the patronage of the authorities, the Jet Institute appeared.
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky.
Source: Wikimedia.org
The second hero of the rocket race is the German physicist Wernher von Braun. Brown had an excellent education and a lively mind, and after meeting another luminary of world rocket science, Heinrich Oberth, he decided to put all his efforts into creating and improving rockets. During World War II, von Braun actually became the father of the Reich's “weapon of retaliation” - the V-2 rocket, which the Germans began using on the battlefield in 1944. The “winged horror,” as it was called in the press, brought destruction to many English cities, but, fortunately, at that time the collapse of Nazism was already a matter of time. Wernher von Braun, together with his brother, decided to surrender to the Americans, and, as history has shown, this was a lucky ticket not only and not so much for scientists, but for the Americans themselves. Since 1955, Brown has worked for the American government, and his inventions form the basis of the US space program.
But let's go back to the 1930s. The Soviet government appreciated the zeal of enthusiasts on the path to space and decided to use it in its own interests. During the war years, the Katyusha, a multiple launch rocket system that fired rockets, showed its worth. It was in many ways an innovative weapon: the Katyusha, based on a Studebaker light truck, arrived, turned around, fired at the sector and left, not allowing the Germans to come to their senses.
The end of the war presented our leadership with a new task: the Americans demonstrated to the world the full power of the nuclear bomb, and it became quite obvious that only those who have something similar can claim the status of a superpower. But there was a problem. The fact is that, in addition to the bomb itself, we needed delivery vehicles that could bypass US air defense. Airplanes were not suitable for this. And the USSR decided to rely on missiles.
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky died in 1935, but he was replaced by a whole generation of young scientists who sent man into space. Among these scientists was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who was destined to become the Soviets' "trump card" in the space race.
The USSR set about creating its intercontinental missile with all zeal: institutes were organized, the best scientists were gathered, a missile research institute was being created in Podlipki near Moscow, and work was in full swing.
Only a colossal effort of effort, resources and minds allowed the Soviet Union to build its own rocket, which was called the R-7, in the shortest possible time. It was its modifications that launched Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into space, and it was Sergei Korolev and his associates who launched the space age of mankind. But what does a space rocket consist of?
What is a space rocket? How is it different from the usual one? A space rocket is a composite, multi-stage rocket powered by liquid fuel. No one immediately came up with such a rocket in finished form!
The first simple rockets appeared in the 13th century in China.
Sketches and drawings of the first multi-stage rockets appeared in the works of military technician Konrad Haas (1556) and scientist Kazimir Semenovich (1650). It is he, according to many experts, who is the first inventor of a multi-stage rocket. But these were military engineering projects. Neither Haas nor Semenovich envisioned their use for space purposes.
He was the first to propose the idea of using a multistage rocket for space flight.
in the 17th century... Cyrano de Bergerac in his fantastic story “A Trip to the Moon” (1648).
But the fact is that a conventional multi-stage solid fuel rocket (mostly gunpowder was proposed) was not suitable for space flights. A fundamentally different type of fuel was needed.
And finally, at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1903, our compatriot K. E. Tsiolkovsky figured out how to teach a rocket to fly in space. He came up with LIQUID two-component fuel! – For the first time he proposed the design of a space rocket with a liquid jet engine! - This is his great merit. And that is why Tsiolkovsky is considered one of the founders of astronautics (although he was unable to propose a workable rocket design). “One of” – because there are only three of them. In addition to our Tsiolkovsky, these are also the American Robert Goddard and the German Hermann Oberth.
Goddard in 1914 was the first to finally propose a prototype of a real space rocket - a multi-stage liquid fuel rocket. That is, Goddard brought together two fundamental ideas - the idea of multi-stage and the idea of liquid fuel. Multistage + Liquid fuel = Space rocket. That is, the project of a real space rocket first appeared in the works of Goddard. Moreover, the design of the Goddard rocket provides for sequential separation of stages. It was Goddard who, in 1914, first received a patent for the invention of multistage rockets.
Moreover, Goddard was not only engaged in theoretical calculations. He was also a practitioner! In 1926, it was Goddard himself who built the world's first rocket with a liquid jet engine (liquid fuel). Built and launched! (Albeit not at a very high altitude then, but this was only the first test launch!)
So if the phrase “invented a space rocket” most applies to anyone, it’s Goddard.
