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Almaz
The Almaz () program was a highly secret Soviet Union, Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. To cover the military nature of the program, the three launched Almaz stations were designated as civilian Salyut programme, Salyut space stations. Salyut 2 failed shortly after achieving orbit, but Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 both conducted successful crewed testing. Following Salyut 5, the Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union), Soviet Ministry of Defense judged in 1978 that the time and resources consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits relative to automatic reconnaissance satellites. Still, it had some achievements along with the Salyut program, the heritage of the twin program continues, with the International Space Station module Zarya (ISS module), Zarya being one example. The space stations' cores were known internally as OPS (, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Almaz-T
The Almaz () program was a highly secret Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. To cover the military nature of the program, the three launched Almaz stations were designated as civilian Salyut space stations. Salyut 2 failed shortly after achieving orbit, but Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 both conducted successful crewed testing. Following Salyut 5, the Soviet Ministry of Defense judged in 1978 that the time and resources consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits relative to automatic reconnaissance satellites. Still, it had some achievements along with the Salyut program, the heritage of the twin program continues, with the International Space Station module Zarya being one example. The space stations' cores were known internally as OPS (, GRAU index 11F71 and 11F71B), from "Orbital Piloted Station" (). As part of the Almaz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VA Spacecraft
The Vozvraschaemyi Apparat (, GRAU index 11F74), or VA spacecraft, was a Soviet Space capsule, crew capsule, intended to serve as a crewed spacecraft, launch and reentry vehicle. Initially designed for the LK-1 human lunar flyby spacecraft for one of the Soviet crewed lunar programs, then the LK-700 redesign, it was later repurposed for the Almaz military space station program. The VA capsule on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum was labeled as ''Merkur'', following a mistranslation of the original documentation – while incorrect, the name is being used in the West for the VA spacecraft and capsule. The VA spacecraft was capable of independent flight – up to 31 hours in its last incarnation – it needed however to be combined with additional hardware (containing propulsion and storage) to achieve a longer flight duration. Different usage scenarios for the VA spacecraft were planned: * For the lunar flyby spacecraft LK-1 and LK-700, the plans by Vla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TKS (spacecraft)
The TKS spacecraft (, , ''Transport Supply Spacecraft'', GRAU index 11F72) was a Soviet Union, Soviet spacecraft conceived in the late 1960s for resupply flights to the military Almaz space station. The spacecraft was designed for both crewed and autonomous uncrewed cargo resupply flights, but was never used operationally in its intended role – only four test missions were flown (including three that docked to Salyut programme, Salyut space stations) during the program. The Functional Cargo Block (FGB) of the TKS spacecraft later formed the basis of several space station modules, including the Zarya (ISS module), Zarya FGB module on the International Space Station. The TKS spacecraft consisted of two spacecraft mated together, both of which could operate independently: * The VA spacecraft (known mistakenly in the West as the ''Merkur spacecraft''), which would have housed the cosmonauts during launch and reentry of a TKS spacecraft, while traveling to and from an Almaz space s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salyut Programme
The ''Salyut'' programme (, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed military reconnaissance space stations over a period of 15 years, from 1971 to 1986. Two other ''Salyut'' launches failed. In one respect, ''Salyut'' had the space-race task of carrying out long-term research into the problems of living in space and a variety of astronomical, biological and Earth-resources experiments, and on the other hand, the USSR used this civilian programme as a cover for the highly secretive military ''Almaz'' stations, which flew under the ''Salyut'' designation. Salyut 1, ''Salyut'' 1, the first station in the program, became the world's first crewed space station. ''Salyut'' flights broke several spaceflight records, including several mission-duration records, and achieved the first orbital handover of a space station from one crew t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salyut 2
Salyut 2 (OPS-1) ( meaning ''Salute 2'') was a Soviet space station which was launched in 1973 as part of the Salyut programme. It was the first Almaz military space station to fly. Within two weeks of its launch, the station had lost altitude control and depressurized, leaving it unusable. Its orbit decayed and it re-entered the atmosphere on 28 May 1973, without any crews having visited it. Spacecraft Salyut 2 was an Almaz military space station. It was designated part of the Salyut programme in order to conceal the existence of the two separate space station programmes. Salyut 2 was long with a diameter of , and had an internal habitable volume of . At launch it had a mass of . A single aft-mounted docking port was intended for use by Soyuz spacecraft carrying cosmonauts to work aboard the station. Two solar arrays mounted at the aft end of the station near the docking port provided power to the station, generating a total of 3,120 watts of electricity. The station ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salyut 5
