1916th year. The construction of the Second Automobile Plant "Russo-Balt" begins in the Fili, near Moscow, known primarily by the military council convened by Kutuzov after the Battle of Borodino. Seven years later, the German aircraft-building concern Junkers received a concession for the enterprise already under Soviet rule. From city roads to heaven - this is how the history of the future state scientific and production space center named after Mikhail Vasilyevich Khrunichev began.
Mankind has been striving for the stars ever since it saw them. Chinese powder rockets, like their Indian counterparts (which do not deny the legends about vimanas freely traveling across the sky), put some doubt in the heads of even medieval-thinking Europeans. Hence the notorious Italian powder vents and many other innovations appeared, which the mind burdened by the Inquisition could only perceive as heresy.
After several centuries, the conversion of an ordinary aircraft building plant, listed under the standard nomenclature number 23, for the production (by the government decree of October 3, 1960 under the number … however, is the document number important …) of rocket technology turned out to be quite commonplace. Today, the enterprise that produces the latest generation of launch vehicles - from Protons and Rokots to the extremely topical Angara - serves as the most worthy example of how the Russian space infrastructure can continue to develop.
Here and from talking about a possible in the next fifteen or twenty years, a purely Russian project of a flight to Mars does not go away. The regime of keeping state secrets at the enterprise is unforgiving. It is hardly possible to get any information in vain. Taking into account the regime of access to the plant, any foreign spy will have to live in Russia for many years. And by the time he receives the coveted plastic square, most likely, he will change his outlook to something closer to the Russian one. And then he will appear in a special department and is recognized in everything under the influence of local traditions …
The enterprise, which found itself behind such a high veil of secrecy, in the spring of 1961, far from us, developed a project for a carrier rocket of the so-called "heavy class" (then it had the code name "UR-500", nowadays it has turned into quite harmless in some external signs " Proton"). The space race (do not forget that it was then that the Americans successfully implemented their lunar program) also remembers March 10, 1967, when the Kosmos-146 satellite was launched into space by a three-stage rocket. Formally, this day is considered to be the date of birth of Proton-K, a launch vehicle through which the Soviet Union was able to serially launch spacecraft Luna, Zond, Mars, the first inhabited near-earth stations of the Salyut series (seven stations, by the way, American manned astronautics cannot even come close to boasting such an active participation in manned near space exploration).
The Mir, flooded after the expiration of the predicted resource, became yet another proof of Russia's superiority. It is not surprising that now all the life support issues of the International Space Station are being resolved only thanks to the timely dispatch of Russian spacecraft, developed with the participation of this plant. And if we take it for granted that Gagarin's flight was provided by more than two thousand enterprises on the territory of the Land of Soviets (the number of those who worked on the flight of the first cosmonaut a few days ago was cited in a television interview by Alexei Leonov, the first person to go into outer space - 18 million worked to make Gagarin first), then there is no need to explain the current priorities. The goals that are about to be set for the national cosmonautics are impressive.
The Americans have publicly abandoned the Return to the Moon program. They are interested in more global projects. Simultaneously with the astronauts from NASA, an equally ambitious project looms in front of the Russian cosmonauts. Somehow, information passed by the general public that several volunteers completed psychological tests associated with a long flight to the Red Planet. As far as we know, the Khrunichev plant is ready to start testing a new engine (it should operate on the basis of thermonuclear reactions). And one more detail. Veterans of Russian cosmonautics - Grechko, who participated in the 1976 Soyuz-Apollo joint project with America, and Alexei Leonov, the very cosmonaut who personally became acquainted with open space - confidently believe that a flight to Mars should be a purely Russian initiative. And it was committed by Russia, perhaps even contrary to world public opinion. What, in fact, the Khrunichev enterprise has all the possibilities to contribute completely.
Yes, we did not say a word about the Salyut Design Bureau, which, as it were, organically forms part of the joint structure of the space research and production center. And they did not tell you anything about the Angara missile system, for which a separate launching position is being built at Baikonur. Yes, and about the Vostochny cosmodrome, which is clearly more economical than Baikonur, so far we are silent. There, by the way, if not for the eternal Russian … There was a missile division. There will be a cosmodrome. Could have been five years ago.