Only one of the three “fathers” - Hermann Oberth - was destined to witness the launches of multi-stage space rockets. In 1923, his book was published, in which he proposed a two-stage rocket for flight into space. The release of this work had a huge resonance in society! Even the Soviet newspaper Pravda repeatedly wrote about the idea of “the German professor Oberth, who came up with a way to fly into space.” Oberth was also a practitioner. He also built his own rocket.
In addition to the traditionally called three “fathers,” perhaps we can also name the fourth founder of cosmonautics, Yuri Kondratyuk, who in his work “To Those Who Will Read to Build” gave a schematic diagram and description of a 4-stage rocket powered by oxygen-hydrogen fuel Work on the manuscript began in 1916 and was completed in 1919. Kondratyuk is famous, first of all, for the fact that it was he who calculated the optimal flight path to the Moon. These calculations were used by NASA in the Apollo lunar program. The trajectory he proposed in 1916 was later called the “Kondratyuk route.”
Yesterday, the President visited Samara, where he visited one of the leading Russian enterprises - JSC Progress Rocket and Space Center (RCC) - and held a meeting on the socio-economic development of the region.
Vladimir Putin began his inspection of factory products directly from the helipad on the factory territory. Here the president was shown samples of aviation and water equipment. The head of state even sat at the controls of the Rysachok twin-engine turboprop aircraft, which is produced at the enterprise.
The history of the enterprise began with airplanes. Since 1917 it was State Aviation Plant No. 1, and it was located in Moscow. A bicycle repair shop was born back in 1894, and everything started from there. The plant was evacuated to Samara (then called Kuibyshev) in 1941. From here, Il-2 and Il-10 attack aircraft and MiG-3 fighters were sent to the front. And in 1959, the first serial intercontinental ballistic missile took off from the Baikonur test site; since April 12, 1961, all launches of domestic space crews were carried out on Samara launch vehicles.
The modern history of the enterprise is also successful. Vladimir Putin was shown and told about the plant’s international and promising projects. For example, the international Soyuz project, which is being implemented at the Guiana Space Center, involves about 50 launches of launch vehicles over 15 years, which provides Progress with a long-term order for the production of Soyuz-ST class rockets.
The company is working on promising space projects to create new middle-class rockets of the Soyuz-5 type, heavy and super-heavy class launch vehicles for flights to the Moon and Mars, the production of small spacecraft and other high-tech projects.
In the workshop for assembling and testing launch vehicles used to launch manned and transport spacecraft, the president was shown both serial and prototype models of launch vehicles - the main product of the enterprise.
As the general director of the plant, Alexander Kirilin, said, over 50 years, the Samara RSC has created nine modifications of medium-class launch vehicles - Vostok, Molniya, Soyuz. And over the years, more than 1,800 of them have been launched, and another 980 spacecraft, which are also made at Progress. Moreover, they solve many problems, including national security, scientific and national economic goals.
In the evening, in the administrative building of the plant, Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the socio-economic development of the Samara region. Its participants were government ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and heads of large regional enterprises in the fields of oil refining, automotive industry, aerospace industry and housing construction.
The history of Soviet rocketry is almost a hundred years old. The stages of the thorny path of science fully reflect all the cataclysms and grimaces of Soviet history.
However, nothing could prevent outstanding Russian Soviet scientists from bringing the USSR to a leading position in rocket science in a short period of time.
Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, laureate of the USSR State Prize Yuri Grigoriev restores the picture of victories and defeats of domestic rocket science.
By the end of the war, the Red Army had over 500 rocket artillery divisions.
Rescue Katyushas
The Russian "Katyusha", the appearance of which marked the summing up of a certain stage in the development of rocket science in Russia, was demonstrated a few days before the start of the Great Patriotic War (June 15 - 17, 1941) at a review of weapons of the Red Army.
By the end of the war, the Red Army had over 500 rocket artillery divisions. It is obvious to everyone that the Katyusha rockets played a significant role in the victory over Nazi Germany.
The path taken by Russian scientists from the first jet engines to the experimental BM-13 combat vehicles was not easy, taking almost twenty years.
Tikhomirov Nikolai Ivanovich (1860 - 1930). In 1921, at his suggestion, the creation of rocket artillery began on a qualitatively new energy basis - smokeless gunpowder. For the first time he solved the problem of stable combustion of pyroxylin powder in a rocket chamber. On this basis, he launched development work and organized a Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL).