Salyut 5 ( meaning ''Salute 5''), also known as OPS-3, was a Soviet space station. Launched in 1976 as part of the Salyut programme, it was the third and last Almaz space station to be launched for the Soviet military. Two Soyuz missions visited the station, each crewed by two cosmonauts. A third Soyuz mission attempted to visit the station, but failed to dock, whilst a fourth mission was planned but never launched. Launch Salyut 5 was launched at 18:04:00 UTC on 22 June 1976. The launch took place from Site 81/23 the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, and used a three-stage Proton-K carrier rocket with the serial number 290–02. Upon reaching orbit, Salyut 5 was assigned the International Designator 1976-057A, whilst the North American Aerospace Defense Command gave it the Satellite Catalog Number 08911. Spacecraft Salyut 5 was an Almaz spacecraft, the last of three to be launched as space stations after Salyut 2 and Salyut 3. Like its predecesso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salyut 3
Salyut 3 (, also known as OPS-2 or Almaz 2Portree (1995).) was a Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ... space station launched on 25 June 1974. It was the second Almaz military space station, and the first such station to be launched successfully. It was included in the Salyut program to disguise its true military nature.Hall and Shayer (2003). Due to the military nature of the station, the Soviet Union was reluctant to release information about its design, and about the missions relating to the station.Zimmerman (2003). It attained an altitude of 219 to 270 km on launch and NASA reported its final orbital altitude was 268 to 272 km. Only one of the three intended crews successfully boarded and operated the station, brought by Soyuz 14. Soyuz 15 attempt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manned Orbiting Laboratory
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from early USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites, and was a successor to the canceled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane. Plans for the MOL evolved into a single-use laboratory, for which crews would be launched on 30-day missions, and return to Earth using a Gemini B spacecraft derived from NASA's Gemini spacecraft and launched with the laboratory. The MOL program was announced to the public on 10 December 1963 as an inhabited platform to demonstrate the utility of putting people in space for military missions; its reconnaissance satellite mission was a secret black project. Seventeen astronauts were selected for the program, including Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut. The prime contractor for the spacecraft was McDonnell Aircraft Corporatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Station
A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitation facilities. The purpose of maintaining a space station varies depending on the program. Most often space stations have been research stations, but they have also served militarization of space, military or commercialization of space, commercial uses, such as hosting space tourism, space tourists. Space stations have been hosting the only continuous human presence in space, presence of humans in space. The first space station was Salyut 1 (1971), hosting the first crew, of the ill-fated Soyuz 11. Consecutively space stations have been operated since Skylab (1973) and occupied since 1987 with the Salyut program, Salyut successor Mir. Uninterrupted human presence in orbital space through space stations have been sustained since the operat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Chelomey
Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey or Chelomei (, ; 30 June 1914 – 8 December 1984) was a Soviet people, Soviet engineer and designer in the missile program of the former Soviet Union. He invented the first Soviet Pulsejet, pulse jet engine and was responsible for developing the world's first anti-ship cruise missiles and the ICBM program of the Soviet Union such as the UR-100, UR-200, UR-500 and UR-700. Early life Chelomey was born to a Ukrainian family in Siedlce, Lublin Governorate, Russian Empire (now Poland). At the age of three months, his family fled to Poltava, Ukraine, when the Eastern Front (World War I), Eastern Front of World War I came close to Siedlce. When Chelomey was 12 years old, the family moved again to Kyiv. In 1932, Chelomey was admitted to the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (later the basis of Kyiv Aviation Institute), where he showed himself as a student with outstanding talent. In 1936, his first book ''Vector Analysis'' was published. Studying at the insti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Functional Cargo Block
The Functional Cargo Block or FGB (from the Russian ', ', GRAU index 11F77) was part of the Soviet TKS spacecraft. The TKS spacecraft was intended to be used as a resupply craft for Almaz space stations and saw some test flights in the Salyut space station program. The TKS spacecraft was formed by mating a FGB with a VA spacecraft, with both the VA and the FGB being capable of independent operation. Following the development of the FGB for the TKS spacecraft, the FGB (without VA spacecraft) formed the basis for space station modules in the Soviet and Russian space program – these space station modules are to some extent called Functional Cargo Block (FGB) as well, like the Zarya FGB module. The FGB provides "functional" support in the form of electrical power, propulsion, guidance and docking; The support for "cargo" operations is supplied in the form of a pressurized habitable cargo storage section (accessible by the crew) and the externally mounted fuel tanks. History Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
