The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program 50 Years After Sputnik, New Frontiers Brian Harvey The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program 50 Years After Sputnik, New Frontiers J^K. Published in association with s~ y? <£J Springer Praxis Publishing PRAXIS Chichester, UK Mr Brian Harvey Terenure Dublin 6W Ireland SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason, M.Sc, B.Sc, Ph.D. ISBN 978-0-387-71354-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Springer is part of Springer-Science + Business Media (springer.com) Library of Congress Control Number: 2007922812 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. © Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2007 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Jim Wilkie Project management: Originator Publishing Services Ltd, Gt Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK Printed on acid-free paper Contents Author's preface ix Acknowledgments xi About the book xii List of figures xiii List of maps xix List of tables xxi List of abbreviations and acronyms xxiii 1 Almost the end 1 The admiration of the world 5 The collapse 7 Back on Mir: the long recovery 11 Almost the end: conclusions 16 2 Building the International Space Station 17 Origins of ISS 17 Paving the way for ISS: the last phases of Mir 19 Winding Mir down: "grief in our hearts" 25 The mark of Cassandra 29 Building the ISS 35 Waiting for Mir 2 37 Delay, delay and delay 39 Zvezda, 12th July 2000 40 Soyuz as lifeboat 43 Space station routine 46 vi Contents Space station depends on Russia 57 Completing the space station 67 Building the International Space Station: conclusions 74 References 75 3 Scientific and applications programs 77 Comsats: the Soviet inheritance 77 Comsats: the new generation 83 Weather satellites 87 Earth resources: Resurs DK, Sich M, Monitor 89 Materials-processing: Foton 94 Science: Koronas, Spektr 96 Small satellites 100 The unmanned program: conclusions 101 References 103 4 Military programs 105 Photo-reconnaissance 106 Close-look: Yantar 4K2 Kobalt 109 Mapping: Yantar 1KFT Kometa 110 Instant intelligence: Yantar 4KS2 Neman Ill Orlets and the rivers: Don and Yenisey 112 Space telescope: Araks 114 Electronic intelligence: Tselina 116 Maritime electronic intelligence: US P Legenda 118 Military communications: Strela, Gonetz, Potok 121 Navigation satellites: Parus, Nadezhda 124 Navigation: GLONASS 127 Military early warning system: Oko, Prognoz 132 The military space program: conclusions 136 References 138 5 Launchers and engines 139 Old reliable 139 New upper stages: Ikar, Fregat 142 Rus program 144 Cosmos 3M 151 Proton and Proton M 155 Proton M 160 Tsyklon 164 Zenit 167 Ukrainian rockets to the Pacific: Zenit 3SL, the Sea Launch 170 Rockot 175 Strela rocket 179 START 180 Contents vii Dnepr 182 Volna, Shtil and relatives 185 New rocket: Angara 187 Russian rocket engines 192 GDL/Energomash: the most powerful rockets in the world 193 RD-180 powers the Atlas 196 Kosberg bureau/KBKhA in Voronezh 199 Isayev bureau/KhimMash 200 And from history, Kuznetsov's NK-33 201 Future launch vehicle and engine programs: Ural, Barzugin 201 Reliability 203 Conclusions: rockets and rocket engines 205 References 205 6 Launch sites 207 Baikonour 208 Plesetsk 221 Svobodny-Blagoveshensk 227 Dombarovska/Yasny 229 Soyuz a Kourou, French Guyana 229 Kapustin Yar: the Volgograd station 234 Alcantara 235 Recovery zones 237 De-orbit zones 244 Other ground facilities 246 Star Town, TsPK 246 Mission control Korolev: TsUP 254 Military mission control 257 Tracking and control 257 Cosmodromes and ground facilities: conclusions 262 References 263 7 The design bureaus 265 Energiya—premier design bureau 266 Chelomei's bureau and derivatives 269 NPO Lavochkin 270 NPO Yuzhnoye: missile lines "like sausages" 273 NPO PM, builder of comsats 276 KB Arsenal: the oldest design bureau 277 TsSKB Samara: continuous production from 1957 277 NPO Polyot 279 Organization of the space program 279 New space agency 281 Russia's space budget 283 From commercialization to space tourism 285 viii Contents Participation in the global commercial space community 293 Cooperation: rogue states 302 Cooperation: China 306 Cooperation: India 310 Organization: conclusions 312 References 313 8 Resurgent—the new projects 315 The federal space plan 317 Replacing the Soyuz: Kliper 318 Return to the moon: Luna Glob 325 Return to Mars: Phobos Grunt 326 Mars 500: no girls please, we're going to