2001: A Space Time Odyssey (Version 2)

[SpaceGeek]

Mercury's Ending, Vostok's only the Begining

1963 saw the drama of the Space Race flooding the news with rumors and speculation about the Soviet's possible next step while the public waited anxiously in anticipation.

Two years after Alan Shepard's first suborbital Mercury-Redstone flight and the United States was trailling further and further behind Russia. While the Vostok was performing multi-day long duration missions, spacewalks and three person flights as they flew in tandemn on five-person missions (two ships, one two-person the other three-person) the Mercury was still performing singular multi-hour missions.
With success of Vostok flights, the USA had to make a record breaking space fight to beat the Soviets.

Leroy Gordon Cooper was selected as the commander for that mission. The goal of Cooper's mission was to remain in orbit for a full day. During the flight Astronaut Cooper would eat, drink, and sleep in space. He would also take many medical measurements. All of these tasks were intended to study how man adapted to the space environment but also to atleast compete with the Russians in long duration spaceflight. Unfortunatly the May 15th 1963 flight (coming a full two years after Alan Shepard's first manned Mercury flight) was a near complete disaster. While all had gone well on the 18th orbit beyond that the situation began to become more and more serious as system after system malfunctioned and shutt down. Despite this he managed to manually land the ship just four miles away from target proving accurate manual landing was actually possible. At the conclusion of his mission debates raged over wether to continue the Mercury Program with one more three day spaceflight or whether to cancell it and focus on Gemini, America's follow up spaceflight.
Having barely survived his 35 hour spaceflight NASA concluded another would be extremly risky. Work immedietly began on Gemini in a hope of leap frogging the Vostok.

While the American had pushed their Mercury capsule to the limits to get beyond a single day flight the Soviets were only begining to utilize the versatile capabilities. Vostok 5 rocketed off the pad at Baikanour on July 14th 1963 after a month of delays. Bykofsky piloted the craft on a less than spectacular mission which would largely have been forgotten if it didn't set a new eight day duration record (double the record set on Vostok 3).As Soviet news bulletin's announced "that's longer than the time needed to travel to the Moon and back". The mission was near-flawless with the exception of the toilet malfunction and difficulty with the seperation of the service module on Re-entry. This was in stark contrast to the previous two missions which came very close to disaster with a hard off-target landing and near-fatal first EVA (where the cosmonaut's suit expanded while outside sufficiently to make reentering difficult).

Korolev had been training a second cosmonaut group for sometime notable in that they were composed entirely of women. He hoped to beat the Americans to another victory (albiet a non-technical one) because intelligence had gathered that NASA was planning a manned women flight (correct at the time but later cancelled without the russians realizing it). Just 24 hours after launch the launch of Vostok 5 Valentina Terreshova, Valentina Ponomaryova and Irina Solovyova took their own place in history as the first women in space. In a new perspective of how Humanity was growing Bykofsky Leonov was able to watch the launch of Vostok 6 from his own small capsule. After one day of intensive bio-medical research on the female body's reaction to weightlessness the trio returned to Earth upon much fanfair. The great Soviet Union had now sent the first satellite into orbit, the first living animal into orbit, the first man into space and orbit, the first men to live in space for multiple days, had performed the first spacewalk, the first multi-crew (2-3) missions, the first double flights between manned spacecraft, the first Extra-vehicular activity and the first women into space. All this with just an average of two manned missions per year in 1961, 1962 and 1963. With no piloted American spaceflights planned for 1964, the Soviets remained the technological unmatched superpower in manned space leadership. Meanwhile just as the Americans were planning for Gemini and Apollo, the Soviets were preparing for their next giant leap beyond upgrading old Vostok hardware.

 

[guinazacity]

How have I missed this in the forum?

SO DAMN SUBSCRIBED!

 

[SpaceGeek]

Vostok 7 & 8

The Soviets proceeded with the next in their lineup of Vostok flights. This was the chance to really showcase the full capabilities of the Vostok in it's current configuration. 1964 woud certainly be the year for the Soviets to take the lead as the Americans stopped all Mercury missions to develop the Gemini spacecraft.

Like the earlier Vostok 1, 2 and 5 flights Vostok 7 was a single person spaceflight designed at achieving long duration records in space. Utilizing a slighlty uprated R-7 Boris Volynov's roomy cannonball was fired into a highley elliptical orbit around the Earth with an perigee (lowest point) of just 200 km and an apogee (upper point) of just over 1,000 km. From this distant vantage point Volynov could see the entire world as one gigantic sphere covering nearly his entire feild of view. Unfortunatly film footage of him inside his capsule was cut off from mechanical failure of the television camera which was planned to be broadcast live. A variety of experimental equiptment was tested that would later be used on the Soyuz, and most of it failed or malfunctiond. The rest of his flight the lone cosmonaut spent cooped up in the capsule performing intensive bio-medical experiments on himself. The majority of his mission was spent with biomedical probes and scanners covering his entire body as physicians looked for any sign of trouble. But despite all their searching they find none, and while Voylnov acted as a human guinea pig for the scientists in Moscow he was able to observe the world as no one had seen it before.

After Vostok 7's stunning high altitude misssion the USSR had another surging wave of prestige and nationalism. Korolev however, was more concerned with the next scientifically oriented flight, Vostok 8.

