Wow, this TL is really cool. If they continue for a few years, I think it'll be funny if they plant a bunch of Soviet flags on the moon during the US Bicentennial...
Airplanes? That's like, suborbital stuff, right?? I've done a couple over the years (e.g. the alternate Air Force One from Kolyma's Shadow), but it's not my area of focus. The art so far is all my own, except for book covers and the diagram taken from the Presidential Briefing in the last post. I'm hoping to showcase some illustrations from another talented artist later in the TL.Also from my understanding you did the art yourself... is that correct?
Any chance you also understand about airplanes (combat and so on ?).
As always the illustrations are amazing, after a very close shave N1-7L is still ascending and hopefully the explosive demise of Blok-A (I assume they have telemetry telling them about the fire?) won't have damaged Blok-B. Of course we're now into the realm of pure AH as no one knows what gremlins were hiding in the remaining stages of the N1 system as none of them were ever put to the test thanks to the repeated failures of the first stage.
Damn, if only this had come out earlier, we could have stolen the renders for SSGL!
All jokes aside, excellent update! I'm dearly hoping that the upper stages work...
Poor Blok-A just can't ever have a flawless liftoff. Maybe the NK-30s will be better off. Excellent post!
Nice update. Especially like that 3rd Image showing the Fire-In-The-Hole Staging Event - though it appears that (unless it's a trick from the flame plume) the Block A is already being torn apart.
That's from the real report. The CIA apparently remained unaware of the 3L launch for some time.And a nice touch on how the US Intelligence Agencies determined N1-5L to be the first launch of the system and not N1-3L - IIRC UK Agencies did spot the 3L launch, but weren't believed.
Staging the shutdown of the centre engines was the plan for later N-1s, though IOTL they never got the chance to demonstrate it.POGO. I do wonder which is the greater nightmare for these designers. That or Combustion Instability.
But, given that shutting down the centre engines at once appears to have been the originator of this particular episode [1], I have to ask, would sequencing the engine shutdown in pairs help to at least mitigate it?
Thanks!The sense of anxiety about this flight was really well conveyed, really awesome stuff here. Looking forward to more in the future!
Let's see...Wow, this TL is really cool. If they continue for a few years, I think it'll be funny if they plant a bunch of Soviet flags on the moon during the US Bicentennial...
We'll definately be exploring this in future updates.Cool TL, I do wonder how the Soviets continuing with the N1 will impact US space plans? Will they press ahead with the STS or look at some sort of Saturn derived booster?
Will we see alternate sci-fi about Soviets travelling into prehistoric time and causing time waves in the present? 👉👈It also lets me reference Bradbury for my timeline’s title.
Yes, ITTL the T-72 will be phased out by 1980 and the opening thrust into West Germany will be spearheaded by these things:Will we see alternate sci-fi about Soviets travelling into prehistoric time and causing time waves in the present? 👉👈
“In accordance with the space research programme, automated probe Zond 9 has successfully completed its mission and has entered a solar orbit as an artificial planet. According to telemetric data, all the systems and assemblies on board and the scientific equipment functioned as designed. Scientists are analysing the results, which will further our understanding of the Moon and deep space.”
When you’re so geeky you alter Clark’s book for your own needs. Peak space geekiness,amirite?
Interlude : The View from the West
- Excerpt from “The Soviet Manned Space Programme”, by Phillip Clark, published by Salamander, London, 1988.
The Giant Booster
For any manned lunar mission there is one further vital element required: a booster in the Saturn V class. No such booster placed a Soviet payload in orbit during 1968-1971, although there were intelligence reports that two large boosters (Type-G or SL-15 vehicles) were prepared for flight. The first is believed to have exploded on the launch pad on 3-4 July 1969 while being fuelled in readiness for launch. The second was launched on 24-25 March 1971 but disintegrated at an altitude of about 12km.[1] Then, on 12 June 1972 Moscow Radio announced that a new heavy lift rocket named Groza had been successfully launched from “Baikonur Cosmodrome”. This was the first Soviet admission that they had a large booster under development.
