126
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
In June 1937, Marshal Tukhachevsky was tried with seven other top Red Army
commanders in conjunction with the Stalinist purges, on charges of conspiracy with
Germany. All eight were convicted and executed. With the “Anti Soviet Movement”
expanding, the Soviet intelligentsia with any apparent or assumed links to the old
revolutionary Bolshevik elites became one of the primary targets of the purges.
Because Tukhachevsky was an original patron of the NII-3, the arrests within the
Institute followed. The Institute’s director and his deputy were executed while leading
engineers Glushko and Korolev were given long prison terms.
Since Korolev was arrested in prison, the NII-3 management ordered the mothballing of the RP-318-1 glider, and the project remained stalled until December 1938.
In the wake of the purges at the NII-3, a competing team of engineers took over the
RP-318-1 project. Glushko’s ORM-65 engine was replaced with the RDA-1-150
engine developed by L.S. Dushkin. In 1940, the first powered flight of the RP-3181 glider was conducted and its flight speed reached 140 km/h. As a result of the
experiments, the Soviet Defense Committee issued a decree authorizing the development of a rocket-powered aircraft. The BI-1 experimental fighter plane, develop
V.F. Bolkhovitinov’s team and equipped with liquid-fuel rocket engines, conducted
its first flight in 1942.
In the late 1930s, the NII-3 also designed and developed a variety of rocket
engines. Tikhonravov developed an air research rocket for the Soviet Association
of Aeronautic Technology, and its flight altitude reached 3 km. Its engine was the
12-K engine developed by Dushkin, with liquid oxygen and alcohol as propellant,
and with a thrust of 300 kgf and the duration of 60 s. Glushko took charge of the
development of ORM series rocket engines, in which the thrust of ORM-64 engine
reached 680 kgf, and the variable-thrust engine ORM-65 was with a thrust range of
50−150 kgf. The director of the seventh design office at the NII-3, L. K. Korneev,
took charge of the design of R01−R10 series rockets, of which R05 was a cosmic
ray exploration rocket designed for the Institute of Geophysics, the Soviet Academy
of Sciences, and R-10 was a two-stage liquid rocket, with four solid boosters tied
around the first stage and the designed takeoff thrust of 1000 kgf.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, the technicians of the NII-3 were
demobilized or persecuted, and the rocket research work was almost stagnant. At this
time, Stalin soon recognized the importance of aeronautical engineers in preparing
for the impending war with Hitler. To sufficiently exploit the jailed talents, a system
of prison design bureaus, known as sharashkas, was set up soon after. Glushko was
rose to head of a sharashka in the city of Kazan (officially called TsKB-4), which was
developing rocket installations to improve maneuverability and takeoff performance
of conventional aircraft. Despite the austere conditions, Glushko developed new
engine series RD-1, RD-2 and RD-3, with nitric acid and kerosene as propellants
and with pump-feeding ways, and their thrusts reached 300 kgf, 600 kgf and 900 kgf
respectively. Around the early 1941s, Korolev, Glushko’s former colleague from the
NII-3, was also transferred to TsKB-4 as his deputy. In 1943, it was successful in a
flight test that the RD-1 engine assisted the aircraft takeoff.
In general, during the 1920s and 1930s, many societies studying rocketry and
astronautics had been established in the Soviet Union. Besides the more influential
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
In June 1937, Marshal Tukhachevsky was tried with seven other top Red Army
commanders in conjunction with the Stalinist purges, on charges of conspiracy with
Germany. All eight were convicted and executed. With the “Anti Soviet Movement”
expanding, the Soviet intelligentsia with any apparent or assumed links to the old
revolutionary Bolshevik elites became one of the primary targets of the purges.
Because Tukhachevsky was an original patron of the NII-3, the arrests within the
Institute followed. The Institute’s director and his deputy were executed while leading
engineers Glushko and Korolev were given long prison terms.
Since Korolev was arrested in prison, the NII-3 management ordered the mothballing of the RP-318-1 glider, and the project remained stalled until December 1938.
In the wake of the purges at the NII-3, a competing team of engineers took over the
RP-318-1 project. Glushko’s ORM-65 engine was replaced with the RDA-1-150
engine developed by L.S. Dushkin. In 1940, the first powered flight of the RP-3181 glider was conducted and its flight speed reached 140 km/h. As a result of the
experiments, the Soviet Defense Committee issued a decree authorizing the development of a rocket-powered aircraft. The BI-1 experimental fighter plane, develop
V.F. Bolkhovitinov’s team and equipped with liquid-fuel rocket engines, conducted
its first flight in 1942.
In the late 1930s, the NII-3 also designed and developed a variety of rocket
engines. Tikhonravov developed an air research rocket for the Soviet Association
of Aeronautic Technology, and its flight altitude reached 3 km. Its engine was the
12-K engine developed by Dushkin, with liquid oxygen and alcohol as propellant,
and with a thrust of 300 kgf and the duration of 60 s. Glushko took charge of the
development of ORM series rocket engines, in which the thrust of ORM-64 engine
reached 680 kgf, and the variable-thrust engine ORM-65 was with a thrust range of
50−150 kgf. The director of the seventh design office at the NII-3, L. K. Korneev,
took charge of the design of R01−R10 series rockets, of which R05 was a cosmic
ray exploration rocket designed for the Institute of Geophysics, the Soviet Academy
of Sciences, and R-10 was a two-stage liquid rocket, with four solid boosters tied
around the first stage and the designed takeoff thrust of 1000 kgf.
After the outbreak of the Second World War, the technicians of the NII-3 were
demobilized or persecuted, and the rocket research work was almost stagnant. At this
time, Stalin soon recognized the importance of aeronautical engineers in preparing
for the impending war with Hitler. To sufficiently exploit the jailed talents, a system
of prison design bureaus, known as sharashkas, was set up soon after. Glushko was
rose to head of a sharashka in the city of Kazan (officially called TsKB-4), which was
developing rocket installations to improve maneuverability and takeoff performance
of conventional aircraft. Despite the austere conditions, Glushko developed new
engine series RD-1, RD-2 and RD-3, with nitric acid and kerosene as propellants
and with pump-feeding ways, and their thrusts reached 300 kgf, 600 kgf and 900 kgf
respectively. Around the early 1941s, Korolev, Glushko’s former colleague from the
NII-3, was also transferred to TsKB-4 as his deputy. In 1943, it was successful in a
flight test that the RD-1 engine assisted the aircraft takeoff.
In general, during the 1920s and 1930s, many societies studying rocketry and
astronautics had been established in the Soviet Union. Besides the more influential