The Soviet space program (Russian: Космическая программа СССР, romanized: Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Unlike its Space Race competitor, the United States, which consolidated its space program under NASA, the Soviet space program was divided between several competing design bureaus led by Korolev, Kerimov, Keldysh, Yangel, Glushko, Chelomey, Makeyev, Chertok and Reshetnev, often under the Ministry of General Machine-Building. The program was an important part of the Soviet claim to superpower status. From the 1890s, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky pioneered the fields of astronautics and rocketry. Soviet rocketry began with the Gas Dynamics Laboratory in 1921, and these endeavors expanded during the 1930s and 1940s. After the surrender of Nazi Germany, German V-2 rocket technology and expertise was utilized by Soviet and by US aerospace alike; Soviet spaceflight began with the derivative R-1 missile tests in 1948. In the 1950s, the Soviet program was formalized, led by Sergei Korolev. The Soviet space program set many records in space exploration. In 1957, it achieved the first intercontinental missile (R-7 "Semyorka"), orbital launch vehicle (Sputnik), artificial satellite (Sputnik 1), and animal in Earth orbit (Laika the dog). From 1961, the Vostok and Voskhod programs achieved the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin), woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova), multi-crew spaceflight, and spacewalk. Cancelled Soviet crewed lunar programs centered on the N1 super heavy-lift rocket. The Salyut program (1971–1986) operated six crewed space stations, including the world's first, Salyut 1. The first modular station, Mir (1986–2000), grew to seven pressurized modules. The Interkosmos program sent the first citizens of sixteen countries into space. The Energia super heavy-lift rocket and Buran spaceplane, a response to the US Space Shuttle, were briefly flown in the late 1980s. Soviet computerized robotic missions achieved further milestones. The Luna program launched to the Moon, from 1959–70, the first flyby, impactor, imaging of its far side, soft landing, animals, and robotic sample return; the Lunokhod program deployed the first two robotic lunar rovers from 1970. The Venera and Mars programs launched the first interplanetary probes. Venus missions achieved the first flyby, first impact, first soft landing, first surface imaging, and first atmospheric flight on another planet. Soviet probes also made the first impact and soft landing on Mars. The program provided key Soviet military systems during the Cold War, via satellites such as Zenit for reconnaissance, Tselina for signals intelligence, Oko for early warning, and US-A for naval radar. Soviet space industry contested the US in experimental technologies such as electric propulsion, fission-powered spacecraft, nuclear thermal rockets, and space weapons such as the Almaz space stations and Polyus laser. The program was primarily succeeded by Russia's Roscosmos, as well as Ukraine's State Space Agency. The program's legacy includes Roscosmos' segment of the International Space Station, Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, Soyuz and Proton rocket families, and the GLONASS satellite navigation system. Internationally, Soviet designs were adapted to the Chinese Shenzhou crew vehicle and widely-used RD-170 engine variants. The largest Soviet cosmodrome, Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, is now under lease to Russia; Plesetsk continues to launch primarily military satellites into polar orbit.
Origins
Early Russian-Soviet efforts
The theory of space exploration had a solid basis in the Russian Empire before the First World War with the writings of the Russian and Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935), who published pioneering papers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on astronautic theory, including calculating the Rocket equation and in 1929 introduced the concept of the multistaged rocket. Additional astronautic and spaceflight theory was also provided by the Ukrainian and Soviet engineer and mathematician Yuri Kondratyuk who developed the first known lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR), a key concept for landing and return spaceflight from Earth to the Moon. The LOR was later used for the plotting of the first actual human spaceflight to the Moon. Many other aspects of spaceflight and space exploration are covered in his works. Both theoretical and practical aspects of spaceflight were also provided by the Latvian pioneer of rocketry and spaceflight Friedrich Zander, including suggesting in a 1925 paper that a spacecraft traveling between two planets could be accelerated at the beginning of its trajectory and decelerated at the end of its trajectory by using the gravity of the two planets' moons – a method known as gravity assist.
Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL)
The first Soviet development of rockets was in 1921, when the Soviet military sanctioned the commencement of a small research laboratory to explore solid fuel rockets, led by Nikolai Tikhomirov, a chemical engineer, and supported by Vladimir Artemyev, a Soviet engineer. Tikhomirov had commenced studying solid and Liquid-fueled rockets in 1894, and in 1915, he lodged a patent for "self-propelled aerial and water-surface mines." In 1928 the laboratory was renamed the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL). The First test-firing of a solid fuel rocket was carried out in March 1928, which flew for about 1,300 meters Further developments in the early 1930s were led by Georgy Langemak. and 1932 in-air test firings of RS-82 unguided rockets from a Tupolev I-4 aircraft armed with six launchers successfully took place.
Sergey Korolev
A key contributor to early soviet efforts came from a young Russian aircraft engineer Sergey Korolev, who would later become the de facto head of the Soviet space programme. In 1926, as an advanced student, Korolev was mentored by the famous Soviet aircraft designer Andrey Tupolev, who was a professor at his University. In 1930, while working as a lead engineer on the Tupolev TB-3 heavy bomber he became interested in the possibilities of liquid-fueled rocket engines to propel airplanes. This led to contact with Zander, and sparked his interest in space exploration and rocketry.
Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD)
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