Many books and articles have been written about the activities of one of the greatest Soviet designers V.N. Chelomey and his OKB-52.
For the most part, they are all devoted directly to missiles and engines for them, but in rare cases it is indicated that back in the early 1960s (!) The OKB-52 team proposed one of the world's first detailed anti-missile defense projects.
Moreover, this project was not based on some fantastic inventions, as the Americans liked to do, but on quite real developments.
The rapid development of rocket technology in the late 1950s and early 1960s. one way or another would lead to the creation of a system for detecting and intercepting ballistic and intercontinental missiles with nuclear warheads. Of course, it will not be possible to destroy a "swarm" of missiles with one counterattack - this is impossible by definition. However, it was then quite possible to intercept most of the warheads, especially considering that there was no separable warhead on them in principle.
Based on this theory, in August 1961, OKB-52 specialists under the leadership of V.N. Chelomey developed a missile defense project, the main purpose of which was to cover strategically important targets on the territory of the USSR. The scheme of action was as follows.
In the most missile-prone direction, where the main targets for American missiles were Moscow and Leningrad, the TsSO-P radar station (wavelength range 30 cm) was supposed to operate, which carried out the identification and target designation. The installation was located 500 km from Moscow towards Leningrad and "covered" both "routes" of missiles. In addition, the RO-1 radar, Murmansk and RO-2 in Riga, and others were activated, covering the northern “flank”, through which missiles launched directly from US territory could fly.
The interception itself was built in a very non-trivial way. Since then, in principle, there was no accurate guidance system, it was supposed to destroy enemy missiles with the help of oncoming atomic explosions. According to the project, it looked like this - UR-100 missiles with a 10 Mt nuclear warhead were launched from mine installations. Having entered the course of enemy missiles and as close as possible to them, the nuclear charge was activated.
Despite a number of shortcomings, on March 3, 1963, the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued to develop the Taran missile defense system. A.L. Mints was appointed chief designer of the missile defense system. Also from that time on, the system began to bear the name “Taran”, which quite accurately reflected its content.
The project developed very quickly, but already in 1964, work on it had to be stopped. In his report to the government on the state of the OKB-53 missile defense system, Academician M.V. Keldysh cited the following fact: in order to repel a raid of 100 ballistic missiles, it will be necessary to blow up 200 anti-missiles with nuclear warheads over the country's territory.
Despite the relatively small power of their nuclear charge, the industry of the USSR was simply not able to “pull out” such a project. In addition, no one has canceled radioactive fallout after a nuclear explosion, even at high altitude. In the event of an unsuccessful launch, the entire launch complex, along with the attendants, could die altogether.
As a result of the work on the missile defense system, the Taran had to be closed, but the very principle of destroying enemy ballistic missiles and satellites was used in other developments of the 20th century.
Sources:
Strategic missile systems ground based. M., Military parade 2007, 248 pages.
Chelomei Vladimir Nikolaevich - General Designer of rocket and space technology, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Born on June 30, 1914 in the town of Sedlec, Privislensky region, 70 kilometers from Warsaw, in a family of teachers. Soon the family moved to the city of Poltava (Ukraine), away from the combat area in the outbreak of the First World War.
In 1926, the family moved to Kyiv, where V.N.Chelomei continued his studies at a seven-year labor school. In 1929, after graduating from school, he entered the Kyiv Automobile College; in 1932 he entered the aviation department of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute (in 1933, the Kyiv Aviation Institute was created on the basis of this faculty).
In his student years, V.N. Chelomey was actively engaged in scientific work. During his studies in the works of KAI he published more than 20 scientific articles. In 1936, his work "Vector Calculus" was published by lithographic method, which became the main textbook for students. A distinctive feature of many of his works was that the results of research were immediately embodied in practice.
During his internship at the Zaporizhia Engine Plant, he "... did a lot of computational and research work on torsional vibrations of aircraft engines" and "... showed a particularly high theoretical and engineering background" (reference Zaporozhye plant). This and other works of Chelomey made it possible to find out the causes of aircraft engine failures. Even then, he had the idea of a pulsating air-jet engine, and, having received permission, he conducted experiments on the equipment of the plant in the interests of its development and creation.
In 1937, V.N. Chelomey graduated with honors from the Kyiv Aviation Institute a year earlier. Diploma work on the topic "Oscillations in aircraft engines”was defended brilliantly and recognized by the Academic Council as outstanding, at the level of a Ph.D. thesis.
After graduating from the institute, he worked at the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and studied at graduate school. In 1939 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic "Dynamic stability of elements of aircraft structures."
In the summer of 1941, V.N. Chelomey was appointed head of the jet engine group of the Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM) named after Baranov, where in 1942 he created the first pulsating jet engine in the USSR, which was installed on a number of aircraft.
The order of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry dated September 19, 1944 on the appointment of V.N. Chelomey as Chief Designer and Director of the Experimental Aviation Plant No. 51 marked the beginning of the creation new organization, with its own theme, its tasks, principles and methods of work, which were instilled in the team by its chief designer.
By the beginning of 1945, the 10X projectile was created in the design bureau by scientists. In 1948, its tests ended, but it was not accepted into service due to unsatisfactory performance characteristics. V.N. Chelomey for some time moved away from practical design work, was engaged in science and teaching, but did not leave the subject of cruise missiles (as the projectiles began to be called).
The command of the Navy became interested in the developments of V.N. This rocket implemented the new ideas of the scientist: firstly, the rocket was placed in a transport and launch container, closed with a sealed lid; secondly, the wings of the rocket in the container were in the folded position and opened after launch; thirdly, a powder accelerator was used to take the rocket out of the container. The implementation of these ideas made it possible to get ahead of the United States in the issue of arming submarines.
In 1955, V.N. Chelomey was given a mechanical plant in the city of Reutov near Moscow, where OKB-52 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry was created. Chelomey managed to create a close-knit and efficient creative team at the enterprise, which was an important achievement that ensured further success. In a short time, under his leadership, the design bureau grew and turned into a powerful scientific and design organization.
The period from 1956 to 1965 can be characterized as a stage in the recognition of the place of V.N. Chelomey and his design bureau among the leading enterprises in the defense industries. The revival of the design bureau in Reutov made it possible to launch work on the creation of a fundamentally new type of cruise missile with a wing that deploys in flight, as well as to win the competition in a tough competition with the existing aviation design bureaus of Mikoyan, Ilyushin and Beriev and open the way for the rearmament of the country's Navy with missile weapons systems.
Already on March 12, 1957, the first launch of the P-5 cruise missile took place, and on June 19, 1959 it was put into service. On the basis of the P-5 during 1958-1959, more than 10 variants of modifications were developed, of which the P-5D complex, with a radio navigation station of higher accuracy and improved on-board equipment, was most widely used.
By a government decree in 1956, OKB-52 was entrusted with the development for the Navy of the first two missile systems for over-the-horizon destruction of P-6 and P-35 targets. After a full program of flight tests, the P-6 complex was put into service on June 24, 1964 and became one of the main weapons of the submarine fleet. The P-35 anti-ship missile system was adopted by the Navy for ships, self-propelled and stationary ground launchers.
Over the following years, the OKB-52 team created several types of sea and land-based cruise missiles, in which new, sometimes unexpected technical and design solutions were used. These include the world's first underwater-launched anti-ship cruise missile (adopted into service in 1968), the P-120 Malakhit unified anti-ship system, whose missiles are capable of launching both from submerged and surface submarines. ships (1972), the first sea-based cruise missile with a high supersonic (up to 2 M) flight speed P-500 "Basalt" (1977).
In 1983, the P-700 Granit anti-ship cruise missile was put into service. Complex "Granit" had a number of qualitatively new properties. For the first time, a long-range missile with an autonomous control system was created. The onboard control system was built on the basis of a powerful three-processor computer using several information channels, which made it possible to successfully understand a complex jamming environment and highlight the true targets against the background of any interference. The rocket embodied the rich experience of NGOs in creating electronic systems artificial intelligence, which allows you to act against a single ship on the principle of "one missile - one ship" or "flock" against a warrant of ships. The missile control system performed the functions of distributing and classifying targets by importance, choosing attack tactics and a plan for its implementation. The ability to maneuver missiles made it possible to implement a rational battle formation in a salvo with the most effective trajectory shape. This ensured the successful overcoming of the fire resistance of a strong ship grouping.
None of the previous cruise missiles created at NPO Mashinostroeniya concentrated and successfully implemented so many new complex tasks as in the Granit rocket. The missiles of the new third-generation universal missile system "Granit" had both underwater and surface launch, a firing range of 550 kilometers, a conventional or nuclear warhead, several flexible adaptive trajectories (depending on the operational and tactical situation in the sea and airspace of the operation area) , the flight speed is 2.5 times the speed of sound.
In 1958, V.N. Chelomey was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 25, 1959, Chelomey Vladimir Nikolaevich was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
In 1959, V.N. Chelomey was appointed General Designer of OKB-52. By this time, a large cooperation of research and industrial enterprises, the largest of which was the Moscow Machine-Building Plant named after M.V. Khrunichev.
As a result of hard work, three directions of the enterprise's activity took shape: the creation of cruise missile systems for the Navy, which opened up the possibility of an asymmetrical response to strike formations of the West; creation of systems of controlled space vehicles, manned ships and stations; creation of ballistic missiles and launch vehicles.
In all areas of the company's developments - winged, ballistic, space - there was an extraordinary approach to solving problems, to the domestic way of developing technology, which made it possible, with limited resources, not only to keep up with the world level, but in most cases to surpass the most advanced Western countries in the same type of systems. .
Since the end of the 1950s, OKB-52 began search work on space topics. In 1959, OKB-52 began developing universal missiles designed to deliver anti-space defense systems, global maritime reconnaissance, and also to deliver nuclear warheads to enemy territory. Under the leadership of V.N. Chelomey, a number of projects of unified missiles were developed: UR-100, UR-200, UR-500, UR-700, from light to super heavy classes. UR-100 and UR-500 were put into service, mastered in mass production.
In 1962, V.N. Chelomey was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 28, 1963, Chelomey Vladimir Nikolaevich was awarded the second gold medal "Hammer and Sickle".
VN Chelomey is credited with creating the main strike force of the Strategic Missile Forces, the famous "weave" - the intercontinental missile UR-100, which ensured strategic parity with the United States. More than a thousand UR-100s were installed in mine structures on the territory of the USSR. Moreover, the “weave” could easily be upgraded, and there were many such modifications: UR-100K, UR-100U, UR-100NU and others. Chelomey initially prioritized not only the high reliability of the missile system and the accuracy of the warhead hitting the target, but also the low cost of manufacture and ease of operation.
His combat intercontinental missiles were the cheapest and most competitive in the USSR and, perhaps, in the world. From this, their reliability has not become worse. He, unlike other chief designers, using inertial control systems, managed to achieve amazing accuracy in hitting the head of the target, which is the end result of rocket firing. UR-100U, for example, with a flight range of 10,000 km, provided a circular probable deviation of the warhead from the target of 900 m.
The UR-100 missile came from the factory fully equipped and installed in a sealed transport and launch container filled with an inert gas - for the first time in the domestic rocket industry, a missile was isolated from the impact during duty external environment. Technical condition control, pre-launch preparation and launch were fully automated. A dozen missile launches and other operations were carried out from one command post. The missile could be on duty for up to 10 years or more. Mine launchers for his missiles also did not require sophisticated protection. The first launch took place in April 1966, and in the fall of 1966, the UR-100 complexes began to be placed on combat duty.
In the shortest possible time, OKB-52, with the participation of broad cooperation between industry enterprises, created Polet fighter satellites, radar and electronic intelligence satellites, the latter with a nuclear power plant, Proton heavy scientific laboratories for detecting high-energy particles, etc. Satellites " Polet-1 (November 1, 1963) and Polet-2 (April 12, 1964) were the world's first maneuvering spacecraft.
The development of a heavy universal two-stage ICBM UR-500 ("Proton") was started in OKB-52 in accordance with the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 409-183 of April 24, 1962. Assessing the prospects for the use of the UR-500, V.N. Chelomey proposed creating a family of target loads for it, capable of solving problems of a scientific, national economic and military nature. The rocket was conceived as a means of delivering the most powerful warhead with a nuclear charge. The first launch of the Proton rocket took place on July 16, 1965. The heavy scientific satellite, after which the carrier was named, was also designed in branch No. 1 of OKB-52.
The three-stage launch vehicle UR-500K ("Proton-K") was developed according to the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 655-268 of August 3, 1964 as part of the lunar program. On March 10, 1967, rocket tests began. They confirmed the declared performance characteristics, significantly exceeding those of all missiles that existed at that time in the USSR and abroad. In the course of flight design tests, the three-stage Proton launched the 11F91 (L1) spacecraft into lunar orbit, which carried out an unmanned flight around the moon. On November 16, 1968, the UR-500K launch vehicle launched the Proton-4 automatic research station weighing 17 tons into orbit.
During the operation of the Proton launch vehicle in all its modifications, more than 300 launches were performed, a number of communication and television satellites, satellites of the Kosmos series, interplanetary stations Luna, Venera, Mars, Vega were launched into space ”, “Phobos”, spacecraft of the global navigation system “Glonass”, the main blocks of the orbital stations “Salyut” and “Mir” and modules for the international space station. Proton is the country's only mass-produced rocket capable of launching vehicles into geostationary orbit. And now Proton remains one of the most powerful, advanced and reliable carriers in the world.
