alternatehistory.com

July 15 1973

The OKB-1 design bureau, near Moscow

Dmitryi Ustinov literally ran into Mishin, noting the surprise, if not terror, in the man eyes.

Hardly surprising: he didn't even knew I was to visit him.

Ustinov visit had been the result of some big dissension amid Mishin deputies: no less than four of them, all top-ranking, had written a letter to the upper echelons of the Party asking for Mishin removal. It was very much a de facto coup d'état; but the deputies griefs against their boss were too big to be concealed any longer.

How can Mishin top deputies betray him like this ?

Ustinov already knew the answer. The alliance with Chelomey was only the tip of the iceberg; the true reasons of the coup d'état reached much farther in time. Back to 1969. It all started that year. And I'm mostly responsible for the current revolution.

Not that Ustinov felt any remorse !

1969 had been the year when the soviets were desperately seeking a new direction for their space program - after Apollo 8 and before Apollo 11. Aelita was too big of an endeavour for the country; the moon was lost, and that left space stations. Similarly, NASA was planning Skylab at the time.

So the Soviet Union needed a space station in a hurry.

What happened was that Chelomey actually had a space station in his shop, dubbed Almaz; a military platform akin, not to Skylab, rather to the Manned Orbiting Laboratory that had just been cancelled. That Almaz was a military platform did not really mattered - after all the soviet space program was essentially run by the military.

What really mattered was that Ustinov just hated Chelomey, so there was no way Almaz become the first soviet space station to reach orbit - even if it was the only option in hand to beat Skylab !

What Ustinov did was to literally steal Almaz empty hulls from Chelomey and give that to Mishin bureau, which was supposed to fill the hulls with Soyuz life support systems.

Yet Mishin had not been happy with the offer, because he just did not cared about Almaz or Salyut: he was first and foremost deep into Korolev old lunar program, and if he ever was to build a space station, he would build the immense MKBS complex. But it was way too far in the future to beat Skylab.

So Mishin refused to take-over Almaz from Chelomey, not by charity, but because he had no interest in it. Since his deputies disagreed, Ustinov simply bypassed Mishin to reach them, and Salyut was created by Bushuyev, Chertok, Feoktistov and Raushenbakh.

Needless to say, Mishin was furious, and that left a big scar among the once united Korolev bureau. It was that scar that bled again three years later.

Even Mishin remaining supporters - Semenov and Okhapkin - recognized their boss was a little too obsessed with Korolev lunar program, and that he somewhat neglected Salyut. The problem was since the fall of 1969, both Breznhev and Keldysh had declared future belonged to space stations and not moon landings.

Mishin did not cared about that fact. And he actively plotted with Chelomey to give him back the Salyut he had no interest in. In April 1972 the two chief designers had an informal pact.

Chelomey taking back Salyut meant Mishin could concentrate on what mattered more to him: the MKBS of course, and, above all, fulfilling Korolev dream of landing a man on the Moon. IF - and that was a big if - he could ever make the fucking N-1 lunar rocket work someday.

A fifth atempt was planned somewhere in the near future. Let's hope we won't rebuild the launch pad this time Ustinov thought warily.

When in April 1972 Ustinov learned of the Mishin - Chelomey pact he was all rage. He actually had to destroy the nascent alliance, and fortunately Mishin rebelling deputies were helping.

Korolev old bureau was literally on the brink of a civil war, and Ustinov really wanted to play both sides against each others for his own benefit and that of his lifelong friend Glushko, with its immense ambitions...

But first, he had to find a reason to sack Mishin. The rebelling deputies had found him such a reason; it was too good to be tru