Piloted by Pavel Belyayev and Yevgeni Khrunov, Vostok 8 would be another 1,000 km. However instead of the previous ten day, single person mission, Vostok 8 would be crewed by two cosmonauts and conduct another spacewalk test, the entire mission lasting a single day. It sent the message loud and clear that Khrushchev and the Soviets was passing the Americans by. The Extra-vehicular activity was a complete success unlike the near-fatal spacewalk performed by Vostok 3 two years prior and lasting even longer (33 minutes). The Soviet engineers were alarmed at the inflation of early Bakut design while the cosmonaut was outside the capsule on the Vostok 3 mission and so the design was modified to the later Yastreb design over the coarse of two years. No shortcuts could be taken and quality could not be compromised in order to prevent any cosmonaut fatalities during an EVA.

And so after 1 day and 6 minutes Belayev and Khrunov returned to earth after a rough landing in hundreds of km off coarse. The duo had to endure a severe Siberian night with wolves and other wild animals scratching at his spherical descent module. Their heroic re-entry was probabley the most rough since Yuri Gagarin's. Returning with another two spaceflight heroes it was becoming obvious that what Gemini hoped to accomplish was already being accomplished by the Vostok. American engineers estimated the Soviet Union's position to be atleast three years ahead of them. The Americans longest human spaceflight was approximately one day long, the Russian's was ten days long. The American's had launched six astronauts as part of Projet Mercury of whom only four reached orbit, while the Soviets had launched fourteen cosmonauts, all of whom were on orbital missions. The Soviets had performed rendezvous, spacewalks and two-three person missions, the Americans hadn't. The Soviets had launched eight manned orbital missions, the Americans had launched half as many.

Publically it seemed the Americans were surely going to lose the space-race to the far more advanced Soviets and their Vostok. But privately, Korolev knew the Vostok was little more than the an advanced Mercury capsule, incapable of actual rendezvous and docking or returning to earth from lunar velocities, upgraded and launched just to buy time and prestige while they waited for the real Soviet spacecraft, Soyuz, capable of rendezvous, docking and manned circumlunar flights. But as the Soyuz and the N-family of launchers lagged further and further behind in development, Korolev was worried and it seemed that Gemini might just take the lead.

 

[SpaceGeek]

Khrushchev's Thaw, Kosygin's Rise (1953-1971)

Despite losing his seat to the Politburo in mid 1952 (just prior to the death of Jospeph Stalin) because of stalinist treactionaries, being a staunch ally of Khrushchev, his political career soon turned around for the better. Although he was never one of Khrushchev's protégés, Kosygin quickly moved up the CPSU party ladder. By the time of the Sputnik 1 and 2 satellite launches in late 1957 he had already become an official of the State Planning Commitee and was made a candidate member of the Politburo.

By 1960 Kosygin was promoted to the State Planning Commitee chairmanship and became Khrushche's First Deputy Premier. This changed his life significantly because as First Deputy Premier Kosygin traveled around the world, mostly on trade missions, to countries such as North Korea, India, Argentina and Italy. As Gagarin and Titov where orbiting the world, Kosygin was able to regain his old seat in the Politburo during the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Just a year later he was already the Soviet spokesman for improved relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. This often included some state visits with some hilarious results

In 1964 Kosygin acheived a major political success. Back on February 23rd 1961 the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Lenoid Brezhnev after his diplomatic plane was shot down over Algeria in what is commonly refered to as the Brezhnev incident. After that Khrushchev appointed Anastas Mikoyan to the position. However by 1964 the Mikoyan to retired from his seat in the Politburo due to old age. As Alexei Kosygin in turn, took his place on July 15th 1964. His influence was responsible for a series of successful economic reform that led to the improvement of living standard for the Soviet people. Unlike some Stalinist Deviants claim he was not acting as a revisionist but simply applying Marxism-Leninism in a unique and creative way as the historical conditions of Russia have demanded for Socialism with Russian Characteristics. His democratic succession of Khrushchev as Premier and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1971 and policies enacted strengthend socialism through Market forces rather than reviving Capitalism as counter-revolutionary stalinist and bourgeois elements have claimed. The thriving Socialist Market Economy of our motherland that exists to this day is a testament to Khrushchev and Kosygin's early work in this period.

Chapter 2 Red Rise
- Kosygin: A Short Biography, by The Institute of Marxism-Leninism, CPSU Central Committee © 2006

 

[Michel Van]

Sorry for my temporary Absence here and lack of my Artwork
I working for moment on ESDO and 1980s Odyssey orbital infrastructure.

Some notes on Version 2
If you don't know the First Version read here
you notice we drop allot of side line or modified other heavy, like no UR-500
for moment the TL stay close to first version, but that gonna change from 1964 on.

 

[nixonshead]

Good to see this back! Korolev hiring Sergie Khrushchev is a neat and plausible idea for giving a more consolidated and focused Soviet space programme. I look forward to seeing how it develops!

 

[SpaceGeek]

Vostok 9

Korolev was not about to let his American counter-parts win however and the race was on for the next Soviet space mission, Vostok-9. The Three and Two Person spaceflights had given them information about crew dynamics and training techniques. The duration missions had lasted up to ten days giving them not only a world record but also biomedical data crucial for any mission to the Moon. High altitude missions had studied the Van Allen belt. Hardware and Systems later to be used for the Soyuz were also tested on the preceding Vostok flights. Spacewalks and Extravehicular Activity had been done thrice before on previous while a psuedo rendezvous of the unmanueverable Vostok had kept the Soviets ahead in the public eye.

Vostok 9 and it's R-7 launch vehicle being assembled.