Although few details were announced at the time, the Soviet Union has since released a considerable amount of information on the rocket. In its basic form the Groza[2] SL-15 is a three stage vehicle, with all stages using liquid oxygen and kerosene (a propellant combination which was used on the Sputnik-Vostok-Soyuz family of launch vehicles). The first stage is powered by 30 engines from the Kuznetsov Bureau, with a combined thrust of 4,600 tonnes. The second and third stages use engines of a similar type, with eight on the second stage and four engines on the third stage. For the initial launches, two further upper stages were used. The fourth stage was used to place the payload into a parking orbit and later provided the impulse needed to place the payload on a trans-lunar trajectory. The fifth stage was used for deep space manoeuvres and was identical to the upper stage previously flown with the Proton SL-12 rocket. These fourth and fifth stages were later replaced by a single oxygen-hydrogen stage.
Zond 9
The payload for the first Groza launch was Zond 9. Despite sharing a designation with the earlier unmanned circumlunar spacecraft, it is clear that Zond 9 was a new design much larger than the previous probes in the series. After completing two orbits of the Earth, Zond 9 was placed onto a lunar trajectory by the Groza fourth stage, which was then observed to separate from the payload. A course correction manoeuvre was applied on 15 June at a distance of 320 thousand km from Earth. It was widely expected that Zond 9 would enter lunar orbit, but no further manoeuvres were performed and the craft passed behind the Moon on 16 June at a minimum distance of 2,800km. Radio telemetry continued to be received from the probe until 22 June, after which all contact was lost. The Soviets made the following official announcement regarding the mission:
“In accordance with the space research programme, automated probe Zond 9 has successfully completed its mission and has entered a solar orbit as an artificial planet. According to telemetric data, all the systems and assemblies on board and the scientific equipment functioned as designed. Scientists are analysing the results, which will further our understanding of the Moon and deep space.”
Official Soviet sources have provided few details of this “Heavy Zond”, but many Western observers believe this was an unmanned test of hardware for a lunar landing system for cosmonauts.
++++++++++++++++++++
[1] This is all verbatim as identified in the OTL book. Apparently, even as late as 1987, Western civilian Soviet-watchers remained unaware of the N1-3L launch in February 1969.
[2] IOTL of course, N-1 never got a true name, and indeed was kept secret for years. Soviet practice was usually to name their rockets once they went operational, often taking the name from their first payload (e.g. Vostok, Molniya, Proton). Energia only got its name a few days before launch. ITTL, with a successful launch, the Soviet authorities want a name to put on the press releases, and this is it.
The name Groza (Гроза, pronounced “Grah-zah”) means “Thunderstorm”, fitting into an OTL trend of Soviet space vehicles being named for violent weather events, as well as being the name of a politically relevant play, which was popular with both the Communist Party and the public.
It also lets me reference Bradbury for my timeline’s title.
I considered using the name “Raskat”, which is the name of the N-1 launch complex and is usually translated as “peal of thunder”, but after consulting with a Russian friend I discovered that it’s also a term widely used for “steamroller”, which didn’t quite have the space-age feel I was looking for.
Brain-boxed tyrannosaurs pouring through the Fulda Gap? Call John Hammond. There cannot be a Dinosaur Gap! ...or a Dyna-Soar Gap, for that matter.Yes, ITTL the T-72 will be phased out by 1980 and the opening thrust into West Germany will be spearheaded by these things:
- Excerpt from “The Soviet Manned Space Programme”, by Phillip Clark, published by Salamander, London, 1988.
When you’re so geeky you alter Clark’s book for your own needs. Peak space geekiness,amirite?
I did not know that, thanks!As an additional linguistic note, "Groza" shares a root with "Grozny," meaning "terrible, horrible," and most famous as the epithet for Ivan IV. So if one stretches, it's also kind of in keeping with the custom of naming very large things the "Tsar [$Object]."
