1962 in Soviet space program
Korolev works for TASS
Chelomei's work is crap
Yangel work for us!
- old Soviet saying about lunar missions.
Chelomei's work is crap
Yangel work for us!
- old Soviet saying about lunar missions.
Despite initial confirmation of Nositiel rockets project, Politburo together with aerospace engineers were sceptical about whole project. In order to fulfill aim of lunar landing Korolev keeped adding more and more engines to his N-1 project whith great risk - the more engines you add, more will suffer from malfunctions. At first, only alternative to Nositiel rockets were UR series projected by Chelomei which were "diagnosed" as too dangerous to ecosystem even by Soviet standards. He had no experience with building big rockets with toxic fuels and in case of single explosion, Baikonur flight would be stopped for few months if not years until it'd be decontaminated. In early 1962 Mikhail Yangel, engineer known from creation of first successful true Soviet ICBM R-16 which was tested on October 24th, 1960 presented project of R-56 heavy booster planned for launching 40,000 kilograms into space with opportunity for later upgraded in order to gain better performance. Knowing that single OKB can not fulfill aim of sending people on the Moon before end of 1960s decade (even Korolev's or Chelomei's ones) he proposed cooperation between Vladimir Glushko who would be responsible for creation of RD-270 - the most powerful engine ever seen in Soviet Union, his military OKB which would build launcher for Korolev's Soyuz spacecraft and manned module while Chelomei would work over unmanned parts of planned spaceship. Initially Korolev said that he would not work with Glushko (I will rather kill this poisonous snake that help him) due to their conflict from 1930s (when Glushko denounced Korolev and sent him to Kolyma gold mine) but was convinced by his collaborators Sergei Khrushchev (son of Nikita Khrushchev) and Vasily Mishin to accept offer and hide his pride at least until Soviet man will stand on the Moon (Comrade Korolev, you can kill Glushko[1] after we land on the Moon, not before. Now he is needed for our project). Marshall Nedelin[2] assured support from Soviet Strategic Forces and convinced Politburo to confirm project.
Development of R-56 began on June 1962 quickly followed by Glushko's RD-270 design, Korolev's Soyuz A and LK-1 together with Chelomei's Zond module. Flow of money from Politburo was assured by personal connections between Nikita and Sergei Khrushchev who later became strong advocate of pro-space program policy but on April 8th, 1966 when 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union prioritized space industry allowing Heavy Artillery Test Bureau (Soviet Space Agency) to greatly expand its projects including additional unmanned missions on the Moon and including additional launch for Moon landing to deliver rover (which would be later manned by cosmonaut) on its surface.
Every chief engineer wanted his work to be better than his collaborator work. Glushko ordered his men to work in three eight-hour shifts, on 1968 changed to two 12-hour shifts while alone worked even 24 hour per day in order to improve his work. All things were tested several times in various conditions in order to make it perfect working and embarrass other engineers that their work was worse. Sergei Korolev worked very hard in order to not only make working Soyuz spacecraft but also teach young engineers to take his place after his death. He had habit of taking his students (including Sergei Khrushchev) to factory where spacecraft was being made and showing and explaining to them every part of the ship. When his health was getting worse, he was forced by his students to take rest and go to Sochi in order to feel better.
1962 was witness of the another breakthroughs - Vostok 3 with Valery Bykovsky was sent into space on 14th August 1962 where cosmonaut spent week - seven days in Low Earth Orbit - record beaten by NASA several years later during Gemini program. 48 hours later Vladimir Komarov was launched into space and performed first visual contact between two spacecrafts while in space - Vostok 3 and 4 met with in 5 kilometers distance. Western press embranced this as Soviet rendezvous in space and caused acceleration of American space program. On 24th June 1962[3] John Glenn became first American astronaut to orbit Earth onboard Mercury-Atlas 6 spaceflight. He was followed by Scott Carpenter's Mercury Atlas 7 flight on 15th August 1962. For the first time Americans and Soviets were in space at the same time. After these flights Nikita Khrushchev joked that Valery Bykovsky was in space longer than every American astronauts' time combined. His quote was publicized in United States and caused some uproar among Americans.
[1] I don't like him either. I have for him not-brightest future in plans
[2] He survived October 24, 1960 with hundred other people including officers and engineers who worked on R-16 rocket. Their experience ATL allowed to project R-56 earlier and better in terms of quality than OTL. Yangel ATL is considered as successful, reliable engineer who created modern Soviet ICBMs who can do good-quality rockets.
[3] Flights in American space program were delayed by death of Alan Shepard and investigation of accident's causes. Gus Grissom became first American space on 28th November 1961 and nearly drowned when hatch opened itself after landing which caused many people to think that people should stay on Earth and God is giving signs that we should not leave atmosphere. Glenn's flight was delayed too due to looking for causes of self-opening hatch. It's later but safer than OTL so NASA will benefit from this slightly later in 1960s. Safety procedures were improved after this two accidents.