But while these early accomplishments were important and set the Vostok ahead of the Mercury it would be more difficult to keep their lead with the Gemini, about to perform multi-day missions, spacewalks, rendezvous, docking, two person flights, two week missions were even planned that would beat the Soviet record in 1965 and 1966. Not about to fall behind Korolev launched another Vostok under the designation "Kosmos-57". Onboard were three (biomedical sensor covered) dogs keenly enjoying the strange sensation of weightlessness. For thirty days these cosmo-dogs were constantly monitered to make sure the enviroment of space wasn't adversly effecting their health. It was also the test of a new generation of Vostok with a life support system that would also debut on another, more human flight. Just as on previous flights, hardware and mission systems that were planned for the Soyuz were tested on these Vostok flights.

An amalgamation of all the previous space ambitions it was ambitious indeed. Despite several delays Boris Volynov and Vladimir Shatalov took the Vostok 10 to the skies on March 19th 1965. The two cosmonauts settled in for ninteen days of studying the effects of long duration exposure to space on the Human body and the study of the lower Van Allen belt. Something notable happened on the fourth day inwhere the Americans launched the first manned flight of their new Gemini spacecraft (Gemini 3). For the first time in human history, the Soviets and Americans were in space together at the same time (albiet it was an unplanned co-incidence). Several experimental technologies and hardware were also tested during the flight that would later be used on Soyuz flights. Finally after 19 days in orbit and two successful EVAs the crew successfully landed (non-fatally impacted may have been more accurate because of the failure of the retro-rockets) in Kazakhstan. After recovering from their injuries they became Heroes of the USSR, for maintaining the domination and utter embarrassment of American engineers and the public. Nikita Krushchev and rising Politburo member Alexei Kosygin personally met with Volynov and Shatalov. While the Americans would fly four, eight and then fourteen day flights Vostok 9's record would last for years to come. This would however, be the only Soviet Manned spaceflight of the year, allowing Americans the time to catch up.

 

[Bahamut-255]

More Vostoks? And using them specifically to test Soyuz Hardware prior to the switch-over to Soyuz itself? That should at least allow a chance to detect faults and failings in them earlier, and correct them as they show up.

 

[Michel Van]

Yes with cuts in other Projects like OKB-52 Lunar plans with UR-500/UR-700 and there LK spacecraft.
MoM can give more resource to OKB-1 programs like Vostok and new Soyuz

Off curse that Sergei Khrushchev work in OKB-1 and Chelomei arrogant and insulting way to deal with superior, play also notable role in this case

 

[SpaceGeek]

Gemini Rising, Apollo Falling

The unmanned Gemini 2 reentry mission followed the unmanned Gemini 1 orbital test on January 19th 1965 and set the stage for what was hoped to be the "American Year" of spaceflight. Unlike the previous flight Gemini 2 was suborbital rather than orbital and served as an unmanned hardware qualifications test of the heat sheild and reentry systems of Gemini. All hardware and ship systems remained in good operating conditions throughout the duration of flight. Upon return the Gemini was declared "Man-Rated" and ready for manned flight. The long waited follow-up to Project Mercury had finally ended.

NASA's response was quick and immediate. Gemini-3 rose from the immense fireball of it's launch pad on March 23rd 1965, just five days after Vostok 10. However, while it did score an enormous comparative victory for the NASA and the engineers involved anyone could tell it was less than satisfactory. The mission lasted only four hours, conducted no EVA, had a crew size of just two, did no rendezvous or docking and was little more than a shakedown test of the hardware. Still, Gus Grissom and John Young attempted to add some humour to the mix. Hoping to avoid duplication of the experience with his Mercury flight Liberty Bell 7 in which the capsule sank after splashdown, Grissom named the Gemini 3 spacecraft Molly Brown, in a playful reference to the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown. NASA management did not like this name, and asked him to change it. Grissom replied, "How about the Titanic?". The managers relented and allowed Grissom to keep Molly Brown, but this was the last Gemini flight they allowed the astronauts to name. Meanwhile John Young smuggled a Corned-Beef sandwich into space by hiding it in his suit pocket. Beyond the humorous antics of the flight it did prove the viability of the Gemini spacecraft in the face of mounting Soviet competition. NASA would need to act quick to catch up.

Gemini 4 was NASA's chance to do just that. Not only would it test the Gemini's ability to perform multiple day duration missions but would also test extra-vehicular activities and even rendezvous with it's own Titan II upper stage. All this combined would put NASA in a definite position to challenge to Soviet's space supremacy. Unfortunately the flight did not start out so well for Ed White and James McDivitt who found themselves unable to rendezvous with the Titan II upper stage left behind in LEO because of the lack of instrumentation, they couldn't tell whether they were 60 meters away or 600 meters away as they had to go entirely by eyesight estimates. The June 7th 1965 launch did not go wasted however as White gracefully performed the first American spacewalk. After a total of four days in LEO the astronauts safely splashed down and were recovered as heroes.

The next Gemini flight took off just two months later on August 21st as Gemini 5's Titan II engines roared to life on the launch pad. This time no EVA or rendezvous was planned but instead, an eight day duration mission. This was extremely important as eight days is the minimum time neccesary to reach the Moon and return to Earth. Unfortunately even this duration flight was no match to the 19 day duration flight of Vostok 10 that had taken place earlier in the year. It was also the first mission with an official mission patch. Although the crew (Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad) had wanted it to read "Eight days or Bust" NASA decided against it as they thought it would distract from the experiments onboard and cause the public to think it was a failure if it didn't reach the eight day goal. The Gemini 5 Radar Evaluation Pod was just one of the various experiments performed during the mission, a small satellite deployed by the Gemini which then floated away before Gemini 5 caught up with it again as a test of the ability to rendezvous in space.

