The era of space boarding and orbital privateering may come today
Soviet aircraft "Spiral" - it could take off long before the Kh-37V.
On April 22, from the cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral, the Atlas-V launch vehicle launched the new generation X-37V spacecraft into orbit. The launch was successful. That, in fact, is all that the US Air Force brought to the attention of the media.
Note that even before that, information on this top-secret project was very scarce. So, even the weight and size characteristics of the device are still not known exactly. The weight of this mini-shuttle is estimated at 5 tons, the length is about 10 m, the wingspan is about 5 m. The X-37B can stay in orbit for up to 9 months.
A regular aircraft landing is planned at Vandenberg AFB, but they are preparing to receive the spaceplane at the reserve runway at Andrews AFB, near Washington.
The development of the X-37 apparatus was started by NASA back in 1999, and now a secret Air Force unit is engaged in all the work on the spaceplane. Boeing Corporation became the main developer and manufacturer of the device. According to media reports, the company's engineers have created a special new heat-shielding coating for the X-37. It is curious that the Atlas-V is equipped with Russian-made RD-190 engines with a thrust of 390 tons.
Since May 2000, NASA has been testing the X-37. The dimensions of the layout, which was called the X-40A, were 85% of the dimensions of the X-37.
Since September 2, 2004, a full-size model of the X-37A has already been tested. The model was dropped from the plane dozens of times and landed on the runway. However, on April 7, 2006, when landing, the Kh-37 left the runway and buried its nose in the ground, receiving serious damage.
So far, everything that is known to the media. Much remained behind the scenes - including the fact that the X-37 was a kind of pinnacle of the development of aerospace vehicles that lasted for many decades, albeit in most of them remained in the drawings.
DON'T TAKE OFF "DAYNA SOR"
Development of the first US spaceplane began on October 10, 1957, a week after the launch of the first Soviet satellite. The device was named "Dyna-Soar", from Dynamic Soaring - "Acceleration and planning". The same Boeing company in cooperation with the Vout company was engaged in the work on "Dayna Sor". The dimensions of the X-20 "Daina Sor" rocket plane in the last version were: length - 10, 77 m; body diameter - 1.6 m; wingspan - 6, 22 m; maximum weight of the device without load - 5165 kg.
On board the spaceplane were supposed to be two astronauts and 454 kg of payload. As you can see, in terms of weight and size characteristics, "Daina Sor" was close to the Kh-37V. The launch of the X-20 into orbit was to be carried out using a Titan-IIIS rocket. The main task of the X-20 was to conduct reconnaissance.
In November 1963, a project was proposed for an interceptor satellite capable of operating in both low and high orbits, capable of flying for up to 14 days with a crew of two and intercepting satellites at altitudes up to 1,850 km. The first flight of the interceptor was scheduled for September 1967.
However, in mid-1963, the prevailing opinion in the US Department of Defense was that a permanent military space station, served by modified Gemini spaceships, was much more efficient than the X-20 rocket plane. On December 10, 1963, Secretary of Defense McNamara canceled funding for the Dina Sor program in favor of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program. A total of $ 410 million was spent on the Daina Sor program.
"SPIRAL" IN THE MUSEUM
In the USSR, the first project of a planning spacecraft - a rocket plane for descent from orbit and landing on Earth, was developed at OKB-256 and approved by its chief designer Pavel Vladimirovich Tsybin on May 17, 1959.
According to the project, a rocket plane with an astronaut on board was to be launched into a circular orbit with an altitude of 300 km, like the Vostok spacecraft, by an 8K72 launch vehicle. After a daily orbital flight, the device was supposed to leave orbit and return to Earth, gliding in the dense layers of the atmosphere. At the beginning of the descent in the zone of intense heat heating, the vehicle used the lift of the original shape of the load-bearing body, and then, having reduced the speed to 500-600 m / s, glided from a height of 20 km with the help of expanding wings, initially folded behind the back.
The landing was supposed to be performed on a special unpaved area using a bicycle-type chassis.
However, like their American colleagues, our military recognized this idea as unpromising. On October 1, 1959, OKB-256 was disbanded, all of its employees were "voluntarily-compulsorily" transferred to OKB-23 to Myasishchev in Fili, and the premises of the design bureau and plant No. 256 in Podberezye were given to the Mikoyan design bureau.
It should be noted that Myasishchev, on his own initiative, back in 1956, began designing a hypersonic orbital rocket plane with a gliding descent, horizontal landing (in an airplane way) and an almost unlimited circular orbital flight range.
