User:RedYellowBlueOrange/sandbox
A lot of the Russian scientists were inspired by Jules Verne’s works such as From the Earth to the Moon.
Andrei Kostikov
Andrei Kostikov graduated from N. Ye. Zhukovskiy Air Force Academy and went to work in 1932 at GIRD working on rockets of various propellant types. He took control of the NII-3 as Chief Engineer in 1939 after Stalin’s cleansing of the “Bolshevik elite” saw Glushko and Korolev sent to prison [10]. Under his leadership NII-3 finished development of the Katyusha rockets, which were unguided short-range missiles popularized during World War 2 [1]. NII-3 also continued development of solid, liquid, and hybrid propellant fueled rockets. In 1935 he argued against Korolev and Kleiminov that ballistics missiles could only be useful for scientific exploration in the upper atmosphere and had no future as weapons of war [2].
[1] Darrin, Ann Garrison., and Beth Laura. O'Leary. Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis, 2009. Print.
[2] Siddiqi, Asif A. The Rockets' Red Glare: Spaceflight and the Russian Imagination, 1857-1957. 2004. Page 165
[10] Chertok, Boris Evseyevich. Rockets and People: Volume I. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Office, Office of External Affairs, 2005. Pages 166-168
Valentin Glushko (1908 – 1989)
Valentin Glushko was arguably the most influential Soviet scientist, having been the principle Soviet designer of rocket engines during the Space Race. At the age of fifteen Glushko read Jules Verne’s works on space travel and that kick started an interest in him that would consume to rest of his life. He studied everything he could about astronomy and joined a youth group dedicated to it. In 1923, a young Glushko wrote a letter to Konstantine Tsiolkovsky and got a reply. This began a long back-and-forth between the two and gave Glushko confidence in what he was doing. While at Leningrad State University, he designed a spacecraft powered by electric engines. The design won him the attention of the Soviet military and a position at the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL) in Leningrad. In Leningrad he worked on liquid-propelled rockets and quickly stood out among his peers. The military soon merged the GDL with Sergei Korolev’s GIRD, because they were working on similar propulsion techniques, and formed the RNII. Having been named a supervisor after the merger, he worked closely with Korolev during this time and contributed his ORM-65 engine to the first Russian rocket propelled plane, the RP-318. It was in March of 1938 when Glushko was arrested by Soviet secret police and sent to a labor camp during one of Stalin’s purges. Sergei Korolev’s arrest would soon follow thanks to Glushko’s denouncement of him.
Glushko was released in August 1944 due to his work developing the RD-1 series of rocket engines and was given his own design bureau to continue his work. With the end of the war, however, Stalin needed his expertise recruiting for and working on the V-2 rocket reproduction in Germany. After only a few months Glushko and his collaborators began testing the V-2’s engine and redesigning it for better performance. He was then brought back to the USSR and, again, given his own design bureau, the OKB-456, and named chief designer. At the OKB-456 his scientists developed the foundational design for his, and in turn the Soviet Union’s, rocket engines used during the height of the space race. Glushko also provided the engines for all of the rockets designed and tested by Sergei Korolev, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship. After the United States landed on the moon, the Soviet Union did away with their own mission to the moon and combined their existing space programs into the NPO Energia with Glushko as the Chief Designer. This position he would hold until his death on January 10, 1989.
[8] "Encyclopedia Astronautica Glushko." Glushko. Web. 8 Apr. 2016. <http://www.astronautix.com/astros/glushko.htm>.
Sergei Korolev (Jan. 12th 1907 – Jan. 14th 1966)
Sergei Korolev was an engineer, Chief Designer, and founding member of the Soviet space program who was involved with rocketry in one way or another throughout World War II, the space race with the American program, and the Cold War. He was instrumental in the creation of the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, the first man-made satellite, and in getting Yuri Gagarin into outer space. Having been interested in mathematics and aeronautics from a young age, Korolev applied his abilities to designing, building, and flying gliders. These gliders were designed so well that they got him published in aviation journals and featured at air shows before he graduated from university. This interest in aviation eventually led him to team up with Friedrich Tsander and form GIRD, or the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion, in 1931. GIRD was among the earliest groups to get state-sponsorship for rocket research and developed the world’s first liquid-propelled rocket glider, the GIRD-X. It wasn’t long before Korolev’s resourcefulness and ability to make tough decisions earned him the lead position at GIRD [2]. In 1933, the Soviet military merged GIRD with the Gas Dynamics Laboratory to form the RNII (Jet Propulsion Research Institute). The RNII would go on to research various systems related to rocket propulsion such as gyroscopic stabilizers and cruise missiles. Thanks in part to Volentin Glushko, Korolev was arrested during the “Great Purge” and sent to a labor camp. The labor camp group he was assigned to used scientists and engineers to work on bombers and other aircraft. In 1944, Korolev was released from prison and the next year he was awarded a medal and conscripted into the Red Army in order to study the rockets and missiles of Germany’s Werner von Braun[5]. The Soviet army had Korolev travel to Germany to study and reproduce the A-4 ballistic missile, which he used to eventually develop the first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7. The R-7 then inspired and lent its design to a series of booster rockets that allowed the USSR to put man into outer space before the U.S. program. Korolev continued to work in the Soviet space program until his death in 1966. [5]
[2] Siddiqi, Asif A. The Rockets' Red Glare: Spaceflight and the Russian Imagination, 1857-1957. 2004. Pages 121-125]
[5] "Korolev." Korolev. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <http://www.russianspaceweb.com/korolev.html>.