The real test of this would come when Gemini 6 performed the first Manned Docking with the Agena Docking Target. Unfortunately it's launch onboard an Atlas-Centaur didn't go quite to plan and the vehicle ended up exploding mid-flight. This resulted in a major shift in NASA's plans. Eventually it was decided to launch Gemini 7 first followed by Gemini 6A a few days later. The two would rendezvous in LEO, coming within a few feet of each other and then Lovell and Stafford both went EVA and trade places. It would be the first crew exchange in the history of Manned spaceflight. All this would come during Gemini 7's two week duration flight. It was originally hoped this would break the Soviet endurance record but the Vostok 10 flight finished that prospect, at the very least they could still mostly catch up. Indeed that plan was carried out almost entirely to plan between the days of December 15 and 28th (spending the first Christmas in Space), 1965. The Extra-Vehicular crew exchange was televised live to a eagerly watching holiday audience (although it was cut short due to technicle complications).

Gemini 6 & 7 missions had proved the ability of the Gemini to rendezvous with another spacecraft in LEO. Unfortunately neither had the ability to dock with each other despite passing within a foot of each other. At least in appearances the Vostok had outperformed the Gemini in all fields including crew size, spacewalking activity, long duration endurance, high altitude orbits and even artificial gravity experiments. And while the Gemini rendezvous was certainly closer the Soviets had already done rendezvous with the Vostoks back in 1962, Gemini 8 would change all this. Not only would it dock to an Agena Docking Target but would also perform an extended duration EVA.

Unfortunately the mission did not go as planned. After five months the Atlas-Agena launch was without incident and the Docking Target made it successfully into the planned orbit. The accurate March 16th 1966 launch, rendezvous and docking of Gemini 8 was also performed as intended. However when Neil Armstrong and David Scott were docked, the Agena-Gemini stack began tumbling end over end. Whenever they attempted to stop the rotation it would just start up again. Undocking from the Agena only accelerated Gemini's rotation. Now spinning a one rotation per second the Astronauts were in jeopardy of losing consciousness. A firing of the re-entry thrusters ended the emergency (possibly saving both of their lives) but led to the mission being aborted right there and then. Just ten hours Gemini 8 was launched, they splashed down in the Western Pacific Ocean (some 5000 miles from their original intended landing site) and the crew was safe. The mission was a very close call and proved that more experience with docking was required before any Lunar Landing mission was attempted. Spaceflight was dangerous business, even while not in space...

Gemini 9's crew consisted of Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan. The Gemini 9 mission was hoped to successfully dock with an Agena again, without the problems associated with Gemini 8. Another goal was breaking the Soviet's spacewalking duration record set by of 45 minutes. Commander Eugene Cernan would also test the USAF's "Astronaut Manoeuvring Unit", the counterpart to the Soviet's "EVA Belt". Like on the Vostok flight See would fly up to 100 meters away from his spacecraft with only a thin safety line tethering him to the ship.

Unfortunately when it launched on June 3rd 1966 the mission hit snags as it was discovered that fairing on the Agena Docking Target had not separated making any docking impossible. This was after the mission had already been delayed from May 17th from a failure of the Atlas-Agena LV. Atleast the EVA wasn't a complete failure as an exausted See barely made it to the backpack manoeuvring unit and performed a shorter than planned EVA (ruining the objective of beating the Soviet record). Gemini 9A grudging returned having completed few of its mission objectives (except the flashy test of the AMU).

John Young (who had previously flown on Gemini 3) and Michael Collins were to pilot NASA's Gemini 10 mission, this hoped to challenge the Soviet's thousand km altitude record they had achieved on Vostok flights. The mission planners also hoped to dock with the Agena Docking Target from the Gemini 8 mission hence performing a double rendezvous/docking. This Agena's battery power had failed many months earlier and this would demonstrate the ability to rendezvous with a dormant object.

Gemini 10 achieved all these objectives and more. It was the first American space mission to perform two spacewalks, to do useful work in space and to reach an apogee of over 740 km (while still below the 1,000 km apogee achieved by Vostoks). After splashing down just three days after lift off on July 21st 1966 Gemini 10 represented a newfound hope of American leadership in the Space Race.

Gemini 11 was another decisive victory for the Americans. Its goals were ambitious including a docking on the first orbit (something required for a LOR mission) and using the Agena's own engines to ascent to a height even greater than Gemini 10's 700 km orbit. It involved gaining invaluable data on the lower Van Allen belt. Like Gemini 10 two spacewalks were planned and the crew would spin their spacecraft with a tether to test Artificial Gravity on the human body in space. This last goal echoed both the Americans and Soviet's desires for future piloted missions to Mars sometime in the future.
Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon piloted this penultimate. Conrad had previously called for using the Gemini to fly circumlunar missions prior to Apollo. This was as close as that plan would ever come to fruition. The Direct Ascent rendezvous and docking was successfully performed only 94 minutes after launch on September 12th 1966 flight. Then the Agena launched the Gemini even higher to orbit with an apogee of over 1370 km, finally breaking the 1,000 km apogee of Voskhod 3. Artificial Gravity experiments also went as planned. Two EVA's (both over two hours in duration) and a dozen scientific experiments completed and they were finally ready to come home. In three days Gemini 11 had signalled the end of unrivalled Soviet Space Supremacy.