Mars 330 Final remarks 334 References 335 Appendix: Launchings 2000-06 337 Index 345 Author's preface The rebirth of the Russian space program marks an important event: 50 years since the first Sputnik was launched on 4th October 1957. At that time, few could have imagined the dramatic events that lay head. The Soviet Union achieved all the great firsts in cosmonautics—the first satellite in orbit, the first animal in orbit, the first laboratory in orbit, the first probe to the Moon, the first probe to photograph its far side, the first soft landing on the moon, the first man in space, the first woman in space, the first spacewalk. Except one, the first human landing on the Moon. In 1964, the Soviet Union decided to contest the decision of the United States to put the first person on the Moon. The Soviet Union engaged in that race far too late, with divided organization, and made a gallant but doomed challenge to Apollo. Undaunted, the Soviet Union rebuilt its space program around orbiting stations, building the first one, Salyut, and then the first permanent home in space, Mir. The Soviet Union still achieved many more firsts: the first lunar rover, the first soft landing on Venus, the first soft landing on Mars, the first recovery of samples from the Moon by automatic spacecraft. The original book in this series Race into space—a history of the Soviet space programme (1988) was written during the heyday of the Soviet space program, when the Soviet Union was launching over a hundred satellites a year and had a vast program for the manned and unmanned exploration of space and its application for practical benefits on Earth. The second book in the series, The new Russian space program (1995) was compiled during the shock adjustment of the former Soviet space program to the strained economic realities of life in the Russian Federation. The new Russian space program took advantage of all the new information that had come to light about Soviet history: thanks to the policy of openness (glasnost) begun by the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, we were now at last able to learn about what had really taken place during the time of the Soviet period, as secrets emerged into the light of day. The third book of this series, Russia in space—the failed frontier? (2001) looked at the Russian space program in the period from 1992, when x Author's preface the Russian Federation came into existence. The title of course posed a question: Had the Russian romance with cosmonautics run its course and "failed"? This book chronicled the decline and difficulties of the 1990s, but also showed how the program had adapted, survived and, sometimes grimly, held on. Now, the fourth book in the series, The rebirth of the Russian space program looks at the Russian space program at a convenient marking point, fifty years after Sputnik. It chronicles developments since the turn of the century, takes a look at the Russian program as it is now and looks toward the future. This account focuses on the years 2000 to 2006. Readers who wish to study the earlier history should return to Race into space (for the Soviet period), The new Russian space programme (for the transition) and Russia in space—the failed frontier? (for the 1990s). By way of definitions, this book covers primarily the Russian Federation—but it does take in those parts of the Ukrainian space program rooted in the old Soviet program. The rebirth of the Russian space program coincides not only with Sputnik but with the announcement by the government of the federation of a space plan to last to 2015, an attempt to reinstitute goal-orientated planning in the program. If one looks at the number of launches per year, Russia remains the leading spacefaring nation in the world. At the same time, it is obvious that the Russian Federation's space program has none of the ambition of the American space program, which has now sent extra­ ordinary missions to all the corners of the solar system and plans to return astronauts to the Moon and send them onward to Mars. Unlike the 1960s and 1980s, present-day Russia has neither the capacity nor the will to challenge American leadership of space exploration (the Chinese probably do, but that is another story). At the same time, Russia will remain one of the world's space superpowers, a builder of space stations, a formidable contributor to the world space industry and science. As this book shows, the Russian space program is full of activity and life.