The origin of domestic rocket science is associated with the creation in 1921 in Moscow of a research and development laboratory for the development of rocket engines and missiles, headed by engineer N.I. Tikhomirov.
Langemak Georgy Erikhovich (1898-1938). The founder of research on the design of rockets using smokeless powder, which he began in 1928. He headed the creation of rocket artillery as the scientific director of the problem and the chief engineer of the institute. Completed research that improved the performance of rockets to the level with which they were adopted by ground forces.
Since 1928, this laboratory began to be called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory (GDL). It was there that G.E. began his work on the design of rockets using smokeless powder. Langemak.
Petropavlovsky Boris Sergeevich (1898-1933). In 1930-1933, he headed the development of rockets and launchers at the GDL. He brought the development work to the first official tests of prototypes on the ground and in the air. Contributed to the creation of the Jet Research Institute.
After Tikhomirov’s death in 1930, engineer B.S. was appointed head of the GDL. Petropavlovsky, who headed the development of rockets and launchers. The GDL was transferred to Leningrad and placed in the building of the Main Admiralty in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Ioannovsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. GDL is located here
Petropavlovsky Boris Sergeevich with GDL staff
In 1931, the Moscow Group for the Study of Jet Propulsion (GIRD) appeared in Moscow, which began work in 1932 on the design of the OR-2 aviation liquid-jet engine, the RP-1 rocket plane and a ballistic missile, which rose to a height of 400 m on August 17, 1933, and after modification - at 1500 m.
At work. Standing on the right is F. A. Tsander
Rockets developed in the USSR in the GIRD group (Jet Propulsion Research Group)
A little later, in Moscow, on the basis of the Leningrad GDL and the Moscow GIRD, on September 21, 1933, the Jet Research Institute (RNII) was created. I.T. was appointed head of the RNII. Kleimenov, his deputy was G.E. Langemak.
The institute's TS included:
The Technical Council of the Institute included: G.E. Langemak (chairman), V.P. Glushko, V.I. Dudakov, S.P. Korolev, Yu.A. Pobedonostsev and M.K. Tikhonravov.
Later, this organization became known as the Scientific Research Institute of Thermal Processes (NIITP). Nowadays it is the State Scientific Center of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Keldysh Center”.
A cruise guided missile with an ORM-65 engine was designed
Group S.P. Korolev designed a cruise guided missile 301 with a V.P. engine. Glushko ORM-65, which was intended to be launched from a TB-3 heavy bomber at a range of up to 10 km.
It had a wingspan of 2.2 m, a length of 3.2 m and a launch weight of 200 kg. Flight tests of this rocket were carried out. The RP-318-1 glider, equipped with a jet engine, was also created.
The RP-318-1 glider was built, equipped with a jet engine
In December 1937, the USSR adopted rockets (“Eres”) suspended under the wing of an aircraft. They were installed on I-15, I-16, I-153 fighters and SB bombers, were successfully used at Khalkhin Gol, and later during the Great Patriotic War they were installed on Yakovlev and Lavochkin fighters, Ilyushin attack aircraft and other aircraft.
"Eres" suspended under the wing of an airplane. They were installed on fighters I-15, I-16, I-153
But let’s return to the fateful June 1941 for rocket science, when the Katyusha was officially presented to the first leaders of the Soviet Union.
Those present at the review of weapons of the Red Army, People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko, Chief of the General Staff G.K. Zhukov, People's Commissar of Armaments D.F. Ustinov, People's Commissar of Ammunition B.L. Vannikov praised the new missile weapons.
Launcher BM-13 - the legendary "Katyusha"
The decision to launch mass production of M-13 rockets and the BM-13 launcher was made on June 21, 1941, literally a few hours before the start of the war!
Units armed with such rocket launchers were called guards mortar units. The Germans' attempts to counter the Katyusha with a five-, six- and ten-barreled mortar proved ineffective.
