The Soviet Space Program
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In celebration of the 54th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight to space, which takes place on April 12th, I decided to post about the Soviet Space Program.
Probably one of the most enduring legacies of the Soviet era is its space program. Designed to show the scientific triumph of the proletariat, it has driven the growth of the global space industry and contributed significantly to scientific research since its inception. While it started to rival the US program, it is now arguably one of the most enduring symbols of international friendship and cooperation through the many diplomatic upheavals between the West and the Soviet Union in the last 50 years.
It all began much earlier than the Communist Revolution in 1917. Scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky from Imperial Russia is commemorated today as one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry. In the 19th century, he derived a formula, now called the “Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation” (sometimes the “Ideal Rocket Equation”), which became the basis of rocket engineering. After the tumultuous years of the Revolution and the Civil War, rocket enthusiasts in the Soviet Union began their own experiments and research.
Unfortunately for them, Stalin’s paranoia started claiming the intellectuals in the Soviet Union. Stalin had many scientists and engineers arrested and either executed or sent to work camps during the Great Purge of 1937. Among those arrested was a young Ukrainian named Sergei Korolev, who was sent to Siberia after one of his colleagues denounced him to the NKVD (Soviet secret police).
Sergei Korolev labored in Siberia through the Second World War, barely surviving the harsh climate. As the war came to its conclusion, the Soviets managed to secure a wealth of advanced German rocket technology developed by Werner von Braun and his colleagues. Stalin and the Soviet army recognized the potential of such weapons and started their own program – but they realized that they were short of talents and that they cannot trust the German scientists they captured. In a bizarre twist of fate, the same man who denounced Korolev brought him back from the Gulag camps.
Korolev was thrilled to be back working for his dreams, but he knew that in Stalinist Soviet the threat of imprisonment for failure was never too far; if progress was lacking, then someone must be responsible, and probably it is the chief engineer Korolev, the logic went. Stalin also wanted to show the superiority of Soviet industry and research by setting records, especially over the Americans. The pressure was on Korolev and his team to create a space program from scratch. Even after the death of Stalin, the space program remained high in the list of priorities of his successor, Nikita Khrushchev.
While Werner von Braun was having problem getting popular and political support for the space program, Korolev and his team prepared the first artificial satellite for launch. On October 4th 1957, they launched Sputnik 1.
It immediately took the world by surprise; the Soviet Union was often portrayed as a technologically-backwards dictatorship and suddenly they were the first to put object in orbit around Earth before the supposedly more advanced West. The fact that they managed to follow up with a second satellite before the Americans managed to successfully launch one only added to the shock. It was based on this that the US government began pouring resources into scientific and technical education as well as the creation of NASA.
The next big leap was launching living beings to space. Again, the Soviets were the first with a dog named Laika, sent to orbit the Earth on November 3rd 1957. Launching a human and returning him safely was the obvious next step. Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly to space and return safely on April 12th 1961. Gagarin instantly became a celebrity when he returned, but the man behind his success, Korolev was – in accordance to the state policy at that time – to remain unknown to the public out of fear he might be targeted by the West, referred to simply as the “Chief Designer”.
The first flight by Gagarin in Vostok 1 was followed by more record attempts from both sides. On the Soviet side, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, even though her flight was more for propaganda value than actual research. Alexei Leonov became the first person to complete Extra-vehicular activity (“spacewalk”) and Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov were the first to fly a multi-crew spacecraft. They were also the first to send unmanned spacecraft to the Moon and Venus. But by then, the Soviet program took a political direction; the managers were pressured to set as many records as possible for propaganda purposes by the politicians.
Predictably, such meddling by non-experts would prove to be disastrous. Vladimir Komarov flew again on Soyuz 1, which Korolev had strong reservations about because he deemed that more work was needed. Korolev was tragically right – first, the experiments that Komarov supposed to accomplish were beset by technical problems, then he was made to abort the 3-day flight before the end of the first day manually. During re-entry, the drogue chute and his main parachute became entangled and Komarov’s capsule slammed to the ground, killing him.
Not long after, the focus of the ongoing Space Race was to reach the Moon. While NASA under President Kennedy publicized their intent, the Soviets secretly develop their own program under Korolev. The aging “Chief Designer” unfortunately started showing serious health problems, which was exacerbated by his term in the Gulag camp and the stressful work environment. Sergei Korolev died in 1965 before his dream of a Soviet Moon mission was realized.
Korolev’s death slowed the progress of the Soviet Moon project. After Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969, the Soviet leadership quickly lost interest in the Moon race and the program was quietly terminated. The new focus then became space stations and cooperation. While docking two spacecraft together had been achieved before, constructing a semi-permanent human habitat in space had not been attempted.
The Salyut series space station became the first of its kind, followed by the American Skylab. Then, on July 17th 1975, the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft docked, marking the start of the cooperation between NASA and the Soviet (now Russian) space agencies and sometimes referred to as the informal end of the Space Race.
Probably one of the most enduring legacies of the Soviet era is its space program. Designed to show the scientific triumph of the proletariat, it has driven the growth of the global space industry and contributed significantly to scientific research since its inception. While it started to rival the US program, it is now arguably one of the most enduring symbols of international friendship and cooperation through the many diplomatic upheavals between the West and the Soviet Union in the last 50 years.
It all began much earlier than the Communist Revolution in 1917. Scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky from Imperial Russia is commemorated today as one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry. In the 19th century, he derived a formula, now called the “Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation” (sometimes the “Ideal Rocket Equation”), which became the basis of rocket engineering. After the tumultuous years of the Revolution and the Civil War, rocket enthusiasts in the Soviet Union began their own experiments and research.
