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Aviation History
1968
1968 - 0245.PDF
HT'«:^national, 15 February 1968 239 Spaceflight THE BAIKONUR LAUNCH FACILITY By KENNETH W. GATLAND* ix YEARS AFTER Yuri Gagarin made his historic orbit of ' the Earth on April 12, 1961, in the Vostok spacecraft, the type of launch vehicle used had not been revealed ie Soviet authorities. It was only last year, at the Paris Show at Le Bourget, that the world was at last able to amine a "realistic replica." The vehicle was then seen to be "l-stage liquid-propellant rocket with a two-stage core and Er strap-on boosters. Total aggregate thrust of all engines was D 000kg (1,323,0001b). Each jettisonable booster had four iin chambers and two swivel-mounted verniers and the [jtral sustainer four main chambers and four verniers. Thus fewer than 20 main chambers and 12 verniers operated at t-off. new Soviet documentary film, Ten Years of the Space <e, now provides a first glimpse of the launch pad' at the [ikonur cosmodrome (sometimes referred to as the Baikonur/ uratam launch facility) and some of the associated equipment in conjunction with the rail-mounted transport-erector i was seen at Le Bourget. In earlier presentations, such bhnical details had been carefully edited-out of motion fctures and "stills" made available to the public. Ten Years of the Space Age provides confirmation that the vehicle has been progressively developed since the early utniks and lunar probes, adding weight to the theory that basic system was the "first-generation" Soviet ICBM nounced by Tass in August 1957. he RD-107 engine used in the core vehicle and strap-on osters, it is now revealed, was developed between 1954 and 57. The group responsible was the GDL-OKB, originating Leningrad in 1929 (Flight, January 4). Thrust in vacuum 102 tonnes, vacuum specific impulse 3 Msec and chamber essure 60 atmospheres; propellants are liquid oxygen and tdrocarbon fuel (a type of kerosine). [Soviet design philosophy was to develop one basic engine |odule, using small thrust chambers, to achieve high standards ' reliability, eliminating untried techniques as far as possible. > achieve thrust-vector control, the simple expedient of keep- ; the main chambers fixed and swivelling the outer pairs of motors was followed. There was a single H2O2 turbo- fe-president, British Interplanetary Society, and author of thescent book Manned Spacecraft (Blandford Press, 18s). pump for each RD-107, with nitrogen tank pressurisation. Thrust chambers and other engine components must have been produced in huge quantities, for they appear in many rocket systems over the past ten years, including those of many Cosmos launch vehicles. This goes a long way towards explaining the high success rate achieved in the Soviet space programme from its earliest days. It is tempting to suggest that the large number of heavy- weight rockets available for space purposes resulted from the phasing-out of the first-generation Soviet inter-continental ballistic missile (central core and lateral boosters) from the military programme. Transforming the ICBM into a space launcher for heavy sputniks and interplanetary probes entailed the addition of an upper stage employing an RD-108 engine with a single main thrust chamber. This was also developed by the GLD-OKB group. The top stage was mounted on a truss framework at the top of the "hammerhead" of the central core. The last three photographs (8, 9 and 10) on the following pages show three different arrangements—for the Lunik Moon probes, and for the Vostok and Voskhod spacecraft. In order to launch the heavier multi-man spacecraft Voskhod it was necessary to introduce another rocket stage of 50,000kg thrust between the "hammerhead" and the RD-108 top stage. Sequences in the Soviet film (the stills on this and the following page have been made available by the Novosti Information Service) showing the Baikonur launch pad arrange- ments are particularly revealing. Within a preparation building some distance from the pad, the launch vehicle is first assembled horizontally on rail-mounted trolleys. After a com- plete checkout of the payload this is also installed, together with the final stage. The complete vehicle is then lifted bodily by crane on to the transporter-erector which arrives on an adjacent track. The launch platform itself—a massive steel and concrete structure—is raised well above ground level and the transporter-erector reaches it on a kind of embankment railway. Arriving nozzle-end first, the transporter-erector places the rocket into a well below the level of the platform. Four lattice arms with work platfonns cradle the vehicle on the pad and servicing towers move into position. The vehicle is then fuelled and given a final checkout as the countdown proceeds. pssian cosmonauts (left, below) inspecting a Soviet launch vehicle in the preparation building associated with the Baikonur launch Fility; and at right below, a Vostok spacecraft, complete with service module and retrorocket system (at left), being checked in con- Inction with the top stage before final assembly
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