Arrest by NKVD authorities S.P. Korolev and V.P. Glushko
Butyrka prison where S.P. was placed. Korolev and V.P. Glushko
Photo by V.P. Glushko from the personal file of the NKVD
Photo by S.P. Queen from the personal file of the NKVD
S.P. Korolev and V.P. Glushko met only in 1942 in Kazan
Other areas of work in the field of rocket science did not develop in the USSR during the war. Of course, when the war began, and the enemy was on the outskirts of Moscow and Leningrad, it was pointless to develop long-range ballistic missiles. But there was another reason: repression in the pre-war years.
In 1937, during N.I. Ezhov’s tenure as People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs, one of the RNII employees wrote a slanderous denunciation in which he called a group of his colleagues saboteurs. All the “pests” he listed were arrested. I.T. Kleimenov and G.E. Langemak were soon shot, and V.P. Glushko and S.P. The queens received 8 years in the camps.
At the end of 1938, when Yezhov was relieved of his post (shot in 1940), his place was taken by L.P. Beria, who on January 10, 1939 signed an order to organize special technical bureaus within the NKVD structure intended for the use of prisoners with special technical knowledge. People called them “sharashkas”.
V.P. worked in one of these “sharashkas”. Glushko and S.P. Korolev. They were cleared of their convictions and released early only in July 1944, and rehabilitated in 1956.
Chief designers: A.F. Bogomolov, M.S. Ryazansky, N.A. Pilyugin, S.P. Korolev, V.P. Glushko, V.P. Barmin, V.I. Kuznetsov. Baikonur Cosmodrome. 1957
German projects were not useful
Soviet specialists first became acquainted with German missiles during the war in 1944, when the advancing Red Army occupied the territory of a German missile test site in Poland. Soviet engineers arrived there and managed to find a preserved combustion chamber, pieces of fuel tanks, parts of the rocket body and much more.
All collected finds were brought to Moscow, and specialists began studying them. After the surrender of Germany, many Soviet engineers were sent to the Soviet occupation zone - specialists in various types of equipment and technologies - among them V.F. Bolkhovitinov, A.M. Isaev, B.E. Chertok, V.I. Kuznetsov, V.P. Barmin, V.P. Mishin, N.A. Pilyugin, S.P. Korolev, V.P. Glushko. IN
All members of the future council of chief designers were sent to Germany to study German rocket technology
At Peenemünde they saw not only the V-2, but also a number of small missiles: “Reintochter”, “Reinbote”, “Wasserfall”, “Typhoon”. Another German missile center, Nordhausen, an underground factory where concentration camp prisoners worked, was also located in the Soviet occupation zone, but was captured by American troops. In July 1945, the Americans withdrew troops from Nordhausen, but took everything they could from there. The very next day, Soviet specialists appeared there.
Some time later, the Rabe Institute was created in Germany, an organization for the study of German rocket technology, which was located in Bleicherode, a small town deep in the Soviet occupation zone. The people who worked there were mainly Germans - former participants in the German missile program, however, as a rule, they were not leading specialists, since the main specialists of the German missile project, led by Brown, were taken to the United States. Of the major German specialists, only Helmut Gröttrup remained, who in Peenemünde led the development of control systems for missiles.
Helmut GRETTRUP German rocket engineer, control systems specialist, deputy of Dr. Steinhof (head of the ballistic and guided missile control group in Peenemünde)
In the fall of 1945, the larger Nordhausen Institute was created, which included the Rabe Institute. L.M. became the head of the Nordhausen Institute. Gaidukov, and his deputy and chief engineer was S.P. Korolev. To restore all the documentation necessary for the production of missiles, a joint Soviet-German design bureau was formed in the city of Sommerde, near Erfurt.
The V-1 projectile was studied
The restoration of ground equipment was carried out by the Berlin Institute, whose chief engineer was V.P. Barmin. The overall scope of the work was so large that orders had to be placed throughout the Soviet occupation zone of Germany in surviving factories.
Soviet orders were carried out willingly, since they were paid for with the most expensive thing at that time - food rations. In 1946, it was decided to organize the transfer of German specialists from Germany to the USSR. To carry out this operation, which was led by Colonel General I.A. Serov, up to 2,500 soldiers and counterintelligence officers were involved.
In the early morning of October 22, 1946, army trucks drove up to the houses where German specialists lived. An employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, accompanied by an interpreter and a group of soldiers, woke up the inhabitants of the house, read them an order to immediately send them to the USSR to continue work, and asked them to take with them family members and any things they wanted to take out. It was also ordered that any woman whom the German specialist wanted to take with him, even if it was not his wife, should be allowed to go to the USSR. The use of physical violence was strictly prohibited.