In 1964, V.N. Chelomey proposed the concept of an orbital manned station (OPS) for solving various, primarily defense, tasks. He saw in the OPS the most powerful means of operational space reconnaissance. It was proposed to create an observation post with comfortable living conditions for a replaceable crew of two or three people, the life of the station is 1-2 years, the withdrawal by the UR-500K carrier.
In 1965, OKB-52 was transformed into the Central Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering of the Ministry of General Mechanical Engineering (TsKBM), in 1983, the Research and Production Association of Mechanical Engineering (NPO) was formed on its basis. Until his last days, this organization was headed by V.N.Chelomey.
Work on the Almaz orbital complex, which included the main unit, the return vehicle and the heavy transport supply ship (TKS), began in October 1965, the first version of the draft design was ready in 1966. To deliver information to Earth, an information descent capsule weighing 360 kg and containing 120 kg of film (length 2 km) was developed. From the interior to the airlock compartment, the capsule was transferred by a manipulator. For the space technology of those years, these were innovations.
On April 3, 1973, the Almaz station (OPS-1) was launched under the name Salyut-2. However, the program of this flight was not carried out, because after two weeks of the station's flight in orbit, depressurization occurred, and communication with the station was lost. In 1974, OPS-2 Salyut-3 was launched into orbit, on which the crew of Pavel Popovich and Yuri Artyukhin were on duty. In 1976, OPS-3 Salyut-5 was launched, on which cosmonauts Boris Volynov and Vitaly Zholobov worked for 49 days, and then, in 1977, Viktor Gorbatko and Yuri Glazkov. According to V.N. Chelomey, the set of tasks in this flight was the most difficult, and the level of work of the last crew became a reference for those who were preparing for flights in the future.
An unmanned transport supply ship was launched four times between 1977 and 1985 under the name Cosmos. The first TCS (Kosmos-929) repeatedly maneuvered in orbit, so the Americans assumed that the Russians were testing an interorbital tug. The functional cargo block TKS-2 ("Cosmos-1267") docked with the Salyut-6 station, flew in its composition for more than a year, with the help of the block's engines, the station's orbit rose three times. TKS-3 (Kosmos-1443) docked with Salyut-7. On the TKS-4 ("Cosmos-1686"), instead of standard instruments, there were instruments for performing military-technical experiments. The spacecraft docked with Salyut-7 and was used for orbit correction.
All flights were successful, the ship showed high reliability and efficiency. In addition, its ability to dock with any vehicle with minor design changes was shown, which made it possible to use it as a lifeguard. Despite this, the TCS program was closed.
Since 1979, a difficult stage began in the life of the general designer and his enterprise. V.N. Chelomei was subjected to continuous pressure, restriction of his activities by the leadership of the defense industries, headed by D.F. Ustinov. After the prohibition of work on the manned program, the TsKBM team reoriented to work on the Almaz complex in an unmanned version. Due to the abandonment of the life support system of the cosmonauts, it was possible to place on board a powerful set of equipment for remote sensing of the Earth, including a unique high-resolution side-scan radar. However, the automatic station, prepared for launch in 1981, lay at the cosmodrome until 1985. The launch took place in November 1986, but was an emergency. A successful launch took place in June 1987 ("Cosmos-1870"). In March 1991, Almaz-1 was launched, a whole series of military experiments was carried out on it.
VN Chelomey devoted more than 30 years of his creative life to astronautics. He is one of the glorious galaxy of chief designers of rocket and space technology. Perhaps he was the only designer of military intercontinental ballistic missiles in the world who brilliantly developed cruise missiles, spacecraft and long-term orbital stations. His ideas were often ahead of their time, at first seemed unrealizable and caused rejection by many leaders of the rocket and space industry and decision makers. Nevertheless, a thorough study of the scientific substantiation of new proposals, a well-thought-out experimental base, as a rule, paved the way for new ideas.
Brilliant organizational skills helped V.N. Chelomei to create a reliable creative team capable of solving not only the most complex scientific and technical problems, but also overcoming organizational difficulties caused by external factors. In difficult times, the team was helped to survive and not lose its creative potential by a variety of topics.
Closely engaged in the development and creation of samples of rocket and space technology, V.N. Chelomey did not leave scientific work. His main works are devoted to the theory of oscillations, the dynamic stability of elastic systems, the design and dynamics of machines, and the theory of servomechanisms. Significant results have been obtained in the development of applied mathematics methods.
One of his most important theoretical studies concerns the problems of stability of elastic dynamical systems. For the first time in this field of mechanics, he compiled an infinite system of linear differential equations with periodic coefficients and developed a method for the approximate solution of this problem. Were suggested practical advice to determine areas of instability complex systems. Later, Academician Chelomey expanded the class of systems under consideration, in a number of cases he obtained analytical solutions. Most of his theoretical works ended with the derivation of calculation formulas that are convenient to use in practice. The contribution of V.N. Chelomey to solving the problems of dynamic stability of elastic systems is recognized as fundamental in world science.
Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 9-11 convocations.
Died December 8, 1984. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Awarded 5 Orders of Lenin (09/16/1945, 06/25/1959, 1964, 1974, 1984), Order of the October Revolution (1971), medals.
Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1959) and three State Prizes (1967, 1974, 1982).
In 1964 he was awarded the N.E. Zhukovsky Gold Medal for best job in aviation theory, in 1977 - the A.M. Lyapunov Gold Medal - the highest award of the USSR Academy of Sciences for outstanding work in the field of mathematics and mechanics.
Active member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1974).
Streets and squares in the city of Moscow and the city of Reutov (Moscow region), as well as a small planet, are named after him solar system, registered in the international catalog under the number 8608 and called "Chelomey".
Busts of Academician V.N. Chelomey were installed in Moscow near the Bauman Moscow State Technical University and in Baikonur, memorial plaques - in Kyiv on the house where he lived and on the building of the Kiev Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers (now the National Aviation University), in Poltava - on the school building No. 10, in which he studied. A memorial office of the Hero was created on the territory of NPO Mashinostroeniya. The memorial hall of V.N. Chelomey was opened in the Poltava Museum of Aviation and Cosmonautics. A medal named after V.N.Chelomey was established, which is awarded to scientists and technicians for outstanding work in the field of rocket and space technology. In 2000, the Union of Scientists and Engineers named after academician V.N. Chelomey was created.
The Museum of the History and Achievements of the Military-Industrial Complex "NPO Mashinostroeniya" opened on the territory of the city-forming enterprise Reutov on June 5. The exposition presents all military and space developments created under the guidance of Academician V.N. Chelomey and his successors. The guests of honor at the opening ceremony were the management and veterans of the NPO, famous cosmonauts, representatives armed forces and the Reutov administration.
wax figure
The first surprise was waiting for the guests in the memorial cabinet-museum of Academician Chelomey, opened on June 30, 2014, on the centenary of the scientist. The meticulously recreated atmosphere has not changed over the year, but now a wax figure of the owner of the cabinet has appeared at the table. The resemblance turned out to be so striking that the veterans of the NGO shuddered involuntarily and seemed to pull themselves up in the doorway.
“The creator of the figure of Vladimir Nikolayevich is Mikhail Yuryevich Nesterov, one of the best sculptors in this direction,” Anton Degtyarev, press secretary of the general director of the NGO, told the ProReutov newspaper.
The sculptor created a collective image, but, according to those who worked with Vladimir Nikolayevich, from certain angles the similarity is almost absolute.
And in a small cinema hall next to the cabinet-museum, guests of honor gathered at that time. Among them are pilot-cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Viktor Gorbatko, Boris Volynov and Vyacheslav Zudov. On the screen - footage of a large-scale celebration in Reutov of the century of Chelomey last year.
Holy places
The new exposition of the museum is located in the large hall next door. All the developments created over the 70-year history of the military-industrial complex "NPO Mashinostroeniya" have found a place here. Under the guns of television and cameras, General Director - General Designer Alexander Leonov and pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Vladimir Dzhanibekov cut the symbolic red ribbon. Applause.
- Dear friends! Today we opened a museum of the history and achievements of NPO Mashinostroeniya. We did not specifically select the date for this event, but it so happens that this happens in the double anniversary year - the location of the enterprise on the territory of Reutov and the city itself. In 1955, 60 years ago, a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued on the location of our enterprise in the city of Reutov. Over the years, the enterprise has become the center of the country's rocket and space industry, and Reutov has become a scientific city and subsequently a science city,” said Alexander Leonov.
According to the general director of the NGO, the first prototype of the museum was a secret exhibition, once created in the main building of the enterprise. Only the top leadership of the country and the military-industrial complex had access to it. Another exposition, with full-scale samples of rocket and space technology, opened in the mid-1990s. Young people, and even foreigners, have already been admitted to it. But the company realized the need to create a museum, where not only samples of technologies, but also documents would be presented. Such a museum, which provides opportunities for scientific work, has now appeared at NPO Mashinostroeniya.
- Believers have "prayer" places, and believers in our rocket business have holy places. I attribute this entire fourth building to the holy places of our enterprise, our team, - said Herbert Efremov, who headed the NGO in the difficult years of perestroika and collapse.
Herbert Alexandrovich recalled that in the hall where the museum is now located, designers used to work - the "guard" of the general designer. So in the fourth building, this place is the most sacred.
“Without a true past, there will be no normal future. I think the museum has a great and interesting creative future,” said Vladimir Dzhanibekov, president of the Association of Russian Cosmonautics Museums.
After a brief official part, it's time to take a closer look at the museum. The exposition is divided into three parts, each of which corresponds to its own area of activity of NGOs: complexes with cruise missiles, space systems and strategic missile systems and launch vehicles.
Bastions of Crimea
An introductory tour of the first part of the museum was conducted by Admiral Fyodor Novoselov.
“The creation of cruise missiles for the navy served as a retaliatory measure against the dominance of the American navy on the oceans, whose aircraft carriers were an invulnerable target for our navy,” Fyodor Ivanovich recalled.
The cruise missiles of Academician Chelomey, still serving on our warships, aircraft and coastal complexes, solved the problem of destroying the ships of a potential enemy.
The coverage of the exposition is from the very first projectiles created by V.N. Chelomey back in 1944, before the modern Russian-Indian Brahmos missiles. The formidable Bastion anti-ship coastal missile system is also presented here. This name has recently been well known not only to specialists. As Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Andrey Kondrashov's documentary blockbuster Crimea. The Way to the Homeland”, it was the demonstrative deployment of the “Bastion” in the Crimea that cooled the bellicose fervor of the American sailors and made it possible to reduce the degree of military confrontation.
Globe for Khrushchev
The second part of the museum is devoted to space. Here are the first space developments of Chelomey - rocket planes and space planes.
One of the unique exhibits is a moon landing craft designed for the Soviet lunar program. The model was made specifically for the museum and has never been shown before.
Nearby is a globe made in 1963 to demonstrate N.S. Khrushchev the actions of the anti-satellite defense system. The movement of a spy satellite in orbit, its detection by a ground station, the launch of a rocket and the destruction of a space target are visually induced by multi-colored light bulbs.
The automatic station "Almaz" caused a storm of memories among the pilot-cosmonauts. Victor Gorbatko, Boris Volynov and Vyacheslav Zudov traditionally celebrated high quality Chelomey systems.
The heroes willingly shared space stories. Many stories could be plots for the works of Lem or Sheckley. With their mouths open, the “earthlings” listened to how the orbital station suddenly turned off and how its inhabitants were left without contact with the Earth for a whole turn and with oxygen running out. Only competent and decisive actions then saved both the crew and the station itself.
Another story is about an astronaut who fell seriously ill in orbit. The mission control center made a difficult decision - to curtail the flight program, return ahead of schedule. But there is still little hope, despite all the efforts of the second crew member: the patient is in a semi-conscious state, keeps on injections, there is a difficult night landing ahead ... Fortunately, this story has a good ending.
Chelomei vs. von Braun
The third part of the museum houses models of strategic missile systems and launch vehicles. The guide here was Lieutenant General Valery Dementiev. The main character of his story is the famous Chelomeevskaya “weaving”, the UR-100 silo-based intercontinental ballistic missile and its modifications. The deployment of a group of these missiles provided a guaranteed response to any enemy. In everyday life, we often talk about retaliation, but the military has its own terminology.
“Not just a retaliatory strike, but a retaliatory strike,” General Dementiev emphasized. Because readiness is a minute. At first there was readiness for three minutes, then brought to one.
The creation and deployment of "hundreds" has changed the regular structure of the strategic missile forces. As part of the Strategic Missile Forces, divisions of ten regiments appeared, in each regiment - 10 mines with UR-100. To avoid simultaneous destruction by one warhead, missile silos were located tens of kilometers from each other. At the same time, each regimental command post could replace two "neighbors", controlling the launch of 30 intercontinental missiles.
In total, according to Valery Alexandrovich, 1050 such complexes were deployed, which accounted for up to 70% of our missile potential. "Sotki" and now, after 35 years, are on alert.
In the same part of the museum there is an exposition of carrier rockets: the development of space rockets and intercontinental ones go hand in hand. And suddenly an unexpected inscription: "United States".
It turned out that the layout of the American Saturn-5 rocket was made on the personal instructions of V.N. Chelomeya. As a designer, Vladimir Nikolaevich compared himself only with Wernher von Braun, an outstanding German designer who created the V for Hitler, and after the war was taken to the United States and became the "father" of American rocket science.