The manned rocket plane, dubbed Product 46, was primarily intended for use as a strategic reconnaissance aircraft, and secondly as a bomber reaching any point on the earth's surface, as well as a fighter for missiles and combat satellites of a potential enemy.
But the Myasishchev Design Bureau soon shared the fate of the Tsybin Design Bureau. On the instructions of Khrushchev personally, by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of October 3, 1960, OKB-23 was transferred to Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey and became a branch of OKB-62. Myasishchev himself went to TsAGI.
Chelomey started designing rocket-planes back in 1959. The leading designer of OKB-52 and participant in these events, Vladimir Polyachenko, wrote: “In July 1959, the KBR-12000 was already in development, a cruise-ballistic missile was no longer anti-aircraft type, with a flight range of 12,000 km, with a maximum speed of 6300 m / s … It was a three-stage rocket with a 1st stage mass of 85 tons. We also considered entering orbit. Here is an entry dated July 10, 1959: "KBR, entering orbit: launch weight 107 tons instead of 85 tons for KBR-12000." The number of stages of this ballistic missile, which was supposed to enter orbit, was 4. At this time we have the term "rocket plane". The rocket plane was on a liquid-propellant rocket engine, the launch mass was 120 tons, its first project was with planning, the number of stages was 4, the engines were liquid-propellant rocket engines and powder rocket engines."
In accordance with the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of May 23, 1960, OKB-52 developed a preliminary design for a rocket plane in two versions: unmanned (P1) and manned (P2). The winged manned spacecraft was designed to intercept, survey and destroy American satellites at altitudes up to 290 km. The crew consisted of two people, the flight duration was 24 hours. The total weight of the rocket plane was supposed to be from 10-12 tons, the gliding range during the return was 2500-3000 km. Specialists from the former OKB-256 Tsybin and OKB-23 Myasishchev took part in these works, which from October 1960 was subordinated to Chelomey.
As an intermediate stage in the development of a rocket plane, Chelomey decided to create an experimental MP-1 apparatus weighing 1.75 tons and a length of 1.8 m. The aerodynamic layout of the MP-1 was made according to the "container - rear brake umbrella" scheme.
On December 27, 1961, the MP-1 apparatus was launched from the Vladimirovka Air Force range (not far from Kapustin Yar) using a modified R-12 rocket to the area of Lake Balkhash.
At an altitude of about 200 km, MP-1 separated from the carrier and, with the help of onboard engines, rose to an altitude of 405 km, after which it began its descent to Earth. He entered the atmosphere 1760 km from the launch site at a speed of 3.8 km / s (14 400 km / h) and landed with a parachute.
In 1964, Chelomey presented to the Air Force project 6, 3-ton unmanned rocket plane R-1, equipped with an M-shaped folding (middle part up, ends down) variable sweep wing and its manned version R-2 weighing 7-8 tons.
Khrushchev's departure radically changed the balance of power in the domestic space industry. On October 19, 1964, the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Marshal Vershinin, called Chelomey and said that, obeying the order, he was forced to transfer all the materials on rocket planes to the OKB-155 of Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan.
And so, according to the order of the Minister of Aviation Industry No. 184ss of July 30, 1965, OKB-155 Mikoyan was entrusted with the design of the Spiral aerospace system or "theme 50-50" (later - "105-205"). The number "50" symbolized the approaching 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, when the first subsonic tests were to take place.
Deputy General Designer Gleb Evgenievich Lozino-Lozinsky headed the work on the "Spiral" in the OKB. A preliminary design of the system was developed, approved by Mikoyan on June 29, 1966. The main goal of the program was to create a manned orbital aircraft for performing applied tasks in space and providing regular transportation along the Earth-orbit-Earth route.
The Spiral system with an estimated weight of 115 t consisted of a reusable hypersonic aircraft carrier (GSR; "product 50-50" / ed. 205) carrying an orbital stage, which itself consisted of a reusable orbital aircraft (OS; "product 50" /izd.105) and a disposable two-stage rocket booster.
The carrier aircraft weighing 52 tons was equipped with four hydrogen air-jet engines (at the first stage - serial RD-39-300). He took off with the help of an accelerating trolley from any airfield and accelerated the bunch to a hypersonic speed corresponding to M = 6 (at the first stage, M = 4). The separation of the steps took place at an altitude of 28-30 km (at the first stage, 22-24 km), after which the carrier aircraft returned to the airfield.
A single-seat orbital aircraft 8 m long and weighing 10 tons was intended for launching cargoes weighing 0.7-2 tons into a near-earth orbit with an altitude of about 130 km. The aircraft is designed according to the "carrying body" scheme of a triangular shape in plan. It had swept wing consoles, which, during launch and in the initial phase of descent from orbit, were raised to 450 from the vertical, and when gliding, starting from an altitude of 50–55 km, they were turned up to 950 from the vertical. The wingspan in this case was 7.4 m.