Gemini 12 was the final manned launch of the Gemini program. While other missions had successfully performed a variety of space activities including rendezvous, docking, high altitude missions, long duration mission and even artificial gravity, one goal that had not been completed was the ability to easily perform productive work while spacewalking. New, improved restraints were added to the outside of the capsule, and a new technique—underwater training—was introduced, which would become a staple of future space-walk simulation. Aldrin's two-hour, 20-minute tethered space-walk, during which he photographed star fields, retrieved a micrometeorite collector and did other chores, at last demonstrated the feasibility of extravehicular activity. Two more stand-up EVAs also went smoothly, as did the by-now routine rendezvous and docking with an Agena which was done "manually" using the onboard computer and charts when a rendezvous radar failed. The climb to a higher orbit, however, was cancelled because of a problem with the Agena booster. The mission extended the scientific work done by Gemini 11 with fourteen scientific experiments onboard. After a four day spaceflight Gemini 12 safely splashdown and was recovered November 18th 1966.

With Gemini they had closed the gap between US and USSR in many areas and actually beaten the USSR in a few (mainly rendezvous and docking). The AS-204 mission would launch a crew of three in a Block I Apollo CSM on a Saturn IB launch vehicle in December 1966. This had since been delayed to February 21st 1967. Unfortunately tragedy struck when Gus Grissom, Ed White and Robert Chaffee, brave heroes of the American Space Program died while performing training exercises (the Plugs-Out Test) on January 27th 1967. What happened would never be fully understood, but it was believed to be a spark that had occurred below where Chaffee had been seated. The highly pressurised (16.7 psi) 100% O2 Atmosphere inside the cabin enabled the normally fire-retardant materials inside to support combustion (the Velcro and Nylon to cite examples). And the massive elevation in the cabin pressure (from 16.7 to ~29 psi) ensured that the crew was unable to escape the inferno.

Immediately after the fire, NASA convened the Apollo 204 Accident Review Board, what they realised about the Apollo CSM threw the entire programme into severe danger. To cope with the rushed schedule of the Apollo Spacecraft, corners had been cut, build quality had suffered, paperwork hadn’t been completed (and in a few cases never done), and inspections had simply not been carried out. Worst of all, in one of the bitterest ironies in living memory, the crew were unable to escape because the inward-opening hatch lacked an explosive emergency release mechanism. This had occurred because when Grissom’s Liberty 7 Mercury Capsule had sunk following his suborbital mission, it was realised that explosive hatches really were capable of activating by themselves, which had almost seen Grissom drown. That was why they had decided to forego the explosive hatch on Apollo, which had ultimately ensured that the fire would be fatal.

As a result of it's discoveries of various lethal designs and construction flaws Manned Apollo Launches were delayed by 20 months. As a result the AS-207 mission, planned to be a LEO docking between a manned CSM Block II and LM was cancelled. AS-503, originally planned for a CSM-LM docking test in medium earth orbit was also cancelled. As a result of these cancellations the Soviets now had a chance to take the lead. That same year the Americans also lost Astronaut Micheal J Adams, an X-15 pilot who's rocketplane had crashed after a high altitude ballistic spaceflight. His death was the first in spaceflight history (having crossed the 80 km boundary set by the USAF) and he will be eternally remebered for it. He was also the only American to fly into space in 1967.

1967, a year of tragedy for the United States. The birth of Apollo quickly turned to the death of Astronauts. After the series of rapid successes in long duration spaceflight, spacewalks, rendezvous & docking, multi-crew missions using the Gemini, it seemed the American Space Program had fallen back to square one with Kennedy's end of decade deadline approaching and Russians still leading.

 

[SpaceGeek]

1966, End of Korolev, End of Vostok.

The Soviet Union saw the enormous progress the Americans were making in human spaceflight with the Gemini Program and were becoming concerned. This was compounded by Sergei Korolev's failing health. Having already suffered at least one heart attack, and went on to suffer a kidney disorder, intestinal bleeding, cardiac arrhythmia, and was beginning to grow deaf.Then, not long after the Vostok 10 mission, Korolev had collapsed with severe Heart Pains, all of these ailments most likely a result of his imprisonment in the Gulag and the stresses of his position. He was forced by his doctors to take rest and his deputy of nearly 20 years, Vasily Mishin took over the Vostok Program. While a very capable engineer and aware of the inner workings of the Soviet Government - having been Korolev’s right-hand man - he did not have the same charisma nor was he as politically savvy as his Boss, nonetheless, he pushed on with the tasks as best as he was able to.

Just a month before the Vostok mission was scheduled to launch Korolev had checked himself into a Moscow hospital for colon surgery, he had been diagnosed with Cancer earlier in the year but had kept this a secret from his colleagues. The Soviet Minister of Health, Boris Petrovsky, despite having little skill with the particular operation, had elected to lead it himself, perhaps a sign of how highly valued Korolev was to the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, a massive tumour had been discovered, and in their attempts to remove it, kept Korolev under anaesthetic for a little over five hours. His weak heart was unable to endure the ordeal and on the January 14th 1966, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev died on the operating table.

In his memory the R-7 carrying Vostok 12 cannon balled into the depths of outer space, February 22nd 1966 (there never was a Vostok 11 because of designation complications resulting from the unmanned Kosmos test launch). Commander Georgi Beregovoy and Flight Engineer Georgi Petrovich were both rookies having never flown a single spaceflight before this. Now they were expected to complete a whole variety of taks including artificial gravity, medical, military, and other experiments. The Mission also cleared a new duration record of 21 days (beating Vostok 10's record by 2 days) before Beregovoy took yet another iconic Soviet Spacewalk. The somewhat weakened crew returned to Earth after multiple malfunctions in the heating/cooling system, air circulation system, landing/guidance systems and worst of all, toilet. But they were alive and that alone was worth celebration.

