According to these documents, problems with the proton-K rocket could disrupt the USSR's lunar program
MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Roscosmos published on its website declassified materials about the development and launch of the Luna-17 heavy automatic station, which landed on the surface of The earth's natural satellite 50 years ago, on November 17, 1970. From the documents, in particular, it follows that repeated accidents with proton-K missiles could lead to the disruption of the Soviet Union's lunar program, since it was planned to launch Luna-17 using this carrier.
The station was launched on November 10, 1970, a few days later it entered the orbit of the moon, then the engines were turned on for braking, and the landing platform gently descended to the surface of The earth's satellite on November 17. After the first radio session and transmission of a photo-television panorama of the surrounding area to the flight control Center in Crimea, ladders were deployed on the landing platform at the command from the Ground. Lunokhod-1, the world's first remote - controlled mobile scientific laboratory, slid down them to the ground. This was the third generation of Soviet automatic "lunniki".
Lunokhod-1 operated until September 30, 1971, which was three months longer than planned. For 301 days, 6 hours and 37 minutes, the device covered a distance of 10,540 m on the lunar surface, surveyed an area of 80 thousand square meters, worked out 537 cycles for determining the physical and mechanical properties of the surface and performed chemical analysis of the lunar soil at 25 points. 211 lunar panoramas and 25,000 images were transmitted to Earth.
However, the successful launch of the Luna-17 station was preceded by many problems, including those related to the backlog of necessary work on individual units. Also, several emergency launches took place before that, each one needed to be carefully analyzed and the reasons for failures identified.
Time lag
According to the declassified order of the Minister of General mechanical engineering of the USSR Sergey Afanasyev dated November 17, 1967, " work on the E-8 [Lunokhod] object has not yet been fully deployed and is being conducted with a significant lag."
"The main organization for the E-8 facility-the Lavochkin plant-did not provide guidance to related organizations and did not show sufficient requirements for them during the design of the facility, as well as in the process of developing technical documentation," the order noted.
The Minister also noted that the parent company has not fully completed preparations for the production of the lunar Rover. The order emphasizes that the Himmash design Bureau is manufacturing engines for fire tests as part of the propulsion system with a delay of seven months from the established deadlines. "Production of flight engines is almost not started," the document says.
The lag in a number of products continued in 1968 and in 1969.
Already in March 1968, at a meeting of the Board of the Ministry of General engineering (minobshchemash), the issue of building a lunodrome in Yevpatoria for testing the lunar Rover remote control system was considered.
Failure analysis
One of the published documents addressed to Minister Afanasyev on the progress of work on the lunar Rover from may 6, 1969 shows the schedule of launches of the E-8 complex. At the same time, it was noted that the experimental development of the complex was completed, "but the launch of the first object E-8 was made on February 19, 1969 and ended in an accident due to the destruction of the head fairing on the active launch site."
Launches of the second and third e-8 flight facilities are scheduled to take place in the fall, October 20 and November 18, 1969, according to the document.
On may 8, 1969, the Board of the Ministry of Defense discussed the work plan for the exploration of the moon, Venus and Mars by automatic stations and the progress of work on the lunar Rover and the station.
"The timing of launches of the most important space objects in accordance with the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was disrupted due to failures in the previous launches of the 8k82k (proton-K) carriers due to the emergency operation of the engines, "the minutes to the Board meeting say. The previous emergency launch of Proton-K, referred to in the document, took place on April 2, 1969, just over a month before the Board meeting.
The Protocol emphasizes that responsible persons should " pay serious attention to the issues of ensuring the reliability of the carrier and take the necessary measures."
It is also noteworthy that the Board was strictly instructed to prepare proposals for the lunar exploration program for the next period, "if the Americans complete the Apollo program in July this year, keeping in mind the priority in lunar exploration for the Soviet Union."
Repeated heavy carrier crashes
The beginning of 1970 was again marked by criticism of the parent companies and related companies for the lunar program. In the order of the Ministry of defense Of January 22, 1970, it is noted that the state of Affairs for the production and flight design tests of the lunar Rover and the E-8-5 complex, designed to deliver lunar soil to Earth, continues to be unsatisfactory.
On April 22, 1970, Minister Afanasyev issued an order on measures to improve the reliability of the 8k82k (proton-K) launch vehicle. "After hearing and discussing the report on the state of work to ensure the reliability of the 8k82k product (proton-K launch vehicle) and its readiness to continue flight design tests as part of the e-Z, E-8-5 and other complexes, the Board of the Ministry of General engineering noted that the launch plan for space objects E-8, E8-5 and L1 in the first half of 1970 will not be fulfilled," the document says.
The situation was critical, because without the proton-K rocket, the lunar program could not be continued, because it was on this carrier that the Luna-17 station should be launched.
The very next day, April 23, the Board of the Ministry of Defense considered the reasons for several emergency launches of proton-K launch vehicles, which led to the actual failure of the launch program for the lunar Rover and the E-8-5 complex.
The results of space achievements are brought to the UN
In the fall of 1970, the Lavochkin Plant reported on the results of training groups of lunar Rover operators to control the device on the lunar surface.
As stated in the published certificate of pre-launch training on October 30, 1970, signed by the chief designer of the Lavochkin Plant Georgy Babakin, the results of the Lunokhod-1 exceeded all expectations, and the many months of training at the lunodrome in the Crimea were of great importance.
As a result, on November 10, 1970, the proton-K launch vehicle successfully launched the Luna-17 heavy automatic station with a lunar Rover on Board from the Baikonur cosmodrome.
The Roscosmos website published an information note to the Chairman of the UN Committee on the peaceful uses of outer space. The document contains a list of objects launched by the Soviet Union into orbit around the Earth and further into outer space from October 31 to February 9, 1971, including the Luna-17 station.
Roscosmos also published a set of documents prepared by the sports Commissioner of the USSR aviation sports Federation, Ivan Borisenko, to the International aviation Federation (FAI), an organization whose statutory activities included setting standards and registering records in aviation and cosmonautics. The documents contain scientific and technical priority achievements and world records provided by the automatic station "Luna-17"and" Lunokhod-1".