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| US-A Credit: Mark Wade. 22,713 bytes. 640 x 212 pixels. |
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| US-A Credit: Mark Wade. 22,713 bytes. 640 x 212 pixels. |
Nuclear powered RORSAT (Radar Ocean Reconnaisance Satellite). Beginning in the late 1950's, Chelomei began studying use of his encapsulated cruise missile technology for spacecraft. A whole family of unmanned spacecraft, dubbed Kosmoplans, would be built using modular elements. One variant of the Kosmoplan would conduct naval radar and signals reconnaissance, launched by the UR-200 rocket.
In 1959, as Chelomei laid out these plans, he knew a tremendous struggle would be required to wrest a piece of the space programme from Chief Designer Korolev. But Chelomei had stacked the deck against Korolev by hiring Khrushchev's son as a lead engineer at his OKB. By 30 May 1960 Korolev presented to the Soviet leadership a plan that now included participation of Chelomei. One project allocated to Chelomei was theme US - Upravlenniye Sputnik - a naval reconnaissance satellite using a P6 nuclear reactor for active tracking and targeting American warships. This was to be developed in 1962 to 1964. Chelomei was authorised by Decree 715-296 of 23 June 1960 'On the Production of Various Launch Vehicles, Satellites, Spacecraft for the Military Space Forces in 1960-1967' to complete a draft project on unpiloted Kosmoplans.
The Kosmoplan's UR-200 (8K81) launch vehicle was approved for production on 16 March and 1 August 1961 by the Central Committee and Politburo. The Kosmoplan and UR-200 draft projects were completed in July 1962. Trial flights of the ICBM version ran from 4 November 1963 to 20 October 1964.
On October 13, 1964, Khrushchev was ousted from power. The new leadership, under Brezhnev, was adverse to all projects Khrushchev had supported, particularly those of Chelomei. An expert commission under M V Keldysh decide to cancel the UR-200, while the US was assigned to NPO Kometa MPP (Chief Constructor A I Savin), to be redesigned for launch by Yangel's R-36 rocket.
Two separate versions of the spacecraft were to be developed. The reactor-powered US-A and the solar-powered US-P, which would provide ELINT services for the Soviet Navy. The spacecraft was still by TsKBM MOM (Chelomei), the US-P's radio intercept system by TsNII-108 and the US-A's radar by NPO Vega GKRE. Flight tests began in 1965 aboard Tsyklon 2 rockets in two phases. Phase 1 was the US-P (entered service in 1971) and US-A was phase 2 (entered service 1975). Serial production of the US-A was by the Arsenal Factory, Leningrad.
The US-A had the worst reliability and quality problems of any Soviet system. It was not available often enough for good exploitation of the data. This, together with political problems caused by the inadvertent falling to earth of satellite reactor cores, led to it being abandoned at the end of the 1980's.
Total Mass: 3,800 kg.
Decree 420�1741 'On approval of work on the US satellite and UR-200 launch vehicle / ICBM' was issued.
An enabling decree was issued on 1 August 1961 by the Central Committee and Politburo. The UR-200 was designed not only to send a thermonuclear warhead over a range of 12,000 km, but also to orbit all of the Kosmoplan military variants: the IS ASAT; the US nuclear-powered naval intelligence satellite; and the Kosmoplan combat re-entry vehicle.
Decree 'On course of work on the US reconnaissance satellite system launched on the UR-2OO' was issued.
Trial flights of the ICBM version ran from 4 November 1963 to 20 October 1964. Versions of the Kosmoplan would fly as the reactor-powered US-A and solar-powered US-P ELINT satellites and the I2P ASAT.
Ministry of Defence Decree 'On military space programs for 1964-69, including the R spaceplane' was issued. The decree was issued by Defence Ministry Marshal Rodiono Yakovlevich Malinovksiy. Included in this plan were new versions of the automatic Zenit, More-1 (US series) spacecraft, the Spiral spaceplane, the Soyuz-R manned combat spacecraft, and others. Chelomei's Raketoplan spaceplane was cancelled.
Brezhnev faction assumes control of Politubro. Brezhnev was adverse to all projects Khrushchev had supported. These included those of Chelomei and his OKB-52.
Decree 'On Creation of an R-36 Based Carrier Rocket for Launching the IS and US KA--start of work on an R-36-based launch vehicle for the IS and US programs' was issued. After Khrushchev was ousted from power, Chelomei's projects were examined by an expert commission under M V Keldysh. It was found that Yangel�s R-36 rocket was superior to Chelomei�s UR-200. The UR-200 was cancelled; the IS and US satellites would be launched by the R-36 11K67. The Tsyklon 2 definitive operational version replaced the 11K67 launch vehicle from 1969.
Prototype RORSAT hardware using chemical batteries in place of nuclear reactor.
Prototype RORSAT hardware using chemical batteries in place of nuclear reactor. Lost on the 52nd revolution as a result of a possible failure in the chemical power units placed on board instead of the nuclear BES-5.
Council of Soviet Ministers (SM) Decree 'On use of the R-36-based launcher for the Kosmos and Meteor satellites' was issued.
Decree 715-240 'On the Creation of Space Systems for Naval Reconnaissance Comprising the US sat and the R-36-based booster -further work on the US naval reconnaissance satellite, approval of work on the Yantar-2K, and course of work on 7K-VI Zvezda'.
An entire family of Yantar spacecraft was proposed by Kozlov�s design bureau during the initial development; information on two film return models has been declassified. Yantar was initially derived from the Soyuz spacecraft, including systems developed for the Soyuz VI military model. During design and development this changed until it had very little in common with Soyuz.
Following numerous problems in the first flight tests of the Soyuz 7K-OK, Kozlov ordered a complete redesign of the 7K-VI manned military spacecraft. The new spacecraft, with a crew of two, would have a total mass of 6.6 tonnes and could operate for a month in orbit. The new design switched the positions of the Soyuz descent module and the orbital modules and was 300 kg too heavy for the standard 11A511 launch vehicle. Therefore Kozlov designed a new variant of the Soyuz launch vehicle, the 11A511M. The project was approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, with first flight to be in 1968 and operations to begin in 1969. The booster design, with unknown changes to the basic Soyuz, did not go into full production.
Prototype RORSAT hardware using chemical batteries in place of BES-5 nuclear reactor. First satellite to be boosted to 900 km storage orbit.
RORSAT hardware, repreentative of production hardware, but using chemical batteries in place of BES-5 nuclear reactor.
RORSAT hardware, repreentative of production hardware, but using chemical batteries in place of BES-5 nuclear reactor.
RORSAT hardware or unknown spacecraft test.
Ocean surveillance; either chemical batteries or nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; either chemical batteries or nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered. First RORSAT flight confirmed by Russian source to have had BES-5 nuclear reactor.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered. American 'sniffer' aircraft flew over the Pacific after this failure looking for radioisotopes traces in order to characterise the reactor.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 'On adoption of US-A with Tsiklon-2 into armaments' was issued.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered; failed immediately after reaching orbit.
Ocean monitoring; exploded June/July '76.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered; re-entered over Canada, spreading radioactive debris.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered; test flight of modified design.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance.
Ocean surveillance.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.
Ocean surveillance.
Ocean surveillance; nuclear powered.