I do hope you're not suggesting that the Soviet Union might be lying to the world about the success of its space missions! As a side note, the text of that announcement was adapted from the official launch announcements given IOTL for Zond 4 and 5, as reported by Clark.Still Groza has clearly worked this time despite the issues with the first stage and it clearly remains in service long enough to get upgrades.
TRANSLATION: Automated probe Zond 9 has failed its mission and missed the moon. We don't have telemetric data, so at least some of the systems and assemblies on board and the scientific equipment did not function as designed. Scientists are analysing the results, which will further our understanding of what went wrong, we suspect quality control. Still at least the rocket worked.
When you’re so geeky you alter Clark’s book for your own needs. Peak space geekiness,amirite?
I first came across this book around 1991 in my local library, and it was a real eye opener. "Glasnost" meant that there were already a lot more details available than a few years previously, but the N-1 and the L3 programme was still shrouded in mystery. I managed to pick up a second hand copy a few years ago, and it's fascinating to read now what they managed to get right (e.g. the basic L3 mission profile), and what they missed the mark with (e.g. N-1 using the Proton 2nd and 3rd stages as upper stages, rather than the real use of the N-1 Blok-D on Proton). It also has a fascinating speculation on a crewed Mars mission using Energia (which had launched the year before the book was published, while Buran went up shortly afterwards, and so isn't described in as great detail).Damn I loved that book.
It was quite an amazing book, despite it's issues caused by lack of sources because of cold war era.
I would never allow a Dynasoar gap!Brain-boxed tyrannosaurs pouring through the Fulda Gap? Call John Hammond. There cannot be a Dinosaur Gap! ...or a Dyna-Soar Gap, for that matter.
A working Block-D, a working Soyuz LOK, and a Dummy LK according to the N1-7L image, but did not enter LLO.
Leads me to believe in one of the following three possibilities:
- Block-D failure during trans-Lunar coast phase. IIRC Block-D did fail on occasion so not implausible to me
- Lack of propellant reserve to complete the mission. The near-complete lack of reserve margin would suggest to me that any issue with the prior stages would leave the system unable to perform the full mission.
- It was the plan all along. Always a possibility, though losing all telemetry data after 10 days tells me that there's still bugs in the Soyuz LOK.
It's the Eighties, mind you. This means Dyna-Soar might just have reached its peak evolution: The suborbital bomber the USAF's had blue balls over for half-a-century now.I would never allow a Dynasoar gap!
I first came across this book around 1991 in my local library, and it was a real eye opener. "Glasnost" meant that there were already a lot more details available than a few years previously, but the N-1 and the L3 programme was still shrouded in mystery. I managed to pick up a second hand copy a few years ago, and it's fascinating to read now what they managed to get right (e.g. the basic L3 mission profile), and what they missed the mark with (e.g. N-1 using the Proton 2nd and 3rd stages as upper stages, rather than the real use of the N-1 Blok-D on Proton). It also has a fascinating speculation on a crewed Mars mission using Energia (which had launched the year before the book was published, while Buran went up shortly afterwards, and so isn't described in as great detail).
Yes, that was the Soyuz-A/B/V system, which was a real proposal from Korolev for a circumlunar mission. The Soyuz-B tug would be fueled by up to 4 Soyuz-V tankers and push a crewed Soyuz-A spacecraft around the moon, all launched by R7.Didn't it also have some absolutely batty multiple launch lunar orbital mission profile using some sorta Soyuz variant and fuel tankers and stuff?
Something tells me that a preventable accident is still going to occur. Doesn't look like they're making the switch to wearing pressure suits yet, perhaps they'll risk it for Soyuz 12 then switch to two-person crews with pressure suits for Soyuz 13.Great update! Delighted to see that Soyuz 11 has a much happier outcome ITTL