During Vostok 12 and Vostok 13 something of note occured in the NASA human spaceflight program. Gemini 8, piloted by Neil Armstrong and David R Scott performed the first successful in space docking. Like the prevous rendezvous this was something only the planned Soyuz spacecraft could replicate, a task neccessary for the Manned Lunar Orbit rendezvous profile chosen by both the US and USSR for their first lunar missions.

Vostok 13 would be the final Vostok spaceflight. The longest and proudest human spaceflight program at the time it had performed the first Human spaceflights, first Orbital spaceflight, first spacewalk, first multi day and eventually multi-week flight, the first multi-person spaceflight and had launched the first Women into space. The reason for it's cancellation was primarily linked to the death of Korolev and Mishin's inability to continue the production run. Just getting Vostok 13 to fly was a significant struggle while the fact it would be the last was a foregone conclusion.

Yevgeni Khrunov (Commander) and Anatoli Voronov (Flight Engineer) would both pilot this final Vostok flight. And so, on May 20th 1966 the Soviet Union launched it's final Manned R-7 into the sunrise. Another 20 day mission, this one would hope to wrap up the entire Vostok Program in pride and glory. After performign multiple bio-readings and medical examinations on May 25th, 1966 Khrunov tested a new kind of propulsion mechanism for spacewalks. The so-called "EVA belt" allowed him to travel over 100 meters from his capsule connected only by a thin safety line. Performing multiple spacewalks over the coarse of the mission the crew settled in for the remaining two weeks of their mission before finally making a Russian Style "hard landing" on June 9th 1966. With the Vostok programme, the first human spaceflight program in human history, complete the Soviets were without a human spaceflight vehicle untill they could successfully launch the Soyuz. 1966 also saw the end of the Gemini program. The race between Soyuz and Apollo was now on! With long duration, spacewalking, multi-crew and hardware experience having grown immensly on both sides, 1967 would be a year of tragedy and triumpth.

 

[Michel Van]

New Rocket In USSR

The US side of the Story...
In May 1962, the CIA noticed on reconnaissance satellite pictures, an increase of activity at OKB-1 factory, also with the begining of construction work on Baikonur and Pelsectsk
At Baikonur they erected a huge building in size 720 ft by 343 ft (220 by 125 meters)
It was connected by Railway to series of Launch Pads built North East of that new complex. Two pads were huge, in size for Saturn V the USA was building !
Then in 1964 a US reconnaissance satellite picture, how out this gigantic hall roledl out a puny Rockets to launch pad
The CIA reconnaissance group got laughing fits about this, the rocket analyst of CIA din’t laugh. That was a completely New Soviet Rocket !
Conical in form, about 106 ft (33 meter) it was launch successful in August 1964 according NORAD.
July 1965 the CIA reconnaissance group stoped laughing, as a new bigger rocket was rolled out of that hall, double in length as „Puny Rocket“, That was more serious.
In 1966 to surprise of World Press, the Soviet presented a complete Vostock Rocket on Biggin Hill International Air Fair[1]
Labeling it a discontinued model, now it was a sure thing the Soviet were replacing their Launch rockets with something new.
1966 October after series of Test launches the two new rocket got official named by Soviet TASS[2]
The smaller was official label as „Soyuz Rocket“ as it launch the New Soyuz spacecraft soon.
The bigger was called „Proton“ after the astronomy satellites with same name, it had launch four times.
Finally in 1967 the CIA reconnaissance group stared to gape on a Picture, this time the soviets pulled out a Huge Rocket… one in size of Saturn V !


The Soviet side of the Story…
in 1961 Sergei Korolev had proposed a Modular rocket family simply called „Nositjel“ (Launch vehicle) were the upper stage function as launch rocket.
MoM (abreviation for the new centralized Soviet Space Agency) studied the proposal together with Chelomei Universal Rocket and R-56 Booster by Yangel
But the two were refused to huge amount of Toxic fuel used on those rockets, leading to higher cost compare to Korolev „Launcher“, who could use the existing propellant facility at the launch sites.
so in 1962 became „Nositjel 1/2/3“ official the new launcher Family of USSR.
In 1963 Sergei Khrushchev finalized the engine specification for N1/2/3 rocket to be build by the OKB-276.
Using for N3, the NK-9 from R-9 with 392kN and for N2 and N1 the NK-15 with 2120 kN thrust,
This would reduce the risk of Pogo on Launcher by minimized the first stage engine 6 to 16
By launching the smaller version of „Nositjel“ the N3 and N2, it would reduce the Test program allot instead of 12 test launches with the complete N1 proposed by Vasily Mishin.
Actually each model would do 4 test flights, eliminating possible delays true N1 construction.
with success in 1965 the N3 called „Soyuz“ and 1966 N2 called „Proton“ went into service.
but on 14 January 1966 the program undergo trouble as Sergai Paviovich Korolev died. In March the Politburo designated Sergei Khrushchev as new Head of OKB-1 [4]

[1] The soviet union boycott the Paris Air Show from 1961 to 1982 because of the Brezhnev Incident.
[2] Telegraph Agency of soviet Union, Is for distribution of internal and international news for all Soviets media.
[3] POGO is term for a dangerous self-excited combustion oscillation in liquid fuel rockets, causing in extrem situation the destruction of the vehicle during flight.
[4] Vasily Mishin's cynical comment on this decision: „well we don’t need to replace the Initials...“

 

[Michel Van]

Soyuz

For the new Director of OKB-1, Sergei Khrushchev did not have it easy after the death of Korolev.
The N1 lunar booster had the Soyuz program also had serious problems
The Original design was for a payload of 75 tons, now the Lunar complex had grown to 95 tons.
Meanwhile the N1 had to be adapted for the Lunar complex.
The number of 16 engine in Block A went to 22 NK-15 engines, the propellant are supercooled to load more in Tank volume.
To make matter worst the second stage had to be adapted too for N1 with 7 engine instead of 6 on Proton rocket.