City and enterprise
Nikolai Kovalyov, First Deputy Head of the Reutov Administration, recalled another field of activity of Academician Chelomey. The founder of NPO Mashinostroeniya did a lot for the development of Reutov, the construction of residential areas, kindergartens, schools, a palace of culture, and infrastructure facilities. In the difficult time of the nineties, Herbert Efremov, who headed the enterprise, and Alexander Khodyrev, who then headed our city, developed the concept “Enterprise to the city, city to the enterprise”. This concept allowed the city to smoothly go through a difficult period and lay the foundation for today's socio-economic development and well-being. The result of successful cooperation between the city and the enterprise was the assignment of the title of science city of the Russian Federation to Reutov in December 2003.
— The current management in the person of General Designer and General Director Alexander Grigoryevich Leonov and Mayor Sergey Gennadievich Yurov continues these traditions and successfully implements the concept of interaction, the city and the enterprise are inseparable. The life of a museum is in its attendance. The museum should become a center for studying the history of the enterprise, a center for patriotic education of youth and a center for vocational guidance. Every schoolchild who visits the museum should come out with a dream of becoming a designer, becoming a mechanic, becoming a rocket scientist, becoming an astronaut! — wished Nikolai Kovalev.
The first steps towards inspiring future Chelomeans with dreams of new scientific and technological breakthroughs have already been made. As Anton Degtyarev told the ProReutov newspaper, there is already an agreement between the head of Reutov, Sergei Yurov, and the general director of NPO Mashinostroeniya, Alexander Leonov, to organize school excursions. The program will start operating in September, to celebrate the city's 75th anniversary.
Students of Reutov schools will not only see unique exhibits, but also learn a lot of interesting things about NPO Mashinostroeniya and Moscow State Technical University. Bauman. But the Moscow schools, which also asked for excursions, have yet to promise anything. Children of Reutov residents will be the first to see the museum.
Instead of an afterword: Gagarin in Reutov
Barely opened, the NPO Mashinostroeniya Museum helped unravel one of Reutov's mysteries. Readers of the ProReutov newspaper are well acquainted with Antonina Chukanova, who regularly publishes articles on the history of our city. At the opening, Antonina Alexandrovna took the opportunity to find the answer to a question that had been worrying her for a long time. The fact is that in honor of the flight of Yuri Gagarin, one of the lagging brigades textile factory committed to being at the forefront. The workers informed Yuri Gagarin of their decision and invited him to visit - such a style of communication between labor collectives and the heroes of the country was in the spirit of the Soviet era. The response letter of the first cosmonaut is still kept in the Museum and Exhibition Center on Pobedy Street, 2: Yuri Alekseevich promised to come as soon as possible ...
- And until 2014, until the centenary of Vladimir Nikolayevich, we believed that Gagarin was not with us. But at a solemn meeting in the Tchaikovsky Hall, one of the speaking cosmonauts said that Gagarin met with Chelomey and was in Reutov! Twice! Can you imagine? - shared with the newspaper "ProReutov" Antonina Alexandrovna.
Of course, when she saw the familiar face of pilot-cosmonaut Boris Volynov at the opening of the museum, Antonina Chukanova publicly asked an important question for the history of the city. And she received an affirmative answer: yes, Gagarin was indeed twice in Reutov.
The article contains only the first photo,
other illustrations added by me.
The article presents materials on the life and work of twice Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, General Designer of naval cruise missiles, spacecraft and systems, intercontinental ballistic missiles with liquid rocket propulsion systems Academician V.N. Chelomeya (1914-1984)..
Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey was born on June 30, 1914 in the town of Sedlec (now it is the Polish city of Siedlce). Volodya Chelomey spent his childhood in Poltava, where he studied at a seven-year labor school. But he graduated from it already in Kyiv, where the family moved in 1926. In 1929, Volodya entered the Kyiv Road Technical School, which he graduated in 1932. After graduating from the technical school, V.N. Chelomey worked as a technician in the department of internal combustion engines at the Institute of Industrial Energy and was engaged in the design and testing of outboard outboard engines.
It was a time of general passion for aviation. Vladimir Chelomey enters the aviation department of the Kiev Engineering Institute, formed on the basis of the mechanical department of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute. But already in August of the following 1933, the Kyiv Aviation Institute (KAI) was created on the basis of the aviation department and Chelomey brilliantly studied at its engine department. From the first year, as was customary then, he combined his studies with work as a design engineer at the branch of the Research Institute of the Civil Air Fleet. In addition, at Kiev University, he listens to lectures on mathematical analysis, the theory of differential equations, mathematical physics, the theory of elasticity and theoretical mechanics, actively communicates with teachers and, above all, with his teacher, a mechanic and mathematician, a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (since 1939), Ilya Yakovlevich Shtaerman, studies the works of the classics of mechanics and mathematics in Russian and foreign (in the original) languages. VN Chelomey kept his passion for mechanics and especially the theory of vibrations for the rest of his life.
During the summer practice in 1935 at the plant number 29 in Zaporozhye (now it is Motor Sich), student V.N. Chelomey helped the factory workers a lot - he found the cause of the breakdown of the crankshaft of an aircraft piston engine, the serial production of which, under the license of a French company, was to be mastered by the plant. In September 1936, at the invitation of the plant management, student Chelomey gave the engineers a 70-hour course on the theory of oscillations in relation to aircraft engines, and also helped to understand and eliminate the breakdown of springs in the gas distribution valves of an aircraft engine. Later, in 1936, he published a part of this course devoted to the vibrations of springs in the works of the KAI in the form of a large article, which would prove to be fundamental in the field of spring theory.
His early start in science took place at the institute. Perfectly prepared theoretically, V.N. Chelomei writes and publishes in 1936 a textbook for universities "Vector Calculus". Articles by V.N. Chelomey are regularly published in collections of scientific works of KAI teachers (6 articles in 1936 and the same number in 1937).
In the last two courses, he is allowed to attend lectures freely and take exams externally. In 1937 V.N. Chelomey graduated from KAI with honors a year earlier. His thesis "Vibrations in Aircraft Engines" was officially recognized as outstanding. He became a certified engineer - a specialist in the field of piston aircraft engines. After graduating from the institute V.N. Chelomei works very intensively and productively at the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR as a senior researcher in the sector of applied mathematics and part-time teaches at KAI.
In 1938 he published 6 articles in the works of the KAI and his only article in Ukrainian in the journal of the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR; hard work on his Ph.D. thesis "Dynamic stability of elements of aircraft structures", which 25-year-old Chelomey successfully defends in July 1939 at the Kiev Industrial Institute and publishes in Moscow in the form of a monograph.
In 1940 V.N. Chelomey, among the best 50 young scientists of the USSR, is accepted for doctoral studies and a Stalinist scholarship is established, the amount of which exceeded the professor's salary, and the topic of the doctoral dissertation "Dynamic stability and strength of the elastic chain of an aircraft engine" is assigned with a deadline of June 1, 1941. To work on a dissertation V.N. Chelomey is attached to the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. He meets the deadline, defends his dissertation, but the documents did not reach Moscow and did not get into the Higher Attestation Commission - the war prevented. He will redefine it later, in 1951 at the Moscow State Technical University. In June 1941, even before the start of the war, V.N. Chelomey goes on a business trip to Moscow to the Central Institute of Aircraft Engine Building (CIAM), but the war did not allow him to return to Kyiv. Thus ended the Ukrainian period of V.N. Chelomey for 27 years. It was in Kyiv that Chelomey was formed as a mechanical scientist, a specialist in the theory of vibrations and dynamics of aircraft structures.
Development of PuVRD and unmanned projectiles. July 1, 1941 V.N. Chelomey goes to work at CIAM as the head of the jet engine group. Here he proceeds to the practical implementation of his idea (which he "fell ill" in his student years) of creating a new type of intermittent jet engine - a pulsating jet engine (PUVRD). From August 1944 V.N. Chelomey is the head of a department of 200 people and creates the first samples of a PuVRD of his own design VCh-1.2. By this time, V.N. Chelomei has already familiarized himself with the engine of the captured FAU-1 projectile and got the opportunity to use the German development to improve his PuVRD (more than 10 “wave action” PuVRDs were created with a number of pulses per second in the range from 30 to 40).
September 19, 1944 by order of the people's commissar of the aviation industry A.I. Shakhurina 30-year-old V.N. Chelomey is appointed "Director and Chief Designer of Plant No. 51 of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry with the retention of work at TsIAM." Combining the experience of TsIAM in the development of PuVRD and the experience of the plant in the creation of aircraft N.N. Polikarpov, with the accelerated pace of round-the-clock work without days off, made it possible already in September 1944 to develop and put into production design documentation for the Soviet analogue of the FAU-1 - an air-based unmanned projectile 10X (with a D-3 PuVRD). On December 25, 1944, factory tests of the PuVRD were successfully carried out, and on March 20, 1945, in the area of the city of Jizzakh, the Uzbek USSR, flight tests of projectile aircraft began, which were suspended under converted serial bombers. The team and its leader worked with great enthusiasm and effort. In September 1945, Chelomey was awarded the first (and immediately the highest!) Order of Lenin, as he wrote in his autobiography - "for special research on aircraft engines."
For nine years (from 1944 to 1953), aircraft-projectiles for aviation (10X, 14X, 16X) and ground-based (10XH) with PuVRD were developed. However, none of the above projectiles by V.N. Chelomeya was not adopted by the Soviet Army because of the position of the military, who were not satisfied with the subsonic flight speed and reliability of products, low accuracy at a range of 240 km and a number of other points, despite the fact that the aviation industry was supported by V.N. Chelomeya. On February 19, 1953, shortly before Stalin's death, a resolution was adopted by the Council of Ministers to stop work under the leadership of V.N. Chelomey and the transfer of plant No. 51 and its design bureau to A.I. Mikoyan as a branch. The chief designer could not come to terms with the liquidation of his design bureau and is waging a hard struggle for survival, proving the fallacy of the decision made and convincing the new leadership of the country and the industry of the need to continue work on cruise missiles, primarily in the interests of the USSR Navy. In 1954, he sought the creation of a Special Design Group, which, by government decree of July 19, 1955, was reorganized into an experimental design bureau - OKB-52 in the city of Reutov, near Moscow, with the transfer of a small Reutov mechanical plant (RMZ). Nevertheless, it was OKB-52 that was destined to become the "third whale" of the USSR rocket and space industry (after the firms of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev and Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel). Subsequently, OKB-52 Minaviaprom was renamed twice: in 1965 - in the Central Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (TsKBM) of the USSR Ministry of General Engineering and in 1983. - NPO Mashinostroeniya. V.N. Chelomei was the permanent leader of his organization.
Naval cruise missiles. V.N. Chelomey realized the futility of air-projectiles with PuVRD, with which the vehicles did not reach supersonic flight speeds. He had ideas for creating a qualitatively new cruise missile (CR) for Navy submarines.
August 8, 1955 Resolution of the Council of Ministers OKB - 52 sets the development of the P-5 missile system with a supersonic cruise missile for firing from submarines at areal ground targets (while the boat is on the surface). It was one of the most brilliant and fundamental projects in the history of the company. For the first time, the ideas of V.N. Chelomey about opening the wings of a rocket in flight using a special automatic device for opening and fixing the wing ARK-5 immediately after the rocket left the transport and launch container (TLC). To achieve supersonic flight speed, V.N. Chelomey for the first time abandoned the PuVRD in favor of a turbojet engine (TRD). As a starting accelerator, two solid-fuel engines of relatively high thrust and short operating time (up to two seconds) were used, which were then discarded. A sealed cylindrical container of small dimensions, filled with nitrogen, the end covers of which opened automatically, solved the problem of placing and storing cruise missiles with folded wings on submarines. The TPK served simultaneously as a launcher, providing a launch from almost zero guides from a rocking base. The specified technical solutions became classic, and for decades determined the appearance of naval cruise missiles not only in the USSR, but also in the world. The cruise missile of the P-5 complex could carry both high-explosive and nuclear warheads at a distance of up to 500 km at a speed of 1300 km / h, at an altitude of 800 to 100 m and at one time posed a serious threat to the sea coast of a potential enemy. In parallel with the development of the P-5 complex, V.N. Chelomei successfully solved the problem of creating rocket production on the basis of the mechanical plant.
The P-5 complex was put into service in 1959. In the same year, V.N. Chelomey became the General Designer of OKB-52, and a year earlier - a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He became a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1962.
In April 1959 V.N. Chelomey with a group of associates was awarded the Lenin Prize and in the same year became the Hero of Socialist Labor. It is noteworthy that a young specialist, a graduate of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Sergey Nikitovich Khrushchev, the son of Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, the head of the Soviet state, also received the Lenin Prize. He was hired on March 8, 1958 and worked in the design bureau until 1968, his highest position was the deputy head of the department for cruise missile and spacecraft control systems, but he was one of V.N. Chelomey until autumn 1964
In his memoirs, Academician E.A. Fedosov, director of the Research Institute of Aviation Systems, who knew V.N. Chelomeya and his entourage, wrote “According to the stories of people whom I trust, Vladimir Nikolaevich, apparently, nevertheless speculated that Khrushchev’s son worked for him, and therefore he could afford both tough behavior towards competitors and the risk of complex projects that do not have a reliable scientific and technical justification”. He recalls V.N. Chelomey "as a person who had good fighting qualities, who knew how to fight for his cause, defend his ideas, although he made a number of incorrect actions."