Unfortunately for them, Stalin’s paranoia started claiming the intellectuals in the Soviet Union. Stalin had many scientists and engineers arrested and either executed or sent to work camps during the Great Purge of 1937. Among those arrested was a young Ukrainian named Sergei Korolev, who was sent to Siberia after one of his colleagues denounced him to the NKVD (Soviet secret police).
Sergei Korolev labored in Siberia through the Second World War, barely surviving the harsh climate. As the war came to its conclusion, the Soviets managed to secure a wealth of advanced German rocket technology developed by Werner von Braun and his colleagues. Stalin and the Soviet army recognized the potential of such weapons and started their own program – but they realized that they were short of talents and that they cannot trust the German scientists they captured. In a bizarre twist of fate, the same man who denounced Korolev brought him back from the Gulag camps.
Korolev was thrilled to be back working for his dreams, but he knew that in Stalinist Soviet the threat of imprisonment for failure was never too far; if progress was lacking, then someone must be responsible, and probably it is the chief engineer Korolev, the logic went. Stalin also wanted to show the superiority of Soviet industry and research by setting records, especially over the Americans. The pressure was on Korolev and his team to create a space program from scratch. Even after the death of Stalin, the space program remained high in the list of priorities of his successor, Nikita Khrushchev.
While Werner von Braun was having problem getting popular and political support for the space program, Korolev and his team prepared the first artificial satellite for launch. On October 4th 1957, they launched Sputnik 1.
It immediately took the world by surprise; the Soviet Union was often portrayed as a technologically-backwards dictatorship and suddenly they were the first to put object in orbit around Earth before the supposedly more advanced West. The fact that they managed to follow up with a second satellite before the Americans managed to successfully launch one only added to the shock. It was based on this that the US government began pouring resources into scientific and technical education as well as the creation of NASA.
The next big leap was launching living beings to space. Again, the Soviets were the first with a dog named Laika, sent to orbit the Earth on November 3rd 1957. Launching a human and returning him safely was the obvious next step. Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly to space and return safely on April 12th 1961. Gagarin instantly became a celebrity when he returned, but the man behind his success, Korolev was – in accordance to the state policy at that time – to remain unknown to the public out of fear he might be targeted by the West, referred to simply as the “Chief Designer”.
The first flight by Gagarin in Vostok 1 was followed by more record attempts from both sides. On the Soviet side, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, even though her flight was more for propaganda value than actual research. Alexei Leonov became the first person to complete Extra-vehicular activity (“spacewalk”) and Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov were the first to fly a multi-crew spacecraft. They were also the first to send unmanned spacecraft to the Moon and Venus. But by then, the Soviet program took a political direction; the managers were pressured to set as many records as possible for propaganda purposes by the politicians.
Predictably, such meddling by non-experts would prove to be disastrous. Vladimir Komarov flew again on Soyuz 1, which Korolev had strong reservations about because he deemed that more work was needed. Korolev was tragically right – first, the experiments that Komarov supposed to accomplish were beset by technical problems, then he was made to abort the 3-day flight before the end of the first day manually. During re-entry, the drogue chute and his main parachute became entangled and Komarov’s capsule slammed to the ground, killing him.
Not long after, the focus of the ongoing Space Race was to reach the Moon. While NASA under President Kennedy publicized their intent, the Soviets secretly develop their own program under Korolev. The aging “Chief Designer” unfortunately started showing serious health problems, which was exacerbated by his term in the Gulag camp and the stressful work environment. Sergei Korolev died in 1965 before his dream of a Soviet Moon mission was realized.
Korolev’s death slowed the progress of the Soviet Moon project. After Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969, the Soviet leadership quickly lost interest in the Moon race and the program was quietly terminated. The new focus then became space stations and cooperation. While docking two spacecraft together had been achieved before, constructing a semi-permanent human habitat in space had not been attempted.
The Salyut series space station became the first of its kind, followed by the American Skylab. Then, on July 17th 1975, the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft docked, marking the start of the cooperation between NASA and the Soviet (now Russian) space agencies and sometimes referred to as the informal end of the Space Race.
The next big joint project took place close to Perestroika era, a multinational space station that would be named “Mir” (“Peace” or “World”) - to symbolize the normalization of the relations between the two world powers and the winding down of the Cold War. Soviet spacecraft had also carried cosmonauts from various Communist and Communist-aligned countries, such as Bulgaria, Syria and Afghanistan, as well as other friendly countries such as France, as part of their program.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the equipment and personnel from the Soviet program were distributed among the successor states, with Russia taking the majority. Today, the Russian space program is conducted similar to how it had been during the Soviet time. While rockets and support is provided by Russia, launches still take place from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, from which Yuri Gagarin flew to space. More importantly however is the legacy of cooperation. The International Space Station, the $100 billion successor to the Mir program, still flies today with multinational crews and has endured budget cuts and diplomatic downturns between Russia and West in the last 2 decades. US astronauts hosted the Russians on the Space Shuttle on multiple missions in the past, and today they fly together aboard the Soyuz spacecraft despite the disagreement about Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. What seemed elusive on the ground might be easier to achieve in space.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the equipment and personnel from the Soviet program were distributed among the successor states, with Russia taking the majority. Today, the Russian space program is conducted similar to how it had been during the Soviet time. While rockets and support is provided by Russia, launches still take place from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, from which Yuri Gagarin flew to space. More importantly however is the legacy of cooperation. The International Space Station, the $100 billion successor to the Mir program, still flies today with multinational crews and has endured budget cuts and diplomatic downturns between Russia and West in the last 2 decades. US astronauts hosted the Russians on the Space Shuttle on multiple missions in the past, and today they fly together aboard the Soyuz spacecraft despite the disagreement about Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. What seemed elusive on the ground might be easier to achieve in space.