On August 21, 1957, the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome located in the Kazakh steppes. The missile successfully covered the specified route, and its warhead, which simulated a nuclear warhead, accurately hit a training target in Kamchatka. The R-7 missile became the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The creator of this rocket was an outstanding domestic designer of rocketry, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Later, on the basis of the R-7 rocket, a whole family of medium-class launch vehicles was created, which made a significant contribution to human space exploration. It was on rockets belonging to this family that many artificial earth satellites were sent into space, starting with the very first, as well as all Soviet and Russian cosmonauts, starting with Yuri Gagarin.
The decree on the creation of an intercontinental-range ballistic missile was signed by the Government of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU on May 20, 1954. The work on the creation of the R-7 rocket, as well as all the necessary equipment required for its launches, was headed by the legendary Sergei Korolev. Already at the beginning of 1957, the rocket was ready for testing. The design of the R-7 rocket was fundamentally different from all previously designed missiles in its power and layout schemes, weight and dimensions, the number and purpose of systems, and the power of propulsion systems. In February 1955, the USSR Government issued a decree on the beginning of work on the construction of a test site for intercontinental ballistic missiles. The village of Baikonur, located near the Tyura-Tam junction (Kazakhstan), was chosen as the construction site. By April 1957, the launch complex for the new R-7 intercontinental missiles was ready.
Starting from mid-May 1957, a series of tests of the new rocket was carried out at the cosmodrome. The first 3 launches were unsuccessful and revealed serious flaws in its design. With the subsequent analysis of telemetry data, it was possible to establish that at a certain moment of the flight, when the fuel tanks were emptied, pressure fluctuations began to appear in the flow lines, which led to increased dynamic loads and, ultimately, to the destruction of the rocket structure. It is worth noting that the Americans also faced these problems at that time. As a result, only the fourth rocket launch was successful, which was carried out on August 21, 1957. Almost a week later, a TASS report was published in Soviet newspapers about the successful testing of an ultra-long-range multistage rocket in the USSR.
The obtained positive results of the flight of the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile in the active section of its trajectory made it possible to use it to launch the first two artificial earth satellites on October 4 and November 3, 1957. Created as a modern weapon, this rocket had good energy capabilities, which allowed it to launch a payload of a sufficiently large mass into near-earth orbit, which was more than used when launching satellites. This missile was adopted by the Soviet Army on January 20, 1960. The missile was in service with the army until 1968.
The R-7 intercontinental missile project was one of the largest engineering programs ever implemented in the USSR. The implementation of this project became the starting point for the development of many branches of science and technology that were related to rocketry. In the future, it was this successful project that became the basis for the creation of new basic modifications of rocket and space complexes, which include Voskhod, Vostok, Soyuz and Molniya.
The success and reliability of the R-7 design led to the possibility of its use as a launch vehicle. It was the carrier reactors of this family that opened a new space era for mankind, with the help of rockets of this family, the following were carried out:
- launching the first artificial satellite into earth orbit
- launching the first satellite with a living creature on board into earth orbit
- launching the first manned spacecraft into earth orbit
- withdrawal of the Luna-9 station, which made the first ever soft landing on the lunar surface.
Rocket design R-7
The R-7 is a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a 3-ton separable warhead and a range of 8,000 km. A modification of this missile under the designation R-7A from an increased to 11,000 km. range was in service with the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR from 1960 to 1968. In NATO, this missile received the code designation SS-6 (Sapwood), in the USSR, in turn, the GRAU-8 K74 index was used. Later, on the basis of the R-7 rocket, a huge number of medium-class launch vehicles were developed.
The R-7 rocket was developed by the OKB-1 team under the leadership of its chief designer S. P. Korolev and was produced according to the "batch" scheme. The first stage of an intercontinental missile consisted of 4 side blocks, each of which had a length of 19 meters and a maximum diameter of 3 meters. These blocks were symmetrically located around the central block (the second stage of the rocket) and were connected to it using the lower and upper belts of power connections.
The design of all blocks was of the same type and included a support cone, a power ring, fuel tanks, a tail compartment, and a propulsion system. On each of the blocks of the first stage of the rocket, liquid-propellant rocket engines (LPRE) RD-107, created in OKB-456, headed by Academician Glushko, were installed. These engines had a pumping fuel supply. The RD-107 engine was made according to an open circuit and had 6 combustion chambers. Two of these chambers were used as steering chambers. This rocket engine developed a thrust of 78 tons at the surface of the earth.
The central block of the R-7 rocket included an instrument compartment, fuel and oxidizer tanks, a tail compartment, a power ring, 4 steering units and a sustainer engine. On the second stage of the rocket, the RD-108 LPRE was mounted, which was similar to the "107" version, but had a larger number of steering chambers. This engine could develop a thrust of 71 tons at the earth's surface and worked longer than the liquid-propellant rocket engine of the side blocks. The fuel for all rocket engines was two-component and consisted of fuel - T-1 kerosene and an oxidizer - liquid oxygen. In turn, liquid nitrogen was used to pressurize the tanks, and hydrogen peroxide was used to ensure the normal operation of the turbopump units of rocket engines.
This launch pad was designed back in 1957 for the launch of the R-7 ICBM.
In order to achieve a given flight range from the rocket, the designers mounted a synchronous tank emptying system (SOB) on it, as well as an automatic system for regulating the engine operating modes. All this made it possible to reduce the guaranteed fuel supply. The design and layout of the developed rocket ensured the launch of all available engines at launch from the ground using special pyro-ignition devices that were installed in each of the 32 combustion chambers. The cruise rocket engines of the R-7 intercontinental rocket had high mass and energy characteristics, and also demonstrated their high reliability. For those years, these engines were an outstanding achievement in their field.
The R-7 rocket received a combined control system. At the same time, its autonomous subsystem provided stabilization of the center of mass and angular stabilization in the active part of the flight trajectory. The radio engineering subsystem of the rocket was responsible for correcting the lateral movement of the center of mass at the end of the active section of the trajectory, as well as for issuing a command to turn off the engines, which led to an increase in firing accuracy. The executive bodies of the missile control system were air rudders and rotary chambers of the steering engines.
To implement the algorithms for the radio correction of the missile, 2 control points (mirror and main) were built, which were removed by 276 km. from the launch pad and 552 km. apart. The measurement of the rocket flight parameters and the subsequent transmission of control commands was carried out using a pulsed multichannel communication line, which operated in a three-centimeter wavelength range with coded signals. A specially created calculating device, which was located at the main point, made it possible to control the missile according to the flight range, and also gave the command to turn off the 2nd stage engine, when the specified coordinates and speed were reached.
A family of missiles based on the R-7 ICBM
The reliability and success of the design of the R-7 intercontinental rocket led to the fact that it began to be used for launching spacecraft for various purposes, and since 1961 it has been widely used in manned astronautics. Today it is difficult to overestimate the contribution of the G7 to the national cosmonautics, but it is even more difficult to imagine the gift of its chief designer S. P. Korolev, who laid a solid foundation for Soviet cosmonautics. Since 1957, more than 1,700 missile launches have been made based on the R-7 design, with more than 97% of the launches being recognized as successful. From 1958 to the present, all missiles belonging to the R-7 family have been produced in Samara at the Progress plant.
Technical characteristics of the first rocket R-7:
The maximum flight range is 8,000 km.
Launch weight - 283 tons
Fuel weight - 250 tons
Payload weight - 5 400 kg.
Rocket length - 31.4 meters
Rocket diameter - 1, 2 meters
Head type - monoblock.