Even in the process of developing the P-5 complex, OKB-52 was given a more difficult task - to create a weapon for selective over-the-horizon destruction of moving targets - surface ships of a potential enemy, primarily aircraft carriers.
The Government Decree of August 17, 1956 specifies the development of two complexes of anti-ship homing guided missiles - P-6 for arming submarines and P-35 for arming surface ships and coastal units of the Navy. In addition, OKB-52 continued to improve the P-5 complex. The P-5D complex with a Doppler navigation system doubled the accuracy of the missile hitting the target, passed flight tests from 1959 to 1961, and was put into service in 1962. On the basis of the P-5D missile system, the S-5 ground mobile complex was created on a high-cross-country vehicle chassis, which was put into service in 1961.
For firing beyond the radio horizon, the missile of the P-6 complex, after launch, gained altitude up to 7000 m and flew in the “target search” mode. After the boat operator found the target, the missile descended to 100 m and flew horizontally in homing mode until the target was hit. The firing range was 250 km, flight speed - up to 1650 km / h. In July 1964, the P-6 complex was adopted by nuclear submarines.
In the Northern Fleet in July 1962, in the presence of N.S. Khrushchev, a successful demonstration launch of the KR of the P-35 complex from a missile cruiser was carried out. The P-35 complex (with a range of up to 300 km) was put into service in 1962.
On the basis of the P-35 complex, coastal missile systems "Utes" (stationary) and "Redut" (mobile on a self-propelled launcher) were developed and put into service.
The Soviet anti-ship complexes with the KR were indeed an asymmetric response to the deployment of aircraft carrier strike groups by the Americans. For the creation of complexes P-6 and P-35 V.N. Chelomei was awarded the second Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. The same high award was awarded to S.N. Khrushchev.
Submarines needed a new weapon - cruise missiles launched from under the water. This provided stealth and surprise attacks and increased the survivability of submarines.
The first such missile in the world was the Amethyst missile, which was developed in accordance with a government decree of April 1, 1959. The missile was launched from a submarine from a depth of up to 30 m from a container pre-filled with sea water. The rocket was ejected from the TPK, the wings were opened immediately under water, 4 starting engines of the underwater course were working, after the rocket left the water, 4 starting engines of air flight were turned on, and then the sustainer solid propellant rocket engine.
The maximum flight range of the KR "Amethyst" was 70 km, maximum speed flight - up to 1300 km / h, height - 60 m. The Amethyst complex was adopted by nuclear submarines in June 1968.
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| RCC "Amethyst" |
Taking into account the experience of developing Amethyst, a more advanced Malachite complex was created, the rocket of which was equipped with a marching solid propellant rocket engine and had a longer flight range (1.5 times), a more accurate and noise-free targeting system. The Malachite was put into service with small missile ships in 1972, and in service with nuclear submarines in 1977. It was the first missile that could launch in the submerged and surface position of the boat.
During the commissioning of the P-6 and P-35 complexes, the development of a new Bazalt complex was started - long range (up to 550 km) and high flight speed (up to 2 speeds of sound), which was intended to combat the most powerful shipborne groups, including aircraft carriers. The Basalt complex was being prepared to replace the P-6 complex, for this it was necessary to maintain the surface type of launch. The complex was put into service in 1977 on the first ship of a series of aircraft-carrying cruisers of the Kyiv type.
Even during the development of the Amethyst and Malachite complexes, V.N. Chelomey proposed the development of a new complex with cruise missiles capable of launching from under water, and in terms of range and flight speed not inferior to the cruise missiles of the Bazalt complex. The new complex was named "Granite". They were supposed to equip both submarines and surface ships. It was the last complex with a cruise missile developed during the lifetime of General Designer V.N. Chelomeya.
The design bureau began its development in 1969. The Granit complex had a number of qualitatively new properties. For the first time, a long-range missile with an autonomous, very “smart” control system was created. For the first time, the complex engineering problem of starting the engine in a very short time when the rocket left the water was solved. The maximum firing range of the complex is 550 km, and the maximum flight speed is 2.5 times the speed of sound. The rocket has a KR-93 supersonic sustainer turbojet engine, developed at the Design Bureau of the Ufa Engine-Building Production Association, an annular solid-propellant booster in the tail section, which starts work under water. "Granite" can be launched both from a submarine and from a surface ship. The missile is able to independently select a target against the background of any interference based on the silhouettes of ships embedded in the memory of the onboard computer. In a salvo of missiles, the latter are capable of exchanging information about targets with each other in flight, the missile can be equipped with a nuclear warhead with a capacity of 0.5 Mt, as well as a conventional warhead weighing about 1000 kg. Shooting down such a missile is almost impossible. (It should be noted that one submarine cruiser costs an order of magnitude cheaper than a US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier).
The new universal missile system of the third generation "Granit" was put into service on March 12, 1983. The missiles of the "Granit" complex were armed, in particular, 12 nuclear submarines, each with 24 launchers, including the submarine "Kursk", crashed on August 12, 2000
Space systems. By the end of 1959, OKB-52 began designing spacecraft (SC) and launch vehicles (LV) for them. Spacecraft - a spaceplane, a rocket plane, a controlled satellite, a guided warhead, a fighter of enemy reconnaissance satellites - the first projects of OKB-52 in a new thematic direction.
Based on the search work carried out by the design and engineering departments, V.N. Chelomey is developing a concept for the creation of guided spacecraft, primarily for defense purposes, and launch vehicles for them.
"In April 1960, the development of technical proposals for a family of launch vehicles with different payload weights - from 4 to 85 tons with launch weights of missiles - from 150 to 1950 tons" was completed.
On June 23, 1960, a resolution of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued, opening the way to space for OKB-52 with its space projects.
For these works, a powerful design, production and experimental base was needed, which V.N. There was no Chelomey. The development of his organization under the patronage of N.S. Khrushchev was, first of all, due to the transfer to OKB-52 of the best enterprises of the aviation industry with ready-made highly qualified specialists. So, for example, on October 3, 1960, V.M. Myasishchev - the chief designer of strategic bombers, and the plant. Khrunichev (Moscow, Fili). V.N. Chelomey inherited a rich inheritance from V.M. Myasishchev - design and technological developments of the design bureau and the plant, and teams with a high aviation culture of design and production.
The total number of employees of OKB-52 and its branches by 1965 reached 25 thousand (!) people, a powerful laboratory and testing base was created. The undoubted organizational talent of V.N. Chelomeya made it possible to rally large teams of developers and focus them on solving common problems.
The development of the P-6 complex for over-the-horizon destruction of enemy ships put on the agenda the creation of reconnaissance and target designation systems. The first system of this kind - "Success" - was developed in Kyiv using bombers, which could solve limited local problems.
V.N. Chelomey was the first in the world to come up with the idea of creating a system of global marine space reconnaissance and target designation in the oceans. The system of controlled satellites (CS), the orbits and number of which were calculated with the participation of Academician M.V. Keldysh, two types of spacecraft were to be included: 4 US-A (“active”) vehicles with onboard radar station for all-weather round-the-clock reconnaissance of enemy ships and a nuclear power plant and 3 US-P (“passive”) devices with an onboard electronic intelligence system and a solar-powered power plant.
To launch satellites into orbit according to the plan of V.N. Chelomeya is due to the new universal launch vehicle UR-200, the development of which V.N. Chelomey will entrust branch No. 1 in Fili (headed by V.N. Bugaisky).
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| UR-200 (8K81). |
The US-A spacecraft was the first work of OKB-52 in the field of space systems and was a decade ahead of a similar development in the United States and became the world's first controlled active surveillance spacecraft with a nuclear power plant on board (with a fast neutron reactor) to power the locator and other onboard systems.
The airborne radar provided an overview of the world's oceans from an average height of 265 km.
"US-P" became the world's first electronic reconnaissance spacecraft, which made it possible to find and identify enemy surface ships from a height of 440 km by the operation of their radio equipment.
At the same time, OKB-52 was developing an anti-satellite defense system "IS" - "satellite fighter" to destroy enemy reconnaissance satellites.
Since the development of the carrier lagged behind the development of the spacecraft, the first flight tests of the first samples of these spacecraft were started on the royal "seven".
The first flight tests of simplified satellites were successfully carried out on December 28, 1965 (Cosmos-102) and July 20, 1966 (Cosmos-125).
On November 1, 1963, the "seven" launched the first satellite of the "IS" system into orbit, which received the open name "Flight-1". It was the world's first maneuvering spacecraft. The second launch of "IS" took place on April 12, 1964 ("Flight-2").
After the resignation of N.S. Khrushcheva V.N. Chelomey was deprived of the opportunity to continue work on controlled satellites, they were transferred to other organizations to continue work, and "transplanted" to the Yangel carrier "Cyclone".
The systems were put into service in the 1970s: "US-A" - in 1975, "US-P" - in 1978. The "IS" system was put into trial operation in 1973, and in 1978 - in operation by the air defense forces.
MBR developments. In 1961 in OKB-52 and its branch No. 1, work began in the field of ICBMs and launch vehicles using high-boiling fuel components.
In order to master a new ballistic topic for himself, the General Designer of OKB-52 organized a trip of leading specialists from the Design Bureau and Branch No. 1 to the Kapustin Yar training ground to get acquainted with the first Yangel R-12 (8K63) rocket, in particular, with its propulsion system, with launch preparation and rocket launch. Then the leading experts went to Dnepropetrovsk to OKB-586 M.K. Yangel, where they got acquainted with the development of design bureaus and the production process of missiles at the base plant No. 586. Against the will of the chief designer M.K. Yangel, at the direction of N.S. Khrushchev, 3 copies of the R-14 rocket and design documentation for the R-14 rocket and the first R-16 ICBM are transferred to OKB-52.
When creating their own ICBMs, V.N. Chelomey had the opportunity to take into account the experience and backlog of the Special Design Bureau No. 586 M.K. Yangel. These two design bureaus began with cooperation, which in the late 60s develops into a struggle of projects and a violent confrontation - it will receive the unofficial name of the “dispute of the century” or “small civil war” (B.E. Chertok, Yu. A. Mozzhorin, V.F. Utkin, S.N. Konyukhov, L.V. Andreev, etc.).
The development of the first universal rocket UR-200 (8K81) OKB-52 was started according to the decrees of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR of March 16 and August 1, 1961.
In accordance with government decisions, the UR-200 rocket was developed as a launch vehicle for the IS and US spacecraft, as an ICBM, and also as an orbital (or global) ICBM with a non-maneuvering or maneuvering warhead in the atmosphere. Other promising options for the development of the UR-200 were also considered.
This was a two-stage liquid-propellant rocket, made according to a tandem scheme with a maximum range of 14,000 km and a warhead weighing up to 4 tons. For the UR-200, for the first time in the world, a maneuvering aviation ballistic warhead AB-200 was developed, which, after separation, was supposed to fly in low orbit (150 km) and, when moving towards the target, maneuver in the atmosphere due to aerodynamic quality to overcome the enemy’s missile defense system .
For the first time in the USSR and in the world, the UR-200 rocket engines of the first and second stages were carried out according to the scheme with afterburning of generator gas. Developer - Design Bureau - 154 in Voronezh (now - Design Bureau of Chemical Automation), chief designer - Kosberg Semyon Arievich. After his death in 1965 (due to a car accident), the design bureau was headed by A.D. Konopatov. Attracting OKB S.A. Kosberg was caused by the heavy workload of V.P. Glushko, by orders of S.P. Koroleva and M.K. Yangel and the desire to connect another aviation propulsion design bureau to the LRE development team. The control unit of the first stage included 4 single-chamber liquid-propellant rocket engines with rotary engine chambers: three RD-0203 and one RD-0204. The control of the second stage included a single-chamber sustainer rocket engine RD-0206 and a four-chamber steering engine RD-0207, made according to an open scheme.
Flight design tests (LCT) of the UR-200 rocket were carried out at Baikonur from November 4, 1963 to October 20, 1964, for which a launch complex was built on the left flank of the test site (two launches). Of the 9 rocket launches at the Kura test site in Kamchatka (6300 km), only the first was an emergency. The results of the LCT confirmed the feasibility of the given performance characteristics.
However, by a resolution of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers dated July 7, 1965, the development of the UR-200 and all its variants was de jure terminated due to the fact that the missile, in terms of its performance characteristics, was not much superior to the R-16 missile already in service. The de facto decision in favor of the new Yangel R-36 missile was made by N.S. Khrushchev during his stay at Baikonur in September 1964, shortly before his resignation, during a demonstration of rocket technology to the country's top leadership. It was then that the R-36 rocket was successfully launched to the maximum range in the Pacific Ocean.
V.N. Chelomei demonstrated to N.S. Khrushchev and the persons accompanying him, a full-size 42-meter model of the UR-500 on the launch pad and a scaled-down model of the silo launcher for it, which was a complete surprise for D.F. Ustinov, and for the leadership of the aviation industry, and for the military - it was an initiative development of V.N. Chelomeya. N.S. Khrushchev asked a rhetorical question: "So what are we going to build - communism or mines for UR-500?"
However, it was decided to build two silos for the UR-500. Things did not come to the construction of mines - after the new leadership of the country came to power in order to combat the “voluntaristic decisions” of N.S. Khrushchev in the field of rocket technology raises the question of stopping work on the UR-500. This rocket with a launch weight of up to 600 tons was developed in versions of an ICBM with a heavy warhead with a thermonuclear charge of 30 Mt (the same “kuzkina mother” that N.S. Khrushchev threatened to show to all adversaries), a global rocket and a spacecraft launch vehicle weighing up to 13 tons. The firm position of the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician M.V. Keldysh allowed him to defend the UR-500 (8K82), but not as a combat missile, but as a spacecraft launch vehicle.