It was ordered to take all the things that the Germans wanted; even pianos were taken out. The wife of one German specialist categorically refused to leave because she had two cows that provided milk for her children. They didn’t argue with her; they loaded the cows too.
Families and luggage were loaded onto cars and headed to stations, where trains were ready to depart. When the railway trains with passengers and freight cars arrived in Nordhausen, the Russians and Germans gathered in the restaurant for a banquet that lasted until one in the morning. And in the morning the evacuation began. More than 200 German rocketry specialists arrived in the USSR, and about 500 people, along with their families.
Among them there were 13 professors, 32 doctoral engineers, 85 certified engineers and 21 practicing engineers. A train containing special equipment and several assembled V-2 rockets also left the USSR from Germany.
Study of the German V-2 rocket
The arriving German scientists and engineers were placed on the island of Gorodomlya (Lake Seliger) in the residential town of a large research institute, which had been relocated to another location. The food was good. The Germans were paid from 4 to 6 thousand rubles per month, Soviet designers of the same rank received less. On weekends, the Germans were periodically taken to Moscow, to theaters and museums.
In September 1947, Soviet and German rocket specialists went to the State Central Test Site, located between the Volga and Akhtuba rivers near the village of Kapustin Yar. We traveled on a special laboratory train, which was formed in Germany.
Residential carriages provided good conditions for work and leisure. The problems that arose were discussed at meetings of the State Commission, which included D.F. Ustinov, I.A. Serov and other responsible persons, and the chairman was Marshal of Artillery N.D. Yakovlev.
The first launch of the V-2 rocket took place on October 18, 1947 at 10:47 am. The rocket flew 207 km and, deviating 30 km from the course, collapsed in dense layers of the atmosphere. The second missile flew 231 km, but deviated by 180 km. German scientists and their assistants received bonuses of 25 thousand rubles each. At that time this was a lot of money.
The German specialists who worked at Gorodoml were tasked with constructing a more powerful G-1 rocket, the chief designer of which was Helmut Gröttrup. Work on this project continued for several years, but it was not implemented. The next development of German specialists was the G-2 missile, capable of delivering a warhead weighing one ton over a distance of over 2,500 km.
About a dozen rocket layout options were considered, but this project was also not implemented. Then German specialists were tasked with developing an even more powerful G-4 missile with a firing range of 3000 km and a combat load of 3 tons, but this project was also not implemented. The last development of Gröttrup's group was the G-5 project, but it was not completed.
German specialists worked in isolation; none of them received Soviet citizenship, were not allowed to participate in our specific developments, and did not hold any major positions. The materials they developed were studied by our specialists; if necessary, some design, technological or methodological solutions were borrowed, but none of the projects developed by the Germans went into further development.
When the interest in German ideas among the main Soviet designers dried up, they turned to the Government with a proposal to let the Germans go home, which was done. In October 1950, German specialists were returned to Germany. G. Gröttrup left the USSR later, at the end of 1953.
On the station platform in Berlin, American intelligence agents put him in their car and took him to West Germany, where he was interrogated, then offered a leadership job in the States with his friend von Braun, but G. Gröttrup refused. The American intelligence services, angry at his refusal, did not allow him to get a job for a long time.
State thinking in the service of rocket science
I.V. Stalin
The beginning of the creation of the USSR rocket industry is rightfully considered to be 1946, when the People's Commissariats were renamed into ministries, and on May 13, 1946, I.V. Stalin signed “ Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1017-419. Sov.secret (special folder). Issues of jet weapons".
This Resolution created the Special Committee on Jet Technology under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. G.M. Malenkov was appointed Chairman of the Committee, and D.F. Ustinov, the Minister of Armaments of the USSR, was appointed his deputy. The Resolution included:
- the main functions of the Committee are formulated
- the main ministries and departments for the development and production of jet weapons have been identified
- a new structure of departments has been created in these ministries
- Responsible managers have been appointed for all areas of work
- new research institutes created
- financial issues resolved
- and also provides for training and retraining of students from a number of higher educational institutions in rocket science specialties
In paragraph 32. The resolution stated: “Consider the work on the development of jet technology as the most important state task and oblige all ministries, departments and organizations to carry out tasks on jet technology as priority ones.”