Alas, at the end of 1978, USSR Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov said that "we will not be able to pull two programs," and closed the "Spiral" topic in favor of "Buran". And the analogue plane "150.11" was later sent to the Air Force Museum in Monino.
At the same time, Andrei Nikolapevich Tupolev was also engaged in space rocketry. In the 1950s, Andrei Nikolayevich closely followed the progress in the creation of guided missiles and spacecraft, and at the end of the 1950s created a "K" department within his OKB-156, which was engaged in the design of aircraft. This promising department was headed by the son of the general designer Alexey Andreevich Tupolev.
In 1958, the "K" department began research work on the program for the creation of an unmanned strike gliding aircraft "DP" (long-range gliding). The DP rocket plane was supposed to represent the last stage, equipped with a powerful thermonuclear warhead. Modifications of medium-range combat ballistic missiles of the R-5 and R-12 types were considered as a carrier rocket, and a variant of its own development of a carrier rocket was also considered.
However, for various reasons, Tupolev's spaceplanes did not leave the design stage. The last project of the Tu-2000 aerospace aircraft was created in 1988.
IDEAL REMEDY FOR ORBITAL FLIBUSTIERS
But we got too carried away by history and forgot about the most important thing - what functions the X-37B should perform in space. Of course, the first sample can be limited to checking the onboard equipment and carrying out a number of research programs. But the next ones? According to the official version, the X-37V will be used to deliver various cargoes into orbit. Alas, delivery of goods using existing disposable launch vehicles is much cheaper.
Or maybe the X-37B will be used for reconnaissance purposes, that is, as a spy satellite? But what advantages will it have over the existing American reconnaissance satellites, which, during their existence, send several capsules with mined reconnaissance materials to the ground?
And it is completely frivolous to assume that the Kh-37V will be used to destroy ground targets with non-nuclear weapons. Allegedly, he can hit any target on the globe within two hours from the moment the order is given. Well, firstly, this is purely technically unrealistic from the point of view of the laws of physics, and secondly, any point in the explosive regions of the planet can be easily hit by American planes or cruise missiles, which is much cheaper.
Much more interesting is the information leaked to the media in 2006 that the X-37 should become the base for the creation of a space interceptor. The KEASat space interceptor must ensure the disabling of enemy space vehicles by kinetic impact (damage to antenna systems, termination of satellite operation). The X-37 interceptor rocket should have the following data: length - 8, 38 m, wingspan - 4, 57 m, height - 2, 76 m. Weight - 5, 4 tons. Liquid-propellant engine "Rocketdine" AR2-3 thrust 31 kt.
In addition, KEASat can carry out inspections of suspicious satellites.
On August 31, 2006, the US President approved a document called the 2006 US National Space Policy.
This document replaced the National Space Policy, approved on September 14, 1996 by President Clinton in Directive / NSC-49 / NSTC-8, and made significant changes to it. A key feature of the 2006 National Space Policy is the consolidation of provisions in it that open up opportunities for the militarization of outer space and proclaim the United States' right to partially extend national sovereignty to outer space.
According to this document, the United States will: protect its rights, its infrastructure and freedom of action in outer space; persuade or coerce other countries to refrain from violating these rights or from creating infrastructure that can prevent the exercise of these rights; take the measures necessary to protect their space infrastructure; respond to interference; and, if necessary, deny adversaries the right to use space infrastructure for purposes hostile to US national interests.
In fact, the United States has unilaterally arrogated to itself the right to control foreign spacecraft or even destroy them if they believe that they could potentially threaten the security of the United States.
When another superweapon is created overseas, we hear voices: “And we? How can we answer? " Alas, in this case, nothing. Thus, over $ 1.5 million has already been spent on the MAKS spacecraft, which has been developed by NPO Molniya since 1988, but it has never left the stage of preliminary design. But I also see no reason to moan about the X-37V. Russia can respond to any attempt to "inspect" or destroy our satellite with asymmetric measures, and there can be dozens of options. It remains to be hoped that the Russian government will react rather sharply to attempts to inspect satellites by the "bad guys". Today - a North Korean satellite, tomorrow - an Iranian one, and the day after tomorrow - a Russian one. And above all, Russia must remember that there is international space law, and remind some that it is either for everyone, or it is not for anyone. And after the troubles with the Russian or Iranian satellites, annoying accidents may occur with the American ones.