The new manned spacecraft Soyuz had also R&D problems, especially in components not tested on Vostok flights.
The first test flight of Soyuz 7K-OK earth orbit spacecraft. A planned 'all up' test, with a second Soyuz to be launched the following day and automatically dock with Kosmos 133.
This was to be followed by a manned link-up in December 1966. However Kosmos 133's attitude control system malfunctioned, resulting in rapid consumption of orientation fuel, leaving it spinning at 2 rpm.
After heroic efforts by ground control and five attempts at retrofire over two days, the craft was finally brought down for a landing on its 33rd revolution. However due to the inaccuracy of the reentry burn, it was determined that the capsule would land in China.
The APO self destruct system detected the course deviation and was thought to have destroyed the ship on November 30, 1966 at 10:21 GMT.
But stories persisted over the years of the Chinese having a Soyuz capsule in their possession.

Second attempted flight of Soyuz 7K-OK (Kosmos 134). Was analogous to the Mercury Redstone's 'day we launched the tower' but with more disastrous consequences. The first stage not ignited, A launcher shutdown was commanded.
The service towers were brought back around the vehicle and ground crew began work to defuel the launch vehicle. At 27 minutes after the original launch attempt, the Soyuz launch escape system, having received the signal that liftoff had occurred, detected that the booster was not on course (either because a tower arm nudged the booster or because the earth's rotation as detected by the gyros had moved the spacecraft out of limits relative to its original inertial position).
The launch escape system ignited, pulling the Soyuz away from the booster, igniting the third stage fuel tanks, leading to an explosion that severely damaged the pad and killed at least one person and injured many others.

After this two failures, the state commission ruled that the third 7K-OK model would be flown unpiloted on a solo mission.
If this was successful then the fourth and fifth Soyuz would be flown a manned docking mission. Once in orbit Cosmos 140 experienced attitude control problems due to a faulty star sensor resulting in excessive fuel consumption. The spacecraft couldn't keep the required orientation towards the sun to keep the solar panels illuminated, and the batteries discharged. Despite all of these problems the spacecraft remained controllable. An attempted maneuver on the 22nd revolution still showed problems with the control system. It malfunctioned yet again during retrofire, leading to a steeper than planned uncontrolled ballistic re-entry. The re-entry capsule itself had depressurised on separation from the service module due to a fault in the base of the capsule. A 300 mm hole burned through in the heat shield during re-entry.
Although such events would have been lethal to any human occupants, the capsule's recovery systems operated and the capsule crashed through the ice of the frozen Aral Sea, 3 km from shore and 500 kilometres short of the intended landing zone. The spacecraft finally sank in 10 meters of water and had to be retrieved by divers.
After the close-calls of the Vostok missions that nearly killed cosmonauts on three separate missions, OKB-1 was forced to proceed with another series of unmanned test launches.

Prior to launch of Kosmos 156, the next unmanned earth orbit Soyuz test, engineers are said to have reported 203 design faults with the craft. Problems began shortly after launch when one solar panel failed to unfold, leading to a shortage of power for the spacecraft's systems. To make matters worse the launch of Kosmos 157 which was scheduled to perform an unmanned docking was cancelled because of bad weather, ruining any chances of a docking attempt. Further problems with the orientation detectors complicated maneuvering the craft. By orbit 13, the automatic stabilization system was completely dead. After 18 orbits, Kosmos 156 fired its retrorockets and reentered the Earth's atmosphere. Despite the technical difficulties up to that point, the capsule might still have landed safely. To slow the descent, first the drogue parachute was deployed, followed by the main parachute. However, the main parachute did not unfold; when preparing the spacecraft, the heat shield was made thicker and therefore heavier, and the main parachute similarly larger. The container where it was kept was not enlarged, and the main parachute had to be forced inside using wooden hammers.
Flight controllers then activated the reserve chute, but it became tangled with the drogue chute, which did not release as intended. As a result, the Soyuz reentry module fell to Earth in Orenburg Oblast almost entirely unimpeded, at about 40 m/s (140 km/h; 89 mph); At impact there was an explosion and an intense fire that engulfed the capsule. Had a cosmonaut been onboard, he certainly would have died on impact and if both spacecraft had been able to launch, both would have been destroyed (potentially killing all four cosmonauts).
However despite this major setback, the mission ironically succeed in a different way, it improved Soviet quality-control and gave the leadership a rude awakening as to how unprepared for human flight they were.
A manned L1 circumlunar flyby by the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution was was now completely out of the question and at best they might be able to have the earth orbit Soyuz 7K-OK ready for a dual manned rendezvous/docking.