Then design bureaus and research institutes began to be created. The State Union Leading Research Institute No. 88 (NII-88) is being created in the Ministry of Armaments in Podlipki (now the city of Korolev). On August 9, 1946, D.F. Ustinov appointed S.P. as the chief designer of the long-range ballistic missile (product No. 1). Queen.
Later, on the basis of a number of divisions of NII-88 and the pilot plant, OKB-1 was created, whose director and chief designer was also S.P. Korolev. The following were also created:
- In the Ministry of Aviation Industry - Rocket Engine Design Bureau (chief designer V.P. Glushko)
- In the Ministry of Communications Industry - Research Institute for the development of equipment and radio communications for missiles (chief designer M.S. Ryazansky)
- At the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry - Institute for Gyroscopes (chief designer V.I. Kuznetsov)
- In the Ministry of Mechanical Engineering and Instrument Making - Design Bureau for the development of launch complexes (chief designer V.P. Barmin)
The main designers of the design bureaus created under the ministries were:
Later specialized design bureaus were created:
- in Moscow (chief designer A.D. Nadiradze)
- in Reutov, Moscow region (chief designer V.N. Chelomey)
- in Krasnoyarsk (chief designer M.F. Reshetnev)
- in Zlatoust (chief designer V.P.Makeev)
- in Kuibyshev (chief designer D.I. Kozlov)
- in Dnepropetrovsk (chief designer M.K. Yangel)
The main designers of specialized design bureaus were
Sergey Aleksandrovich Afanasyev was appointed Minister of General Engineering
In 1965, the Ministry of General Mechanical Engineering was formed, which united almost the entire rocket and space industry of the USSR. Sergei Aleksandrovich Afanasyev was appointed minister. As a result of competent government policy in the USSR in the field of rocket science, several priority areas were developed:
Ballistic liquid-propellant missile R5M with a nuclear warhead
1. The world's first ballistic liquid missile R5M with a nuclear warhead, firing range 1200 km (chief designer S.P. Korolev), launched with a real nuclear charge on February 2, 1956.
Ground-based ICBM (ICBM) R-7
2. The world's first ground-based intercontinental liquid ballistic missile (ICBM), the first successful launch of which was carried out on August 21, 1957, was put into service in 1960 with a throw weight of 2 tons and a firing range of 12,000 km (chief designer S.P. .Korolev).
Soyuz launch vehicle, created on the basis of the R-7 ICBM
3. The world's first Soyuz launch vehicle, created on the basis of the R-7 ICBM, which on October 4, 1957 launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite into orbit, and on April 12, 1961, the world's first manned spacecraft, on which Yuri Gagarin discovered humanity's way into space (chief designer S.P. Korolev).
Submarine ballistic missile - R-29 liquid-propellant missile
4. The world's first intercontinental submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is the R-29 liquid-propellant missile, throw weight 1.1 tons, firing range 7800 km, put into service in 1974 (chief designer V.P. Makeev).
SLBM with 10 warheads - R-39 solid propellant missile
5. The world's first SLBM with 10 warheads - the R-39 solid-propellant missile, throw weight 2.55 tons, firing range 8300 km, equipped with a unique shock-absorbing missile launch system (ARSS), providing launch from an under-ice position, adopted for service in 1983 (general designer V.P. Makeev).
Mobile ground-based missile system (PGRK)
Mobile ground-based ICBM - solid-fuel missile RT-2PM "Topol" with a monoblock
RT-2PM "Topol" solid fuel missile launcher
6. The world's first mobile ground-based ICBM is the RT-2PM Topol solid-fuel missile with a monoblock, throw weight 1 ton, firing range 10,000 km, adopted for service in 1988 (chief designer A.D. Nadiradze).
Combat railway missile system (BZHRK)
Mobile railway-based ICBM - solid fuel missile RT-23UTTH (10 warheads)
BZHRK launch car with raised container
7. The world's first mobile railway-based ICBM is the RT-23UTTH solid-fuel missile (10 warheads), throw weight 4.05 tons, maximum firing range 10,000 km, adopted for service in 1989 (general designer V.F. Utkin).