The final layout of the UR-500 multiblock first stage is unique. 6 fuel tanks with a diameter of 1.6 m were hung on the central oxidizer tank with a diameter of 4.1 m. afterburning generator gas and was developed at the Design Bureau of Valentin Petrovich Glushko for the N-1 launch vehicle, but was rejected by S.P. Korolev due to the toxicity of fuel components. The second stage was equipped with a remote control developed by OKB-154 based on the remote control of the first stage of the UR-200 rocket with the refinement of the engines in terms of increasing their altitude. The design of the UR-500 missile made it possible to transport it block by block from the factory to the test site and accelerate assembly in the assembly and test building. The ground launch complex consisted of two launch positions. As a payload for the first launch of the UR-500, a heavy, weighing 12 tons, laboratory satellite was developed, called "Proton" and designed to study high-energy cosmic particles. At that time it was the heaviest space object in the world. The name "Proton" was also assigned to the launch vehicle. The first launch of the UR-500 rocket took place on July 16, 1965.
In 1965, the first, and at the same time successful, launches of the two most famous ballistic missiles, developed in the Filev branch of OKB-52 under the leadership of General Designer V.N. Chelomeya - light, with a starting weight of 42.3 tons, UR-100 and heavy UR-500.
To launch the spacecraft into high orbits and departure trajectories, the branch No. 1 of the Central Design Bureau for Design and Design and the plant named after Khrunichev, a three-stage version of the Proton launch vehicle was developed.
On the basis of the results of these works, in July 1965, the Council of Ministers issued a decree on the termination of work on the two-stage UR-500 rocket and on the creation of a three-stage version of the UR-500K launch vehicle, as well as on the development in the Design Bureau of S.P. Queen IV stage of the UR-500K launch vehicle (based on the fifth stage of the N-1 launch vehicle).
The date of birth of the three-stage launch vehicle UR-500K with upper stage (RB) "D" is considered to be March 10, 1967, when the spacecraft was put into orbit (in the open press - "Cosmos-146").
With the help of this carrier in 1967 - 1973. were launched into the orbits of the spacecraft "Zond" (No. 4-8), "Luna" (No. 15-21), "Mars" (No. 2-7), several spacecraft of the Kosmos series, stations "Proton-4", " Salyut-1,2, etc. By the middle of 1974, a DM upper stage was developed with its own control system for launching high-orbit and geostationary spacecraft.
Only in 1978, the Proton-K launch vehicle with its technical and launch complexes was officially accepted into serial operation.
The "hundred" family. According to the concept of the leading institute of the industry - TsNIIMASH, the grouping of the Strategic Missile Forces was supposed to include a large number of light class ICBMs (40-100 tons) and several times fewer heavy ICBMs (starting weight about 200 tons).
The proposal to create a ground-based missile system with UR-100 light class ICBMs (launch weight 42.3 tons) was reported to V.N. Chelomey to the leadership of the country and the Armed Forces at a meeting of the Defense Council in February 1963 ("Council in Fili"). Based on the results of the meeting, it was decided to develop missile systems with ICBMs UR-100 V.N. Chelomey and with a heavy rocket R-36 M.K. Yangel. M.K. Yangel on light class R-26 ICBMs was not developed, and the projects of missiles of the same class R-37, R-38 were rejected, despite the experience of successful development of combat missiles in OKB-586.
With the help of the universal light-class UR-100 ICBM with a flight range of ~11,000 km, V.N. Chelomei proposed a solution to the three most important defense tasks of the country:
- mass deployment of ground-based ICBMs in response to the US deployment of Minuteman-1 solid-propellant missiles;
- the use of the UR-100 missile with a warhead of 10 Mt as a "long arm" anti-missile in the USSR "Taran" missile defense system;
- use of the UR-100 as an ICBM for submarines.
Note that according to the third option for using the UR-100, V.N. Chelomei acted as a competitor to V.P. Makeev. N.S. Khrushchev preferred the development of V.P. Makeev.
Missile systems with UR-100 (8K84) ICBMs, deployed in large numbers, were supposed to provide a guaranteed retaliatory strike of ICBMs that survived a nuclear attack by a potential enemy, which in those years was the United States, which deployed hundreds of missile systems with Minuteman-1 solid-propellant missiles. .
To radically reduce the disparity between the US and the USSR that developed in the mid-1960s (900 US ICBMs and about 200 USSR ICBMs), a new, second generation missile systems were required, possessing such qualities as suitability for mass deployment, high combat readiness and security.
One of the defining requirements for the complex was to ensure long-term storage (at least 5 years) and ease of operation of the rocket in a refueled state in a “single launch” silo by adopting special technical solutions for amplifying the rocket and placing it in a sealed transport and launch container.
Long-term storage in a filled state, according to V.N. Chelomey - for the first time in the practice of combat rocket science, was achieved by amplifying a rocket. The solutions developed in OKB-52 made it possible to ensure the guaranteed shelf life of a liquid-propellant rocket in a fueled state for 5 years (subsequently it was extended to 7-10 years).
UR-100 is a two-stage single-caliber tandem rocket based on high-boiling amyl-heptyl fuel components (AT-NDMG).
The first stage was equipped with four sustainer liquid-propellant rocket engines with rotary combustion chambers and adjustable thrust developed by OKB-154: RD-0216 (3 units) and RD-0217 (1 unit) with fuel tank pressurization units. The propulsion system of the second stage consisted of a fixed single-chamber sustainer rocket engine 15D13 and a four-chamber steering engine 15D14 developed by the Leningrad OKB-117 (chief designer - S.P. Izotov).
UR-100 became one of the first Soviet ICBMs equipped with a complex of anti-missile defense systems.
The first launch of the UR-100 from an experimental ground-based launcher at the Baikonur Cosmodrome took place on April 19, 1965, and from a silo launcher on July 17, 1965.
The UR-100 ICBM and its modification UR-100 UTTKh became the most mass-produced ICBM in the USSR and in the world: the maximum number of these ICBMs that were simultaneously in operation was 950 units.
Modifications of the UR-100 ICBM were developed: UR-100M, UR-100K (15A20), UR-100U (15A20U). The main feature of the UR-100K and UR-100U missiles, put into service in 1974, was the use of a multiple warhead (MIRV) with three warheads without individual targeting of the blocks. It was a response to American solid-propellant MIRVed ICBMs.
Each subsequent modification of the UR-100 was somewhat better than the previous one: the operation of the missile system was greatly simplified, the combat readiness and effectiveness of combat use were increased. In the work on the modernization of "hundred parts" V.N. Chelomey enjoyed the unconditional support of Marshal A.A. Grechko, Minister of Defense of the USSR since 1967. until 1976, who was the most influential supporter of Chelomey's projects. The new Minister of Defense of the USSR, Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU D.F. Ustinov did everything to limit the scope of activities of the General Designer V.N. Chelomeya.
In total, during the period of testing and operation, about 170 successful launches of the UR-100 of all modifications were performed, which confirmed the high reliability of the complexes.
Development of third-generation ICBMs in 1969 - 1976 with improved performance and with multiple reentry vehicles (MIRV) was a response to the creation in the United States of the Minuteman-3 and Poseidon S-3 ICBMs with MIRV.
At the same time, the main attention in the USSR was paid to increasing the security of silos, combat readiness and hit accuracy, and the creation of MIRVs with more effective means of overcoming missile defense.
In the late 1960s - early 70s in the USSR, in the leadership of the Armed Forces and the military-industrial complex, in the rocket and space industry, a discussion arose about the directions for the further development of nuclear missile weapons.
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau's proposals were that the response to the increased strategic threat should be the deployment of new R-36M heavy missiles and the replacement of UR-100 and UR-100K missiles with new MR-UR-100 missiles ( 80 tons) in existing silos with preliminary increase in their resistance. The missiles were equipped with MIRV IN - with 8 warheads on the R-36M and 3-4 - on the MR UR-100. The launches of these missiles were supposed to be carried out using powder pressure accumulators (the so-called mortar launch). At the same time, gas ducts were excluded from the design of the silo, which made it possible to increase the stability of the silo by increasing the thickness of the walls of the building structure of the silo. It was supposed to introduce an on-board computer into the control systems. The assumptions of the CBY were consistent with the military doctrine of delivering a guaranteed retaliatory strike.
TsKBM's proposals, which were more in line with the retaliatory strike doctrine, consisted in retaining a significant number of deployed UR-100 and UR-100K missiles in weakly protected silos ( 1000 units) and creating a new missile system with UR-100N ICBMs of a conditionally light class ( 100 tons) with MIRV with 6 warheads. It was proposed to keep the gas-dynamic launch of these missiles both in the UR-100 - UR-100K missiles modified in terms of increasing the resistance of the silo launchers, and in the silo of increased resistance of the new development.
The struggle between the two concepts has become so acute that it has divided military and civilian specialists - from top-ranking leaders to ordinary performers - into two opposing camps and has received the name "dispute of the century" or "small civil war" in the literature. At the same time, the dispute was not resolved either at the level of the design bureau and the industry, or after the intervention of the commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences, or at the level of the military-industrial complex, and was submitted to the Defense Council. On August 27, 1969, at a meeting of the Defense Council chaired by L.I. Brezhnev presented their concepts. General Designer of TsKBM V.N. Chelomei and Chief Designer of Design Bureau Yuzhnoye M.K. Yangel. The members of the Council interpret its results and decisions in different ways: some - as a victory for the concept of M.K. Yangelya, others, and it seems to me more correct - as a compromise between the two concepts. In accordance with the decisions of the Defense Council, complexes with new R-36M (15A14), MR-UR-100 (15A15) and UR-100N (15A30) missiles, as well as a complex with UR-100NU (15A35) missiles in the silo increased security, rebuilt from silos for UR-100K missiles. It was also decided to keep a significant number of complexes with UR-100K missiles.
The development of the ICBM MR UR-100 (15A15) and UR-100N (15A30) was carried out on a competitive basis and, thus, V.N. Chelomei acted as a competitor to M.K. Yangel and V.F. Utkin, who took over as chief designer of Yuzhnoye Design Bureau after the sudden death of M.K. Yangel on his 60th birthday October 25, 1971
Both of these complexes were to be placed together with the TPK in the silo of a single launch of the UR-100 missile. Looking ahead, let's say that the MR-UR-100 missile (the Yangelev version of the UR-100 modernization) turned out to be one and a half times lighter than the “competitor” - the UR-100N, but with a smaller number of warheads (4 versus 6), while the firing range was somewhat larger. The improvement of both complexes made it possible to increase their security consistently by two, and then three times.
D.F. Ustinov advocated the V.F. Utkina, and A.A. Grechko - for the complex of V.N. Chelomeya.
At the very end of 1975, by decision of the Council of Defense, and in practice - by its chairman, L.I. Brezhnev, prone to compromise, both competing third-generation missile systems for the Strategic Missile Forces were adopted. This meant the end of the "small civil war", in which there were no losers.
The UR-100N (15A30) missile and its modification UR-100NU (15A35) belong to the "weaving" family, since the layout of the rocket was preserved. But in fact it was a new missile with a breeding stage of six warheads. The launch weight of the rocket doubled (103-105.6 tons), new control systems of the first and second stages were developed (at KBKhA, chief designer A.D. Konopatov) and a new control system with an on-board computer based on the control system of the R-36M rocket.
The development of a missile system with UR-100N ICBMs began in 1967. A significant amount of ground testing fell on the confirmation of the feasibility of a gas-dynamic launch (with the remaining unchanged inner diameter silo significantly increased the thrust of the engines of the first stage) and the specified characteristics of the resistance of the elements of the complex to the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. Flight tests were carried out at Baikonur from June 1973 to December 1974.
Complexes with UR-100N missiles were put into service at the end of December 1975.
By 1979 240 rockets were made. In 1982 they were replaced by UR-100NU (15A35) missiles.
The development of the UR-100NU missile was set by a resolution of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of August 16, 1976, flight tests took place from September 28, 1977 to June 26, 1979.
The increment in the characteristics of the rocket and the complex was achieved through the introduction new system control, improvement of the combat equipment of the missile, the introduction of high-security silos of the new development. In December 1980, the complex was put into service, and by 1984, 360 missiles were installed in the OS silo.
The complex with ICBM UR-100NU (15A35) has high reliability indicators. During its operation, more than 150 test and combat training launches were carried out.
The implementation of a comprehensive research and development program to extend the service life made it possible to extend them from 10–15 to over 25 years.
About the participation of V.N. Chelomeya in lunar programs. If the US lunar program was an open national program, then the USSR lunar programs were hidden by a heavy veil of secrecy. In the USSR, back in the days of N.S. Khrushchev, the implementation of two lunar programs began: a flyby of the moon and an expedition to the moon. The Americans also planned first a flyby of the moon, and then a landing on the moon with the help of one Saturn-5-Apollo rocket and space complex (RKK). In the USSR, the flyby and expedition programs to the Moon were supposed to be carried out on the basis of two different RSCs.
The Soviet lunar programs have become an arena of rivalry, but also cooperation V.N. Chelomey and S.P. Queen. Since the early 1960s, Korolev Design Bureau has been developing two lunar projects: a project to fly around the Moon (using a carrier based on the Seven) according to a multi-launch scheme with dockings of three spacecraft in near-Earth orbit and a project for a new super-heavy launch vehicle "N-1" with a lunar spacecraft as a payload.