On September 27 and November 22, 1967 the next pair of unmanned Soyuz 7K-L1 flights launched on N2 Proton launch vehicles, Zond 4 & 5. These missions included the full Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft. While both did manage to complete their missions, flying within 2,000 kilometers of the Moon (also unlike the prototypes which only performed highly-ellptical earth orbits). Zond 4's guidance system failed as it landed over the Indian Ocean rather than over Russia, while Zond 5 suffered the exact same failure to occure a second time. Both spacecraft's self destruct systems were activated after parachute deployment to prevent the hardware from being picked up by a foreign nation. However despite this setback the parachute worked excellently, and the overall mission was a success, giving Sergei Khrushchev the confidence to authorize the next two Soyuz 7K-OK launches to be manned in a joint docking attempt. And even though they had obviously missed the 50th Anniversary of the October Revolution, it at least allowed a manned rendezvous and docking, and if that all went to plan they had greater ambitions for year's end.

Soyuz 1 launched on November 27, 1967 crewed by Sergei Komarov while Soyuz 2 launched on November 30, 1967 crewed by Bykovsky, Khrunov, Yeliseyev.
Mutual search, approach, mooring, and docking was performed entirely automatically by the IGLA-system on board Soyuz 1. After the first attempt failed (a fly-by at a distance of 900 m), the second attempt succeeded over the South Atlantic. However, this docking was not entirely successful either - the modules were mechanically docked, but not electrically. Also, the maneuver had cost more fuel than anticipated. Khrunov and Yeliseyev then doned spacesuits which had been much improved since the near-death EVA of Alexei Leonov, and proceeded to spacewalk from Soyuz 2 to Soyuz 1 so they could transfer vehicles and land with Komarov, the world's first crew-exchange in spaceflight history. After 3.5 hours of joint flight, the spacecraft parted on a command sent from the earth and continued to orbit separately. Officially, both made a soft landing in a predetermined region of the Soviet Union. However it was later reported that one landed of-coarse in another country before the cosmonauts were recovered although the Soviet Government to this day restricts information about the incident.

 

[Astronomo2010]

its back and improved , subscribed , i do wonder after the US lands on the Moon , if the future space stations and Moon bases , will be Join programs between NASA/ESA . Cant hardly wait for the next chapters .

 

[1965 Timelord]

Well, no first contact but will AI become possible

I guess you don't want to have this timeline to have first contact with aliens. But will you still allow AI software and hardware to exist?

 

[Michel Van]

I guess you don't want to have this timeline to have first contact with aliens. But will you still allow AI software and hardware to exist?

he, he, wait and see

Allot of stuff we see in 2001: A Space Odyssey became real hardware
like Clark Newspad from Novel, under Kubrick became IBM tablet with multimedia function...

read this interesting article "Did Stanley Kubrick invent the iPad?" for more information.

The computer hardware inside movie cam from advisors of IBM, Honeywell, Philco Corp and Eliot Noyes & Associates.
Honeywell envision this attache case computer with 1966 technology

it has a computer, data Storage system in micro format, color TV set, TV camera, Telephone and Printer
today is called a Laptop (although it's missing build in printer...)

 

[Medicus]

Glad to see this is back! Really enjoying the revised timeline, seems much more plausible, although I'm not sure about Sergei Khrushchev taking over as head of OKB-1 after Korolev. Isn't he a bit too young and inexperienced for it, an obvious example of nepotism? Perhaps Mishin should have taken over as he did IOTL, with Sergei Khrushchev as his deputy? Just a thought.

I wonder what ramifications that Soyuz capsule in Chinese hands will have. Perhaps an earlier, more ambitions Chinese space program?

 

[SpaceGeek]

Oh, it's interesting you should mention that.
You'l see.

 

[SpaceGeek]

Falling from Space

On February 2, 1966, in his second attempt, Nick Piantanida launched in his Strato Jump II balloon from Joe Foss Field near Sioux Falls, South Dakota and reached an unprecedented altitude of 123,500 feet. From that height he disconnected his oxygen line and parachuted from the balloon to set a world record for the highest parachute jump. The story was picked up by Time magazine and reached millions of people around the United States. At the height of the Space Race, it was an exciting event and it echoed the possibility that perhaps, one day, ordinary people and non just trained test-pilots would be able to take real flights into space, to orbit, the moon and beyond. In the next few years other skydivers followed attempting to beat his record, which they did but Nick is remembered because unlike the previous record Joseph Kittenger (part of US Airforce Project Excalibur) he was the first to do so privately and just a few years later companies began offering low cost balloon flights to the stratosphere, giving ordinary people the possibility to see the curvature of the earth and the blackness of space for flights lasting for several hours for a few tens of thousands of dollars, trips that thousands would take in their lifetimes. Soon high altitude stratospheric flight went from being the province only of test pilots to the average person or adventure junky. In total, Piantanida's stratospheric flight costed just $120,000 and was funeded entirely privately by the donations of thousands of citizens he had contacted in a letter writting campaign. Many call him the Charles Lindbergh of stratospheric "edge of space" flights. The Space Age had begun, for the rest of us.

The gondola of the Strato Jump II flight is preserved and displayed in the Boeing Aviation Hangar at the SmithsonianNational Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia

Earth from 120,000 feet.

[1] In OTL Piantanida's second attempt was successful in reach 123,500 feet but he couldn't disconnect his oxygen line and so had to abort the jump. On his third attept he depressurized at 56,000 feet, fell into a coma and died 3 months later. If he had succeeded, the equivelant Felix Baumgartner's space skydive would have happened 46 years earlier and the idea of commercial stratospheric balloon flights (with tourists paying tens-hundreds of thousands of dollars to see the view of earth from 120,000 feet) might have taken off in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

 

[Astronomo2010]

great new chapter, fortunately he was successful in this timeline . lets see the Impact it will have on Space Tourism. Lets see Also the Formation of The European Space Agency . Cant hardly wait for the next chapters .