3.5 Entering the Age of Space Flight
145
3.5.2 Launching the First Artificial Earth Satellite
After the end of the Second World War, the international situation and pattern changed
greatly. The United States implemented the “Cold War” policy of “containing” the
Soviet Union. The world was divided into two camps, the capitalist camp led by the
United States and the United Kingdom, and the socialist camp led by the USSR. On
July 16, 1945, the United States successfully tested and exploded the first atomic
bomb in the world, and 20 days later dropped two atomic bombs respectively in
two Japanese cities, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, forcing Japan to surrender quickly
and unconditionally. This aroused the high vigilance of the general secretary of the
Communist Party of the USSR and premier of the USSR, Joseph Stalin (1878−1953),
who immediately ordered to speed up the development of the Soviet atomic bomb.
At that time, although the Soviet military strength had made great progress, it was
unable to compete with the United States yet. Especially in the long-range strategic
bombers, the USSR was difficult to catch up with the United States in a short period of
time, and it was difficult to constitute a deterrent force to bomb the U.S. mainland. So,
Stalin could only hope to develop the long-range rocket weapons, the intercontinental
ballistic missiles.
In July 1944, S. P. Korolev was paroled from the Kazan sharashka, and in
September 1945, went to Germany together with other Soviet specialists, such as
V. P. Glushko and N. A. Pilyugin, to review and receive the German rocket technical documentation and equipment. Moreover, they also captured some German
specialists on the V-2 missiles, such as the guidance and control expert H. Groettrup,
the rocket engine expert W. Baum and the manufacturing expert O. Putze. Under
the supervision of the Soviet soldiers and technicians, the German technicians led
by Groettrup assembled a V-2 missile once again. In August 1946, while still in
Germany, Korolev was appointed chief of a department in the newly created the
Scientific Research Institute NII-88 in Podlipki, northeast of Moscow, which was
responsible for the development and industrial production of missile technology
based on the German hardware. In October 1947, the V-2 missile assembled by
the German technicians was successfully launched in Stalingrad with a range of
270 km. For this way, the German rocket experts had smoothly accomplished their
missions, and the following missile development works would all be done by the
Soviet specialists themselves. At first, the Soviet specialists started to copy a shortrange V-2 missile, named R-1 missile. On the basis of improving the designs of
the cooling system, nozzle, combustion chamber and propellant of the R-1 missile
engine, the R-2 missile had been successfully developed with a range of 590 km.
Shortly thereafter, the medium-range ballistic missile SS-3 which was the improved
R-2 missile, on which the RD-101 engine developed by Glushko was mounted, was
successfully developed with a range of 1800 km.
In the meantime, after nearly 4 years of hard developing and catching up, the
Soviet Union eventually successfully tested and exploded its first atomic bomb on
August 27, 1949. Subsequently, on October 1 of the same year, the People’s Republic
of China was born under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The two
145
3.5.2 Launching the First Artificial Earth Satellite
After the end of the Second World War, the international situation and pattern changed
greatly. The United States implemented the “Cold War” policy of “containing” the
Soviet Union. The world was divided into two camps, the capitalist camp led by the
United States and the United Kingdom, and the socialist camp led by the USSR. On
July 16, 1945, the United States successfully tested and exploded the first atomic
bomb in the world, and 20 days later dropped two atomic bombs respectively in
two Japanese cities, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, forcing Japan to surrender quickly
and unconditionally. This aroused the high vigilance of the general secretary of the
Communist Party of the USSR and premier of the USSR, Joseph Stalin (1878−1953),
who immediately ordered to speed up the development of the Soviet atomic bomb.
At that time, although the Soviet military strength had made great progress, it was
unable to compete with the United States yet. Especially in the long-range strategic
bombers, the USSR was difficult to catch up with the United States in a short period of
time, and it was difficult to constitute a deterrent force to bomb the U.S. mainland. So,
Stalin could only hope to develop the long-range rocket weapons, the intercontinental
ballistic missiles.
In July 1944, S. P. Korolev was paroled from the Kazan sharashka, and in
September 1945, went to Germany together with other Soviet specialists, such as
V. P. Glushko and N. A. Pilyugin, to review and receive the German rocket technical documentation and equipment. Moreover, they also captured some German
specialists on the V-2 missiles, such as the guidance and control expert H. Groettrup,
the rocket engine expert W. Baum and the manufacturing expert O. Putze. Under
the supervision of the Soviet soldiers and technicians, the German technicians led
by Groettrup assembled a V-2 missile once again. In August 1946, while still in
Germany, Korolev was appointed chief of a department in the newly created the
Scientific Research Institute NII-88 in Podlipki, northeast of Moscow, which was
responsible for the development and industrial production of missile technology
based on the German hardware. In October 1947, the V-2 missile assembled by
the German technicians was successfully launched in Stalingrad with a range of
270 km. For this way, the German rocket experts had smoothly accomplished their
missions, and the following missile development works would all be done by the
Soviet specialists themselves. At first, the Soviet specialists started to copy a shortrange V-2 missile, named R-1 missile. On the basis of improving the designs of
the cooling system, nozzle, combustion chamber and propellant of the R-1 missile
engine, the R-2 missile had been successfully developed with a range of 590 km.
Shortly thereafter, the medium-range ballistic missile SS-3 which was the improved
R-2 missile, on which the RD-101 engine developed by Glushko was mounted, was
successfully developed with a range of 1800 km.
In the meantime, after nearly 4 years of hard developing and catching up, the
Soviet Union eventually successfully tested and exploded its first atomic bomb on
August 27, 1949. Subsequently, on October 1 of the same year, the People’s Republic
of China was born under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The two