The Rocket Men Vostok & Voskhod, the First Soviet Manned Spaceflights

Home , Sputnik (rocket), Voskhod (rocket), Voskhod 2, Vostok (rocket family), Vostok (spacecraft), Vostok 1

Rex Hall and David J. Shayler

Vostok & Voskhod, The First Soviet Manned Spaceflights

Published in association with Springer Praxis Publishing PRAXES Chichester, UK Table of contents

Foreword . xiii Authors' preface xv Acknowledgements xix List of illustrations and tables xxiii Prologue xxix

FIRST DREAMS, THEORIES AND PIONEERS y 1 Tsiolkovsky to World War II 1 The Father of Cosmonautics 1 Tsander and Kondratyuk 5 Rocket societies 6 Manned rocketry during the 1930s 9 Stratospheric balloons 10 Early pressure suits 14 Design bureaux 15 Conclusion 17 World War II to the 1950s 17 World War II 17 Pressure garments 19 Testing the V2 20 Biological ballistic flights 21 Design bureaux 27 Conclusion 28

FIRST LAUNCHER, PAD AND SATELLITES 29 A rocket for space 29 The creation of an ICBM 29 Design features of the R-7 ; 34 R-7 engines: RD-107 and RD-108 35 The creation of a cosmodrome 37 Finding a site 37 viii Table of contents

A harsh history 38 Research and Trials Field No.5 38 Digging the pit 77 . . : .: 40 Hot summers and cold winters 42 Facilities at the stadium 44 Cosmodrome facilities 45 Launch preparations 47 Tyuratam or Baikonur? 51 R-7 test flights 55 The artificial satellite programme 57 The International Geophysical Year 57 Military proposals 57 A Soviet satellite? 58 Object D 60 Object PS-1 60 Sputnik 62 American reactions: a technological Pearl Harbor 63 Sputnik 2 64 Sputnik 3 67 American response 68 Korolyov's future plans A 68 American intelligence estimates, 1959 69

FIRST SPACECRAFT AND FIRST COSMONAUTS 71 Vostok spacecraft development 71 Origins 71 Korolyov's kindergarten 74 Upgrading the R-7 to manned flight 78 Vostok design 79 The Descent Module 80 The Instrument Module 85 The first manned spacecraft 88 Pre-launch preparations 89 The Vostok pressure suit 91 Vostok in orbit 94 Selecting the cosmonauts 102 Who would fly? 102 Criteria 103 The selection process 103 Medical screening 104 The devil's cockpit and the isolation chamber 106 The first ones 109 Preparing men and machines 110 Ground tests 110 Korabl-Sputniks 114 Table of contents ix

Cosmonaut training begins 115 Group for immediate preparedness 118 Korabl-Sputnir 1 118 Korabl-Sputnik 2 122 First casualties 124 Disaster at Tyuratam 126 Korabl-Sputnik 3 128 Korabl-Sputnik 4 129 The loss of Bondarenko 131 Korabl-Sputnik 5 132 At the dawn of manned spaceflight 134

FIRST MAN AND FIRST DAY 135 Vostok 1 135 The decision to proceed 135 Manned flight profile 137 Final authority 137 'My little swallows' 138 The Top Six becomes the 'prime three' 140 The selection 141 Mercury delayed /. 143 Phantom cosmonauts 144 Pre-launch 145 Launch day 146 Ascent 150 The first orbit 152 Evesdropping on the TV coverage 152 Re-entry and landing 154 The aftermath 157 The space pilot speaks 159 Gagarin: a new Hero of the Soviet Union 159 Vostok 2 162 Cosmonaut number two 163 Timing of the second mission 163 American success 165 Return to Baikonur 167 The launch of Vostok 2 168 'I am Eagle' 169 Above the Earth 170 Space menu 170 Space sickness 171 Medical investigations 171 Breakfast on orbit 172 Return to Earth 173 Post-flight 175 x Table of contents

FIRST GROUP FLIGHTS AND FIRST WOMAN 177 Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 177 Germany and Gemini . . -. 177 The emergence of Vostok spy satellite hardware 179 Bold plans for a new mission 179 The selection of cosmonauts three and four 180 New cosmonauts 183 The launch of Vostok 3 184 The launch of Vostok 4 185 Space brothers 187 Observations and experiments 189 Biomedical research 190 Arguments and misunderstandings 190 Landing 190 Post-flight 193 Vostok 5 and Vostok 6 194 Upgrading Vostok 194 American developments 194 A woman in space 196 The second Air Force enrolment 197 The Nelyubov incident 200 Second group flight preparations 201 The launch of Vostok 5 204 Five days of work 206 'I am Seagull' 206 Observations and experiments 208 Space adaptation 209 Habitation 210 The landing phase 211 Post-flight. 213 Cancelled Vostok missions 214 Vostok design studies 5K, 7K and Sever 215

FIRST CREW AND FIRST EVA 219 Progress on a long journey 219 Partners in space? 220 Successor to Vostok 221 Vostok becomes Voskhod 223 The Voskhod flight profile 226 Korolyov's cosmonauts 226 Cosmos 47 229 A pilot, an engineer and a doctor 230 A landing beyond belief 233 Voskhod 2 236 Early plans for EVA 236 Table of contents xi

Voskhod EVA plans 236 How to perform EVA from a Voskhod 237 'Exit' space suit 239 Selecting a crew 241 Training for EVA 241 Voskhod 3KV modifications 242 Launch preparations 243 Cosmos 57 243 Voskhod 2 is launched 244 Steps across the planet 245 The recovery of Voskhod 2 248 A follow-on mission planned as Gemini flies 251 Delays and frustration 251 Cosmos 110 260 Loss of the Chief Designer 262

THE LEGACY 265 Unmanned programmes using the Vostok bus 265 The Zenit photoreconnaissance programme 265 Photoreconnaissance - Zenit class 268 Remote sensing - Zenit class 271 Scientific and application missions - Zenit class 273 Summary of research undertaken during manned missions, 1961-1965 275 Landing site coordinates 279 Locations of shariks 279 The sharik legacy 280

CONCLUSION 283

Appendix 291 The cosmonauts 291 Commanders of cosmonauts 308 Designers 310 Design bureaux associated with manned spacefiight through 1966 316 Major contractors of Vostok manned spacecraft 318

Index 321