A launch vehicle capable of launching into orbit a spacecraft or space station weighing up to 100 tons - the Energia launch vehicle
The last launch of the Energia launch vehicle, when the Buran orbital ship was launched into orbit (without pilots)
8. The world's first launch vehicle capable of launching a spacecraft or space station weighing up to 100 tons into orbit is the Energia launch vehicle (general designer V.P. Glushko).
The first launch of this rocket with a 75-ton prototype orbital laser platform was carried out on May 15, 1987.
The second, unfortunately, last launch of the Energia launch vehicle was carried out on November 15, 1988, when the Buran orbital ship (without pilots) was launched into orbit, which circled the Earth twice, then descended from orbit and turned around the Baikonur Cosmodrome and landed automatically with high precision.
Sea-launched supersonic cruise missiles:
9. The world's first sea-based supersonic cruise missiles: “Basalt”, “Granit”, etc. (general designer V.N. Chelomey).
Tragic losses
Analyzing the facts and events related to the development of rocketry in the modern history of Russia, it can be argued that the fate of domestic rocketry was tragic.
1.
Production of the Energia launch vehicle was discontinued, and the existing reserve was destroyed.
2.
Production of the Buran was also discontinued; of those already built, two were destroyed at Baikonur, the rest were put on public display in the Central Park of Culture in Moscow and abroad.
3.
Not a single new launch vehicle has been created. Spacecraft launches into space orbits are still being carried out:
- Soyuz-type launch vehicles, which are modifications of the royal R-7 rocket (payload up to 8.8 tons)
- launch vehicle "Proton", began operation in 1965 (chief designer V.N. Chelomey), and its modifications (payload up to 22 tons
- launch vehicles "Rokot", "Strela" and "Dnepr"
The last three missiles were removed from combat duty due to the end of their service life and converted by the UR-100NUTTH ICBMs (general designer V.N. Chelomey) and R-36M UTTH (general designer V.F. Utkin). When all these ICBMs are gone, said launch vehicles will disappear.
4.
All 36 RT-23UTTH ICBMs and 12 trains in which they were located were destroyed.
5.
All 120 R-39 SLBMs were destroyed, and all 6 Project 94.1 submarines in which they were located were withdrawn from the Navy’s operational inventory, 3 of them have already been disposed of.
6.
The latest liquid-propellant SLBMs "Sineva", throw weight 2.8 tons (4 medium or 10 small warheads), maximum firing range with a reduced number of blocks - 11547 km, put into service in 2007, and its modernized version, the "Liner" missile ( General designer V.G. Degtyar), are installed only in obsolete Project 667BRM submarines that have undergone factory repairs and whose combat service life is coming to an end, and no new submarines are being built for these missiles. Consequently, in the coming years, these newest missiles will remain only in the memories of developers and sailors.
7.
New submarines (project 955) are built only for the Bulava missile, throw weight 1.15 tons, which is at the final stage of testing (general designer Yu.S. Solomonov). The lead ship of Project 955 “Yuri Dolgoruky” (12 shafts), laid down in 1996, was assigned to the 31st submarine division of the Northern Fleet, based in Gadzhievo, Murmansk region, in January 1913 and will take up combat duty in the World Ocean after January 2014 of the year.
It is easy to calculate that the total throw weight of the entire ammunition load of this submarine will be 13.8 tons. If on subsequent Project 955 submarines the number of mines is increased to 20, then this value will increase to 23 tons. Let us recall that the total throw weight of the entire ammunition load of one American submarine “ Ohio" (24 silos) with Trident-2 missiles, put into service in 1990, with a throw weight of 2.8 tons (like our Sineva) and a maximum firing range with a reduced number of blocks of 11,300 km (almost like our "Sineva"), is 67.2 tons. The American Trident-1 missile with a throw weight of 1.28 tons has long been withdrawn from service.
USED BOOKS:
1.Ballistic missile "Bulava". Specifications. Reference.
2. Viktor Chirkov - Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. "Yuri Dolgoruky" will take up combat duty in a year.
3. Grigoriev Yu.P. - Rocket and space industry. "Military-industrial complex". Encyclopedia. Volume 1. Moscow, Military Parade. 2005.
4. Grigoriev Yu.P. From the arms race of the 20th century to the loss of nuclear parity in the 21st. Independent Military Review No. 11, 2006
5. Grigoriev Yu.P. Problems of domestic cosmonautics. WEAPONS OF RUSSIA. Information Agency. Moscow, July 21, 2012