Konstantine Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935)
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/konstantin-tsiolkovsky.html
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is considered one of the “fathers of rocketry”, the others being a German named Hermann Oberth and an American named Goddard [3]. After reading stories by Jules Verne, he began writing science-fiction about interplanetary travel with realistic technical problems included. Starting as a schoolteacher and academic, he worked on mathematics and scientific formulas in his spare time. One such formula is the “Tsiolkovsky Formula” which established the relationship between the mass of a rocket and its fuel, the speed of the rocket, and the speed of the rocket’s gas as it exits. This theory is so important to rocket science that it is still being taught to this day [6]. Tsiolkovsky backed the ideas of liquid propellant for rocket engines, harnessing solar energy, putting man into outer space, building space stations that orbit the Earth and colonizing our other planets in our Solar system and beyond. His ideas inspired and laid the foundations for many young scientists who would go on to make great strides forward in getting man to outer space [7]. These scientists include among them Volentin Glushko, Sergei Korolev, Werner von Braun, and Friedrich Tsander.
[6] http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/tsiolkovsky.htm
[3] Chertok, Boris Evseyevich. Rockets and People: Volume IV: The Moon Race. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Office, Office of External Affairs, 2005. Page 48
[7] Hagler, Gina. Modeling Ships and Space Craft: The Science and Art of Mastering the Oceans and Sky. New York: Springer, 2013. Pages 103-104
Friedrich Tsander (1887 – 1933)
Friedrich Tsander was a Baltic German pioneer of rocketry and spaceflight who, like many early rocket scientists, was inspired by the writings of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He read many science fiction novels growing up, which spurred his interest in space travel and ingrained in him a yearning to make these novels come to life. This yearning led Tsander to quit his day job at a factory so he could more fully devote himself to designing a spacecraft [2][4]. As previously mentioned in this article, Tsander was the head of the rocket research group GIRD until his death in 1933. He was a supporter of the idea of interplanetary travel, having been known for saying “Onward to Mars!”, and according to Sergei Korolev he was the most enthusiastic about it. [3]
[3] Chertok, Boris Evseyevich. Rockets and People: Volume IV: The Moon Race. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Office, Office of External Affairs, 2005. Page 594
[2] Siddiqi, Asif A. The Rockets' Red Glare: Spaceflight and the Russian Imagination, 1857-1957. 2004. Pages 115-116
[4] Harvey, Brian. Russian Planetary Exploration: History, Development, Legacy, Prospects. Berlin: Springer, 2007. Page 5
Boris Chertok
Boris Chertok was born in the Soviet controlled city of Lodz, located in present day Poland, in 1912 and would become an engineer and designer of rocket control systems for the Soviet Union during World War 2 and the Cold War. His position as right hand man to the Chief Designer Sergei Korolev meant that he was involved with many of the technological advances in rocket science that took place during this time. Chertok worked at the RNII from 1942 until he was sent to post-war Germany to study what Nazi rocket scientists were working on. The primary goal of their group was to study Werner von Braun’s V-2 missile, but they also tried to recruit scientists to work for the USSR. It was during this time that Chertok met and befriended his future boss Sergei Korolev. This relationship would continue when Chertok and Korolev were transferred to Podlipki, a Russian city near Moscow, in order to continue their work on ballistic missiles [9].
Chertok worked specifically on the flight control systems of the series of missiles that led to the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7. His success with the R-7 allowed him to remain a vital member of the Soviet space program, proven by the fact that he was involved in nearly every space mission the Soviets attempted. Missions including the Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz spacecrafts [9].
Chertok retired in the latter part of the twentieth century, but being the academic that he was, he was not idle during this time. He helped to popularize space exploration and wrote Rockets and People, which is one of the few well regarded first-hand accounts of the Soviet space program. This four-volume series gives insight into the development and people that helped the USSR, and later Russia, reach outer space. These memoirs cover the early days of rocketry in the 1930s up until the 1980s [3].
[3] Chertok, Boris Evseyevich. Rockets and People: Volume IV: The Moon Race. Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Office, Office of External Affairs, 2005. Page ix