V.N. Chelomey, having a more powerful carrier UR-500, connects to the lunar theme and initiates a decision at the highest level. By a decree of the Central Committee and the Council of Ministers of August 3, 1964, OKB-52 was instructed to develop a project for flying around the Moon by a manned spacecraft "LK" according to a single launch scheme, using a three-stage version as a means of launching the UR-500 launch vehicle. November 11, 1964 in the Filevsky branch of OKB-52 V.N. Chelomey makes a report on the preliminary design of the LK lunar spacecraft on the UR-500K rocket in the presence of M.V. Keldysh and S.P. Korolev, who was categorically against the project, especially since V.N. Chelomey lost the powerful support of N.S. Khrushchev. On June 30, 1965, the military-industrial commission (MIC) appoints a scientific and technical expert commission headed by M.V. Keldysh, who recommended the project for practical implementation, while representatives of OKB-1 S.P. Korolev recorded a dissenting opinion on the inexpediency of further development of the LK ship. OKB-1 clearly sought to maintain its monopoly position in the field of manned flights. September 8, 1965 S.P. Korolev, realizing the futility of his project to fly around the moon, invites V.N. Chelomey and his specialists to a technical meeting, at which he proposes to fly around the Moon with a 7K spacecraft (i.e. Soyuz) with a crew of two people with a single launch of the UR-500K launch vehicle with the upper stage D of its N-1 launch vehicle. October 25, 1965 a decree was issued that ordered OKB-52 to focus on creating the launch vehicle UR-500K, and OKB-1 was entrusted with the creation of a spacecraft for circumnavigating the Moon (7K-L1). Work on the Chelomeev project of the lunar ship was stopped.
December 13, 1965 S.P. Korolev and V.N. Chelomey approve the "Basic provisions for the space complex UR-500K - 7K-L1" (more precisely, UR-500K-RBD-KA 7K-L1).
The unmanned 7K-L1 spacecraft was named "Zond".
The first successful flight around the Moon by the Zond-5 spacecraft took place in September 1968, after a number of unsuccessful launches due to the undeveloped launch vehicle and spacecraft. In this flight, for the first time in the world, a spacecraft returns to Earth with the second cosmic velocity after flying around the Moon on September 18, 1968, the descent vehicle splashes down in the Indian Ocean, returning live turtles to Earth - they were the first inhabitants of the Earth to circle the Moon. It would seem that the next achievement of the USSR in space, but it is too late, the United States can no longer catch up: in the same 1968., at the end of December, the Americans on the Apollo 8 spacecraft make the first manned flight around the Moon (Borman, Lovell, Anders) . Flights of "Probes" continued with varying success until the end of October 1970, as if by inertia. They no longer had any special meaning, especially after the Americans landed on the moon in July 1969 (Neil Armstrong, Baz Aldrin).
But the USSR received its powerful and still functioning space carrier UR-500K in three- and four-stage versions.
The UR-500K-7K-L1 lunar flyby program can be considered successful to some extent, and then only in an unmanned version. In the N1-L3 program, block E was worked out on time and in full, including flight tests, for landing and taking off from the Moon by one cosmonaut. At the request of S.P. Korolev, this block and the liquid-propellant rocket engine for it were developed at the OKB M.K. Yangel. The chief designer of the engines of block E (the main 11D411 and the backup 11D412) was Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov. The upper stage D (fifth stage of the H-1 launch vehicle) also came in handy - as the fourth stage of the Proton K launch vehicle.
All flight tests of the N-1 launch vehicle (and there were four of them) ended in an accident during the operation of the first stage control (the fourth flight took place on November 24, 1972 and was normal up to 107 seconds). This propulsion system included thirty single-chamber NK-15 engines with a thrust of 150 tons,
chief designer N.D. Kuznetsov, who had previously developed only aircraft engines, did not have time to bring his first rocket engine to an acceptable level of reliability. Chief designer of the rocket engine V.P. Glushko completely abandoned the development of oxygen-kerosene engines for the N1 S.P. rocket. Koroleva and this led to a break in their relationship - even N.S. Khrushchev could not reconcile them.
On the instructions of V.N. Chelomey in Reutov and in the Filevka branch, the first design studies of the superheavy launch vehicle UR-700 began in 1962. At the same time, V.P. Glushko began work on a new, heavy-duty, with a thrust of 640 tons, a single-chamber gas-gas rocket engine (with two gas generators and two HP) on AT-NDMG fuel components, which would later receive the designation RD-270 (8D420). The main version of the UR-700 launch vehicle assumed the use of this particular engine. In October 1967, the first fire test of an experimental engine was carried out, which gave hope that an engine with the desired characteristics would take place. The development of the preliminary design of the RKK UR-700-LK-700 was started in accordance with the Council of Ministers of November 17, 1967, the design of the complex included a detailed preliminary design of the 8D420 engine. The UR-700 launch vehicle (11K87) was supposed to have a launch weight of 4823 tons and launch a payload weighing 151 tons into low-Earth orbit (more than that of Wernher von Braun's Saturn-5 launch vehicle). The control unit of the first stage consisted of 6 8D420 engines, the control unit of the second stage consisted of 3 of the same engines, while at the start the engines of the first and second stages were started simultaneously. At the third stage - 3 engines 11D44. These were well-developed UR-500 first-stage engines designed by the chief designer V.P. Glushko.
The first and second stages of the UR-700 launch vehicle were assembled from blocks of the same type with a diameter of 4.1 m according to a batch scheme: 6 blocks (3 double blocks) - at the first stage and three blocks - at the second stage; the third stage is made according to the layout of the first stage UR-500: a central oxidizer tank and three outboard fuel tanks (2 meters in diameter) with engines. Thus, the third stage included elements mastered in production. All launch vehicle blocks could be transported along railway. Design work in Fili, the UR-700 launch vehicle was led by Vladimir Konstantinovich Karrask.
The preliminary design of the RSC UR-700-LK-700 was approved by V.N. Chelomey on September 30, 1968. The results of the preliminary study of the complex showed the real possibility of a lunar expedition in 1972, from which it follows that Chelomey was not going to overtake the Americans.
The preliminary design of the complex was approved by V.N. Chelomey on September 30, 1968 and was an alternative to the royal project N1-L3, which was presented in mid-1966. and had strong support in the person of D.F. Ustinova, L.V. Smirnova, etc.
Despite the positive assessment of the realistic and more technologically advanced (compared to the royal) draft design of Chelomey - Glushko and the support of the group of chief designers, work on the complex was not deployed - too much money had already been invested in H-1, and its "promoters" were stronger.
Chelomey's Aelita Martian advance project with the UR-700M (UR-900) launch vehicle and the MK-700M Martian ship (1969), and the UR-530 launch vehicle project (1977) with a launch weight of approximately 1200 remained only on paper. tons and a payload mass of up to 36 tons based on the use of elements of the UR-500K and UR-100N (15A30) missiles.
In 1975 V.N. Chelomey, in the development of his previous developments on the rocket plane, offered his economical version of the reusable space transport system (MTKS) - a light space aircraft (LKS) with a mass of 20 tons and a payload of 4 tons, with a crew of two people, for launching which into orbit is used finished launch vehicle "Proton K". A feature of the LKS was the heat-shielding coating used on the reusable return vehicle of the Almaz complex and designed for one hundred flights, instead of the expensive and insufficiently reliable tiled coating of the Space Shuttle and Buran.
In 1980, based on the results of the preliminary design, a full-size layout of the LKS was made, however further work were discontinued due to the decision to develop the MTKS Energia-Buran in the USSR.
"Diamonds" Chelomey. Already in the early 1960s, the military and political leadership of the superpowers - the US and the USSR - came to understand the importance of using outer space for military purposes, and above all for global intelligence.
First, the first unmanned (i.e. automatic) reconnaissance satellites appeared, then they thought about manned spacecraft.
At the end of 1963, the new US President Johnson, who took this post after Kennedy's assassination, announced a project to develop a manned orbital laboratory with reconnaissance tasks, which American journalists immediately dubbed "one of the most significant political decisions of the space age."
The return move of the USSR was not long in coming. October 12, 1964, two days before the end of the "Khrushchev era", General Designer V.N. Chelomey set the task for the leading specialists of his design bureau to create an orbital manned station (OPS) for military (but also scientific and national economic) purposes, to which he named Almaz. The rocket and space complex was supposed to include the one being developed under the direction of V.N. Chelomeya a three-stage launch vehicle UR-500K with a payload capacity of 20 tons, an OPS with an active life of 1-2 years and a replaceable crew of 2-3 people. By a resolution of the Council of Ministers of June 1, 1966, TsKBM was determined to be the lead contractor for the Almaz complex.
The scale of the work can be judged from the fact that the preliminary design consisted of more than 100 volumes and was defended in July 1967 before a commission of 70 well-known scientists, heads of research institutes and design bureaus of industry and the Ministry of Defense.
At the OPS Almaz, in addition to the unique Agat-1 photographic equipment (a long-focus telescope combined with a wide-format three-channel camera for observing and shooting strategically important ground objects from orbit), there was an optical sight with the ability to stop the "run" of the Earth, a panoramic survey device and an all-round periscope to observe the situation around the station.
A film 42 cm wide of one of the channels could be processed on board the station using the Pechora equipment and transmitted to Earth via a television channel. The rest of the film was supposed to descend to the territory of the USSR in a special information capsule (KSI), which was a descent spacecraft, for which the station had an airlock and a launch chamber.
The station was also to be equipped with the Mech-A radar reconnaissance system and a large synthetic aperture antenna.
To control the monitoring equipment at the station, there were two powerful Argon-16 on-board computers.
The station was provided with space guns to protect against uninvited "guests", means of medical and biological support for the crew and a number of other systems with a total of more than 70.
The propulsion system included spherical fuel tanks with metal diaphragms, compressed nitrogen cylinders, a liquid propellant rocket engine to correct the orbit developed by KBKhA, and a small thrust rocket engine to stabilize the station.
AT draft design TsKBM also presented materials on a reusable return vehicle (VA) for the station and a large transport supply ship (TKS) with a carrying capacity of up to 8 tons, although initially the military intended to use a transport ship based on the Soyuz ship to deliver crews and cargo to the station.
By a Council of Ministers resolution of June 16, 1970, the development of the Almaz rocket and space complex was assigned, including an orbital station, TCS, and VA.
By mid-1969, there were reports of plans to launch the Skylab station in the United States in the early 1970s.
In the report of the head of the USSR L.I. Brezhnev on November 7, 1969, it sounded: "orbital stations are the main path for the development of astronautics." The Soviet Union (in the person of its leaders) longed for revenge for losing the lunar race.
V.N. Chelomey, work on the hull part of the Almaz OPS was successfully carried out, but work on its "stuffing" and on the TCS was delayed, mainly due to the fault of subcontractors.
Royal spaceship designer and cosmonaut K.P. Feoktistov, apparently, was the first to voice the idea, which was as follows. The fastest way to create a manned orbital station is to take the housing of the OPS Almaz, install a transition compartment on it, install solar panels, propulsion and other systems of the Soyuz spacecraft, and refine its docking station. The means for launching the station into orbit is the Proton-K launch vehicle, the means for delivering the crew into orbit is the modified Soyuz spacecraft and the R-7A launch vehicle.
Feoktistov reported directly to D.F. Ustinov about the idea that allows creating an orbital station in a short time, about a year. As a politician and chief curator of the rocket and space industry, Ustinov immediately understood: there was a real chance to “kill three birds with one stone” at once: get ahead of the Americans, make a gift to the XXIV Congress of the CPSU, and this is March-April 1971, and even, in the words of Feoktistov , "to beat Chelomey in the brain", who, under Khrushchev, allowed himself to go to the very top past Ustinov, for which he did not forgive anyone.
And D.F. Ustinov, as well as M.V. Keldysh, L.V. Smirnov and S.A. Afanasiev, strongly supported Feoktistov.
TsKBM urgently releases a project for a long-term orbital station (DOS) 17K. Further, at the direction of D.F. Ustinov's deputy V.N. Chelomeya V.N. Bugaisky releases revised drawings for the DOS-17K project, abandoning the development of the TCS RSC Almaz, which later became the reason for the break in cooperation between V.N. Chelomey and V.N. Bugaisky.
By order of the Minister of Industry S.A. Afanasyev at V.N. Chelomey took all eight finished buildings of the Almaz OPS for refinement into bench and flight copies of the DOS station.
From the book of memoirs of K.P. Feoktistova: “Chelomey, not without reason, considered the connection of his branch to our work as a pirate raid on his island from our side. Of course, there was an element of piracy here.”
Despite the strong resistance of V.N. Chelomey and the appeal to the military, all his arguments were swept aside - the issue was resolved at the very top. V.N. Chelomei had to put up with it; this course of events slowed down work on Almaz for two years.
And the first DOS station, which V.P. Mishin gave the name "Salyut", was launched later than the promised date - April 19, 1971.
Meanwhile, in TsKBM and at the plant. Khrunichev (ZIKh), work continued on the first OPS Almaz, which on December 25, 1972 was sent by special train to Baikonur.
At the beginning of 1973, the Almaz OPS began to prepare for the first flight, which took place on April 3, 1973. The Almaz-001 station was called Salyut-2 in the open press in order to hide its military purpose.
Thus, in the 1970s, two different OPS development programs were simultaneously carried out in the USSR - Almaz and Salyut, but in the open press they bore one common name - Salyut.
OPS "Almaz-1" functioned in space in automatic mode in April 1973, the flight was terminated due to depressurization of the station.
"Almaz-2" and "Almaz-3" under the name "Salyut-3" and "Salyut-5" worked in orbit both in automatic mode and with crews on board: "Almaz-2" - from the end of July 1974 to the end of January 1975, "Almaz-3" - from June 22, 1976 to August 8, 1977. Valuable information was received in the interests of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff.
After the end of the main 90-day flight program of the OPS Almaz-2, a capsule of special information with two rolls of 500 m of photographed film was dropped to Earth and delivered to Moscow - it became the first parcel in the USSR from outer space.
The station "Salyut-5" ("Almaz-3") completed its flight lasting 412 days on August 8, 1977 over a given area of the Pacific Ocean. As it turned out, this was the last flight of the OPS Almaz.
In 1978 D.F. Ustinov, it was decided to stop work on the OPS Almaz.
Tests of the transport supply ship and the return vehicles continued. For the first time, the TCS performed all its functions, including the successful landing of a three-seat VA in 1983. The final stage of the “diamond” epic of V.N. Chelomey was the development on the basis of the OPS "Almaz" automatic stations "Almaz-T" for radar reconnaissance and "Almaz-K" for photographic reconnaissance.
The first Almaz-T station was manufactured at ZIKh and sent to the cosmodrome on November 27, 1980. At the direction of D.F. Ustinov, the station prepared for launch remained on Earth.
By a decree of December 19, 1981, all the work of TsKBM on the Almaz orbital stations and, in general, on space topics was terminated. Thesis of D.F. Ustinov that V.N. Chelomey has no place in space, has finally been realized. D.F. Ustinov believed that V.N. Chelomei should deal only with cruise missiles.
The Almaz-T station was launched on November 29, 1986 after the death of V.N. Chelomeya, and D.F. Ustinov.
Due to the accident of the UR-500K launch vehicle, the station did not enter orbit. But the second launch of "Almaz-T" under the name "Cosmos-1870" was quite successful - for 2 years, high-resolution radar images were transmitted to Earth.
V.N. Chelomei: open publications 1950-1980. Pedagogical activity. Since 1941, the scientific work of V.N. Chelomea very rarely appear in the open press.
It is surprising not that there are few of them, but that they existed at all, taking into account the colossal workload of the Chief, and then the General Designer, his performance as a professor, and later - head. department of Moscow Higher Technical School, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, etc.
Recall briefly open works scientist of this period.
Three articles are devoted to the presentation of the theory of pneumatic (1954, 1955) and hydraulic (1958) servo-mechanisms with spool distribution used as aircraft steering machines.
In the Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1956, a small in volume (the author himself calls it a note), but deep in content article of a fundamental nature with a paradoxical, at first glance, title was published: "On the possibility of increasing the stability of elastic systems with the help of vibrations." This elegant theoretical study was further developed in the works of other authors. Some aspects of this article were reported by V.N. Chelomey at the conference on asymptotic methods for integrating nonlinear differential equations at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv on June 28, 1955
In 1960 V.N. Chelomei founded at Moscow State Technical University. Bauman Department of "Aerospace Systems" and permanently led it until the end of his life. The educational process and scientific work of the staff of the department were closely connected with the developments of his design bureau. At the department V.N. Chelomey gave a brilliant course of lectures on "Theory of Oscillations".
At one of the lectures by V.N. Chelomey will tell his students: “Do not think that everything has already been discovered and done in mechanics, in this one of the most ancient sciences. There is also a lot of undiscovered and unexplained. Only we often pass by completely unusual phenomena without noticing them. It is very important to learn to see these unusual phenomena, and then to understand and explain them.” And he also believed - "it is important not to miss the talent." V.N. Chelomey was a classic professor: very demanding and strict. As academician E.A. Fedosov, “his poor graduate students groaned because he forced them to redo their dissertations several times. He personally read every chapter of scientific work.
Among the significant academic achievements of V.N. Chelomey should be attributed published in the ed. "Engineering" is a fundamental reference book in 6 volumes "Vibrations in Engineering" (1978 - 1981) for engineering and technical workers. V.N. Chelomey was the chairman of the editorial board and the editor-in-chief of the publication. The guide has been reprinted several times.
The latest scientific work of V.N. Chelomey, and it aroused great interest, including abroad, was published in the Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1983 a small article "Paradoxes in mechanics caused by vibrations."
This work is devoted to unusual phenomena observed in specially designed experiments, when, under the influence of high-frequency vibrations, heavy bodies in a liquid can float up, and light ones sink; in other experiments, the solid body passes, as it were, into a state of weightlessness.
(If you follow the definition of A.S. Pushkin that “genius is a friend of paradoxes”, then Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey was a genius).
Paradoxes in mechanics caused by vibrations, which were demonstrated by V.N. Chelomei, did not have a theoretical justification then. He was going to present “the theory of this complex dynamic process” in a separate publication, ”but he didn’t have time - a detached blood clot, like a bullet, cut short his life on December 8, 1984 at 8 o’clock in the morning during telephone conversation with his wife from the Kremlin hospital (where he ended up with a non-life-threatening, as it seemed, injury - a broken leg). His last line is "You know, I made this up!". We will never know for sure what Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey came up with then.
Posthumously Academician V.N. Chelomey in 1986 became a co-author of the discovery (together with Doctor of Technical Sciences O.N. Kudrin and A.V. Kvasnikov) "Phenomena of an abnormally high increase in thrust in a gas ejection process with a pulsating active jet." The discovery was registered in State Register discoveries of the USSR under the number 314.
Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey passed away 25 years ago, but even today the Navy and the army of the Russian Federation are armed with missile systems with cruise missiles and 15A35 intercontinental ballistic missiles, developed under the guidance of the General Designer.
The modernized Proton launch vehicle continues to perform various tasks of practical astronautics. The modules of the Mir station and the International Space Station are direct descendants of the Almaz complex.
If Russia returns to flights to the Moon and aims at Mars, it probably makes sense to start from the projects of V.N. Chelomeya.
Name V.N. Chelomey entered the history of not only Soviet, but also world rocket and space technology.
Literature
1. Chelomey V.N. Selected works / V.N. Chelomey. – M.: Mashinostroenie, 1989. – 336 p.
2. Karpenko A.V. Domestic strategic missile systems / A.V. Karpenko, A.F. Utkin, A.D. Popov. - St. Petersburg: Nevsky Bastion, 1999. - 288 p.
3. Evteev I.M. Ahead of time. Essays / I.M. Evteev. – M.: Bioinformservis, 1999. – 527 p.
4. Asif Siddiqi. Challenge To Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974 / Siddiqi Asif. - NASA, 2000. - 1010 p.
5. Gubanov B.I. Triumph and tragedy of Energia. Thoughts of the chief designer. T. 1. "Flying fire" / B.I. Gubanov. - Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny Novgorod Institute for Economic Development, 2000. - 420 p.
6. 60 years of selfless labor in the name of peace / Collective of authors. - M .: Publishing House "Arms and Technologies", 2004. - 332 p.
7. Materials of Internet sites. Received May 30, 2009
Received May 30, 2012
Reviewer: cand. tech. Sciences S.V. Tarasov, Institute of Transport Systems and Technologies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
ACADEMIC V.M. CHELOMEY -
GENERAL DESIGNER OF ROCKET AND SPACE SYSTEMS
V.A. Zadontsev
Materials about the life and activity of the two Heroes of Socialist Practice, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, General Designer of sea cruise missiles, space vehicles and systems, intercontinental ballistic missiles and space launch rockets with basic rocket engines V. Chelomeya (1914-1984)..
Key words: Academician V.M. Chelomey, rocket and space systems.
GENERAL DESIGNER OF SPACE-ROCKET SYSTEMS
ACADEMICIAN N.V. CHELOMEY
V.A. Zadontsev
The materials about life and occupation of academician N.V. Chelomey, twice awarded with The Title of Hero of Socialist Labor and Laureate of State Prizes and Leninsky Prize, General Designer of naval cruise missiles, spacecrafts and systems, Intercontinental ballistic missiles and Space Launch Vehicles with Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines are given.
Key words: academician N.V. Chelomey, space-rocket systems.
Zadontsev Vladimir Antonovich– Dr. tech. Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher of the Institute of Transport Systems and Technologies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
Valery Rodikov
On June 30, the General Designer of Aviation Equipment, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey would have turned 95 years old. His name is less known to the general public than the name of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. The reason is well explained by the saying that went around in circles attached to the missile theme: "Korolev works for TASS, and Chelomey goes to the toilet." Or translated into colloquial: Korolev works for public space, and Chelomey works for defense. It was his cheap, and therefore the most massive silo-based intercontinental missiles UR-100 and their modernization that became the country's missile shield. But Chelomey worked not only for the war. If the map lay differently, we could visit the moon ...
Its universities
Chelomey suddenly burst into astronautics, like a meteor, unexpectedly flashing with the successful launch of the powerful Proton rocket, which to this day forms the basis of the domestic space transport fleet. The trace that Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomei left in astronautics will never dissipate: he laid the foundations for all areas of space technology.
Vladimir Nikolayevich was born on the eve of the First World War on June 30, 1914 in the provincial town of Sedlec, Privislya region, in a family of teachers. In total, the Chelomei lived in Sedlec for about three months after the birth of Volodya. The times were troubling. On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia. It was not safe to stay with a small child not so far from the front line. Refugees, driven by the war, were already moving east through Sedlec, and the Chelomei moved to Poltava. By coincidence, they settled under the same roof with the descendants of Pushkin and Gogol's relatives. Both children and parents became friends and lived like one big family.
In 1932, eighteen-year-old Vladimir Chelomey entered the aviation department of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, the same institute that Sergei Korolev entered the aeromechanical department seven years earlier.
During his student days, Chelomey's engineering gift manifested itself, his ability to find a "sick" node in a complex machine, to investigate the cause of the "illness", and, in the end, to give recommendations on how to get rid of it.
During an internship at the Zaporozhye Engine Plant in the summer of 1935, a young student showed his knowledge in practice. A tense situation was created at the plant - they could not bring one of the modifications of the piston aircraft engine of the BMW-6 type, the license for the production of which was purchased abroad, to launch into mass production. The most important part of the engine - the crankshaft failed. Breakage occurred in one of the knees. There was a threat of disruption of the planned deadlines. Rumors about possible wrecking spread around the plant. “After all, the engine is licensed, foreign experts could not be mistaken,” some thought.
The person responsible for this work was knocked off his feet, trying to find out the cause of the breakdowns. What he just didn’t do, including trying to strengthen the “sore” place by increasing the thickness of the shaft. But all in vain. This issue was dealt with by a large group of specialists, but their efforts were fruitless.
Naturally, the trainee Chelomey, like everyone else in the design department, was in the know. The student has already matured a decision: “Are not resonant phenomena involved here? Maybe a sharp increase in vibrations at certain shaft speeds leads to a breakdown? He made an equation, delved into the calculations. The results did not disprove his conjecture. But did he take everything into account? Intuition suggested that the reason was in resonance. Vladimir turned to the chief designer of the plant. He, too, reacted to the proposals of the student with distrust. But Chelomei was persistent. "Give me three days," he asked. The chief thought: “Three days short term, the plan is under threat, there is no way out, what if the student is right?
And Vladimir really was right. And the shaft, it turns out, does not need to be thickened, but, on the contrary, should be lightened, then the whole system will leave the resonant region. Here is such a paradoxical recommendation that the student gave: in order for the shaft not to break, it must not be thickened, but, on the contrary, made somewhat thinner.
The plant's engineers were surprised: a student, but he was able to do something that neither they nor the engine developers thought of. A representative of a foreign company was also informed about the change in the engine. Some time later, letters from the company's management came to the People's Commissariat in Moscow and in Zaporizhia with an apology for the flaws and with ... gratitude.
In the last courses, Vladimir Chelomey received permission to freely attend lectures and take exams externally. In 1937, a year ahead of schedule, he graduated with honors from the institute. His thesis "Oscillations in Aircraft Engines" was recognized as outstanding. After graduating from the institute, Vladimir Nikolayevich was invited to work at the Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR in Kyiv. In 1939, V. N. Chelomey defended his Ph.D. thesis at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute on the topic “Dynamic stability of elements of aircraft structures”. In 1940, the young scientist was admitted to a special doctoral program at the USSR Academy of Sciences among 50 the best candidates sciences nominated by all republics of the country.
By June 1941, the dissertation was written and defended. But the documents did not reach the VAK. The war crossed out all plans. On June 22, Vladimir Nikolaevich was in Moscow. It was not possible to return back to Kyiv. With a simple travel luggage, the war involuntarily made him a Muscovite.
10X - response to the weapon of vengeance
He began working at the Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM). At the initiative of Vladimir Nikolaevich, a department was created at CIAM for the development of a pulsating air-jet engine, which he also headed. It was this engine that was installed on the V-l projectile. But this work was strictly classified, and, of course, our designers did not know about it. One day in the second half of 1942, in one of the districts of Moscow, where CIAM was located, a strong “shooting” began. There was no enemy air raid that night, so the origin of the cannonade remained a mystery for some time.
The unknown "battery" was quickly found. It turned out that Vladimir Chelomey's pulsating jet engine announced its birth in such an unusual way. Soon the people's commissar of the aviation industry A. I. Shakhurin and the commander of the Air Force, General A. A. Novikov, came to CIAM to see how the engine was working.
The People's Commissar and the commander were pleased with what they saw. Such an engine was very suitable for projectile aircraft, which could be equipped with heavy bombers. Without entering the air defense zone, several hundred kilometers from the target, the pilots would launch these cruise missiles. According to Shakhurin and Novikov, the idea was tempting: when hitting the enemy, aircraft and first-class flight personnel were preserved .. Chelomey was instructed to improve his engine while they were looking for opportunities to work on an unmanned vehicle. Soon, at CIAM, under the leadership of Vladimir Nikolayevich, an unmanned aircraft. During 1943 the work was largely completed.
In June 1944, when it became known about the use of V-l shells by the Nazis against England, A.I. Shakhurin, A.A. Novikov and V.N. Chelomey were summoned to the State Defense Committee. They were given the task of creating a new weapon - unmanned military equipment. According to the decision of the GKO, Chelomey was appointed chief designer and director of the plant, which was led by the recently deceased "king of fighters" N. N. Polikarpov (today the Sukhoi Design Bureau is located on this territory). The German "V-1" had to be countered by a domestic projectile.
The threat of the use of "V-1" was serious. At that time, significant territories of the Soviet Baltic states, Finland and part of Karelia were still in the hands of the Nazi troops. They could serve as springboards for launchers. An immediate danger was created for Leningrad. Subsequently, it will become known that the SS leadership planned to use Xe-111 aircraft armed with V-l for raids on our industrial cities located in the deep rear.
The range of the Xe-111 bomber was about 2,500 km, and the operating altitude was about 8,000 m. Moreover, the projectile aircraft, after separation from the carrier aircraft, could fly about 300 km. “The bombing should have been,” recalled SS Gruppenfuehrer V. Shelenberg in his memoirs, “the industrial complexes of Kuibyshev, Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, as well as areas located beyond the Urals.”
Such distant objects could only be reached unnoticed by single planes or small groups. And to make it more reliable, the Germans decided that a projectile fired from a bomber should aim a suicide pilot at the target.
The notorious fascist saboteur Otto Skorzeny gave the order to recruit and train 250 suicide pilots who could accurately aim the V-1 at the target in order to “hit and paralyze the most sensitive centers of Russian industry in the best possible way.”
Vladimir Nikolayevich understood well how important the task of the GKO was in the current situation. If our aviation possesses such weapons, then this circumstance will become a serious warning to the enemy, and the fascists may not dare to use "fau" against our cities.
By the end of the war, such weapons were created. They called it 10X (the tenth modification of an unknown weapon). At first, Xs were launched from Pe-8 bombers, and later from Tu-2.
In March or April 1945, Stalin called Chelomei. He asked:
- Comrade Chelomei, we are interested in your opinion as a projectile aircraft designer. Does it make sense to use this weapon in the current situation?
- No, Comrade Stalin, victory is close, and its use can cause great casualties among the civilian population, - answered Vladimir Nikolaevich.
- That's right, Comrade Chelomey, - said Stalin.
"Start everything from scratch"
The war is over. The short-lived joy of victory, and the world again smelled of gunpowder, this time American - atomic. The 10X cruise missile also had to be improved. Increase the flight speed, the accuracy of the defeat. Then there were new cruise missiles - a whole generation of Xs. Not everyone accepted Chelomey's bold proposals, which seemed like science fiction at that time, kindly. Once, at a meeting in the Ministry of the Armed Forces, N. A. Bulganin, who headed this department, said to Chelomey: "Comrade Stalin considers you a dreamer." In this case, it is unlikely that such a characteristic can be attributed to praise.
Ten days before his death in February 1953, Stalin signed a decree of the Council of Ministers on the liquidation of a number of enterprises. The enterprise of Chelomey also got into this list. "Firma" was transferred to Artem Mikoyan's Design Bureau. He also planned to quickly make a cruise missile: take the MiG and replace the pilot in it automatic system. According to eyewitnesses of those events, the son of Beria Sergey helped to include the enterprise of Vladimir Nikolayevich in the decision of the Council of Ministers. At that time he was the head of KB-1, which was near the Sokol metro station, and he worked as one of his deputies former employee Chelomeya, who did not get along with him. He was angry with Vladimir Nikolayevich and allegedly played the role of an unkind prompter. And Sergei Beria had his own interest. His firm made the control system for the Mikoyan cruise missile.
It has come hard time, but Chelomei did not lose heart. He had a fighting spirit. The small team that remained with him was called a special design group and placed in Tushino. One organization agreed to give it a small room.
Chelomey managed to interest the marine customer in a new missile. In the last days of the summer of 1955, Keldysh called Chelomei and said: “A decision has been made to create a large enterprise to implement your proposals. Allocated space for construction. Let's go see."
I had to start from scratch. The place that was allocated was not pleasing to the eye. Abandoned territory on the outskirts of Reutovo near Moscow. Dirt everywhere, something like a landfill. Everywhere you look - broken bottles. There was a lonely shabby structure like a factory shop. Some kind of wretched enterprise for the repair of agricultural machinery, nicknamed in the district "drunk factory". They dragged all sorts of details from him for a bottle of alcohol.
Chelomey set to work tenaciously. As if harnessed to burlatsky straps.
How much effort and labor it took to create a modern research and production enterprise in a new place - NPO Mashinostroeniya, to nurture a team that has done so much for our defense and peaceful space.
In the face of a difficult competitive struggle with the established aviation design bureaus of Mikoyan, Ilyushin, Tupolev and Beriev, he managed to win the competition and open the way for the rearmament of the country's Navy with anti-ship cruise missiles.
From cruise missiles to ballistic
In December 1959, a resolution was adopted on the creation of the Strategic Missile Forces. The new type of armed forces had to be equipped with strategic missiles. The enterprise, which was headed by Chelomey, dramatically expands the subject. He begins to work for peaceful space and at the same time create ballistic missiles. This combination was inevitable.
Even the transition to new job, as a rule, does not pass painlessly for a person, but here the whole team had to retrain and rebuild. After all, cruise missiles, which they did before, are, in essence, airplanes, and other laws apply in ballistics. It was not easy even to step into a new area, and even more so to gain a foothold in it. Recognized luminaries have already worked on this topic - the chief rocket designers S.P. Korolev and M.K. Yangel.
It was necessary to offer our own, new, which our competitors did not have yet. The very first satellites Polet-1 (1963) and Polet-2 (1964) were unusual. They knew how to change orbits. Chelomey taught satellites to fly "in all directions". He entered a new theme and was immediately ahead of his time. Electronic reconnaissance satellites with an active radar, including those with a nuclear power plant, as well as a satellite fighter were created.
And five years later, in July 1965, the Proton rocket (UR-500) was launched, which surprised us all, already accustomed to various launches in the eighth year of the space age, with its power. She put into orbit a scientific station, also created at the Chelomey enterprise, which was amazing at that time - 12.2 tons. And this is still without the third stage. And when the third stage was fitted to the Proton, in November 1968 they launched a 17-ton scientific laboratory, also of their own manufacture. And then there will also be a fourth stage, called pre-acceleration - block D, to launch heavy vehicles. This stage will be made at the "firm" of S.P. Korolev under the leadership of V.P. Mishin. It took five years to make the Proton and teach it to fly. Today, such terms are no longer realistic. Its silo-based UR-100 missile became the most massive intercontinental ballistic missile put into service. 990 launchers of these missiles were deployed.
But it was in the Design Bureau of Chelomey that the design was born, which will become the basis for our orbital stations, and three of them - "Salyut-2, -3, -5" were made under the leadership of Vladimir Nikolayevich. Under his leadership, a new generation of spacecraft was created, capable of functioning as heavy trucks, powerful interorbital tugs, as specialized modules (scientific, industrial, etc.).
OKB Chelomey took part in the lunar race. Many experts agree that if the Chelomeev project was adopted, then our cosmonauts would go to the moon. His project was simpler, more reliable and cheaper. The UR-700 lunar rocket was created on the basis of the reliable Proton, and for the Martian program Chelomey proposed the UR-900 rocket, the implementation of which, even by the standards of that time, was quite real.
Miracles Vladimir Chelomeya
“From the student's bench, hesitation entered the flesh and blood of Chelomey,” said one of his colleagues at the Academy of Sciences. He chose for himself a universal tool for understanding the world in the form of the theory of oscillations and used this tool very successfully, whether it was the development of engines, cruise or ballistic missiles, automatic control systems ... And his choice turned out to be correct, because everything in the world ranges from atoms to galaxies. We live in a world of vibrations… We only notice it sometimes too late when a catastrophe occurs. In oscillation language, this is called buckling.
With his work, Vladimir Nikolaevich discovered the fascinating world of oscillations with the phenomena of parametric resonance. Through experiments, he clearly showed that the world of such an "old" science as mechanics is full of mysteries and discoveries, like the world of modern nuclear physics.
His last published work during his lifetime in the Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was called “Paradoxes in Mechanics Caused by Vibrations”. He showed in experiments a number of vibrational effects that "contradicted" the law of gravity. In a vessel of water placed on a vibrating stand, wooden balls sank, while metal balls floated on the surface. Or, for example, a motionless, freely suspended pendulum is directed, as is known, always with its weight down, towards the center of the Earth, and if it swings, then only around this equilibrium position. But if the pendulum support vibrates, then immediately everything changes as if by magic: the pendulum freezes in any position - both horizontal and even “upside down”.
Chelomey did not have time to describe the theory of this complex dynamic phenomenon. But on its basis, Tomsk Polytechnic University managed to come close to creating a physical model of a levitating body. Professor Vladimir Kopytov believes that the creation of antigravitators based on the Chelomey effect is quite possible. The point is for sufficiently powerful converters and various types of energy into kinetic energy (at the level of 50 kW). Then it will be possible to move on to the development of fundamentally new ground and air vehicles.
I must say that the found paradoxes are not just a game of an idle mind. These questions are rooted in practice. After all, the rocket in the active section, when the engines are running, is shaken by vibrations, and these vibrations are transmitted to such control devices as gyroscopes, which begin to “lie”, and the rocket goes off course.
Vibrational paradoxes are called Chelomey's principle. This principle has been adopted by political scientists and social scientists. In the social edition of Chelomey's principle, it sounds like this: in order for the system to be stable, it must be strongly "shaken" from time to time. The coming crisis will give us the opportunity to see whether the expansion of Chelomey's principle to social processes is justified.
And herself creative activity Chelomeya was a kind of paradoxical phenomenon. On the one hand, he is a great scientist, on the other hand, he is an outstanding design engineer. And this combination is somewhat paradoxical. The fact is that the nature of scientific activity is significantly different from design. The scientist, as someone wittily remarked, strives to see the whole forest, while the designer concentrates his attention on one tree.
“I came up with this!”
Chelomey took on a lot. For example, he developed a mini-shuttle - a space plane that would be launched into orbit by the Proton. If the project had been supported, then there would have been no need to spend money on the Soviet shuttle Buran. But for this he was in big trouble, allegedly for cost overruns. After the removal of Khrushchev, they began to push him out of the space theme. And oddly enough, the most influential Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov was the evil genius of Chelomey, who in one of the meetings even promised to smear Chelomey on the wall. After this conversation, Chelomey returned home as pale as a sheet. He was so depressed that, in his own words, even climb into the noose.
One example of Ustinov's hostility was his ban on the launch of the Almaz T2 radar satellite with a synthetic aperture antenna, which made it possible to obtain high resolution. “The design bureau was not created for these tasks,” Dmitry Fedorovich argued his decision. We must pay tribute to the courage of workers in industry and the cosmodrome, who kept the satellite itself and its equipment intact despite the existing "instructions". It was launched seven years later under the name "Cosmos-1870", when neither Chelomey nor Ustinov were already alive. By the way, they both died in December 1984. Ustinov - almost a couple of weeks later. It is said that the news of Chelomey's death lifted his spirits.
If Ustinov was already seriously ill, then the death of Chelomey was a big surprise for those around him. In the summer of 1984, Vladimir Nikolaevich celebrated his 70th birthday. Of course, the burden of the past years made itself felt. The heart shook. More frequent meetings with doctors. The injustice that happened was more acute. But as before, his creative charge, interest in the new, seemed inexhaustible to those around him. I didn't think about rest. I wanted to work and work...
Suddenly, an absurd incident intervened. In the first days of December there was ice. In the morning, going to work, and it was in the country, Vladimir Nikolaevich slipped and injured his leg - a fracture without displacement. They brought him home. After examination, the doctors decided that it was necessary to hospitalize. When daughter Zhenya ran home to see her father off, she saw him in her office. He collected books for the hospital. “I will work,” he said. And he worked.
On the third day, the doctors allowed him to get up. On the morning of December 8 at 8 o'clock Vladimir Nikolaevich talked to his wife. They talked about children. Then he said that the night was restless, but now he feels good, and most importantly, Ninel Vasilievna heard his young ringing voice in the receiver: “I came up with this! I came up with this! .. ”And then silence. Those were his last words.
Until the very hour of his death, he lived with work and, judging by his exclamation, he managed to find a successful solution to the problem over which he had been struggling lately.
He left behind disciples who continue his work. In their future success lies the share of his work. The ideas expressed by him live and find recognition even after his death.
He loved classical music - Bach, Gounod, Schubert, Liszt, Mozart ... In moments of relaxation, he sat down at the piano and played some of their pieces. But the main music in his life, as his successor Herbert Efremov said, was the roaring chords of rocket engines.
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