The roots of China's rocket and space power go back to the USSRRecent events in East Asia have once again drawn attention to the escalation of tensions, military capabilities and combat readiness of a number of countries.
First of all, this concerns China.
Beijing is watching Washington's defiant gestures in support of Taiwan's independence with great tension and fully armed. The PRC's response measures include the declaration of increased combat readiness, joint naval maneuvers with Russia, and demonstration firing towards the Taiwan Strait.
The same rejection of infringement of national dignity is evident in the DPRK's statement on the status of a nuclear power. The presence of missiles with a range of 13-17 thousand km ("Hwasong-15/17") is a strong deterrent argument, a reaction to the aggressive actions of unfriendly neighbors and visits of US figures to South Korea.
At the same time, Pyongyang continues to adhere to the moratorium on nuclear tests introduced in January 2018. As stated by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow sees "the restraint shown by North Korea in the missile sphere." But the missile power of the DPRK is based on Soviet or Chinese-derived and refined technologies.
WHERE DID THE NUCLEAR MISSILE MUSCLES COME FROMIn the mid-1950s, the Soviet government decided to transfer technical documentation and several samples of R-2 missiles to Beijing.
At the same time, the first Chinese students were admitted to Soviet technical universities, and our specialists went to China to advise future creators of rockets and satellites.
I had a chance to talk with Irina Strazheva. Professor MAI and the wife of Academician Mikhail Yangel spent more than one month on the banks of the Yangtze, educating engineers. I was happy to talk about working with them, about their insatiability in teaching. And on the cabinet there was a Beijing award: a large bronze medal for merits in education.
In the same years, Wang Yongzhi studied at MAI. Half a century later, the founder of Chinese manned cosmonautics sent memories of his teacher, academician Mishin. They were announced at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vasily Pavlovich.
1990s, Baikonur. Preparation for the launch of the next crew. The designer of the Barmin Design Bureau of General Mechanical Engineering accompanies Chinese colleagues at the launch pad. According to him, they are very interested in the technologies of "hanging out" the rocket and preparing for launch, they will acquire licenses… A few years later he asked: "Did you buy it?" - "No, but everything was carefully watched, filmed."
Our engineers also resorted to borrowing technologies when they copied German V-2 missiles, British engines, and American aircraft of the 1940s. And how much the neighbors from the East have succeeded in that! The PRC needed to create a defense "self-reliance". Our rocket scientists, nuclear scientists, aircraft and shipbuilders helped a lot until the mid-1960s.
"CHINESE" DEPUTY QUEENLittle is known about him.
He was born in 1919, graduated with a commendatory diploma from secondary school in Mordovia Ruzaevka, accepted into the MVTU without competition. During the war, he was appointed to a senior position at the Moscow defense plant, where he worked for five years.
A graduate of the Moscow State Technical University in 1945, Peter Meleshin, a year later graduated from Higher Engineering Courses at the same university. By order of the Minister of Armament, he is transferred to Kaliningrad near Moscow. From a design engineer, he rose to deputy head of the Scientific Research Institute-88. He became the leading designer of the R-2 rocket. At the suggestion of Sergei Korolev, he was approved by the Technical secretary of the Council of Chief Designers.
Meleshin was preparing the meetings. His observation is curious: "Sergey Pavlovich was not afraid to decisively abandon even a very good, seemingly, idea, even a large production reserve, if he began to understand that a rocket or a spacecraft in the future does not give the expected effect. At the same time, he carefully justified the motive for changing decisions."
The development of design documentation for the R-7 rocket began in 1953, after a meeting with Korolev. Defense Industry Minister Dmitry Ustinov stressed the urgency of the task and promised any assistance to the team. Due to the special secrecy, the work on the head parts of the "seven" was allocated to a special department No. 8 (head of the department Peter Meleshin, then Ivan Prudnikov).
The tasks concerned both the resistance to ultrahigh temperatures and the accuracy of separation with the last stage. As the 1957 launches showed, not everything went smoothly. But in the end, the result was achieved.
Meanwhile, along with concerns about improving the structure of the already independent OKB-1, the chief designer has new problems. The Government of the People's Republic of China appealed to the Soviet leadership with a request to help in the development of rocket technology in the People's Republic of China – including the direction of a group of specialists and teachers. This marked the beginning of a lot of work by the teams of design bureaus and research organizations and enterprises to assist China.
It provided for the transfer of two R-2 missiles (except combat warheads) and a complete set of their ground equipment. Specialists were sent to Beijing, components and systems were transferred, educational and methodological documentation on the R-1 and R-2 missiles (later the R-5) was prepared.
Pyotr Meleshin, who was approved by the deputy chief designer of OKB-1 ("for the solidity of representation" – that is, to increase the efficiency of work with local engineers and authorities), headed a group of fifty seconded.
In September 1958, our specialists and their families arrived in Beijing, where they were placed on the territory of a military camp. Sergey Korolev directly supervised the implementation of the directives of the USSR government on assistance. He carefully considered the candidates of specialists sent to China – both from OKB-1 and from related organizations. He studied recommendations to Chinese engineers, draft training programs, proposals for the selection of factories, sites for the construction of a test bed and a test site, was interested in the progress of production in China of the R-2 rocket (8ZH38).
On the Chinese side, the work was led by Academician Qian Xuesen (also known as Zeng Husheng), the future chief designer of space systems. Chinese specialists studied our rocket technology persistently and diligently. The atmosphere was friendly and confidential.
Combined with the high competence and authority of our engineers and technicians, this gave a positive result and laid a solid foundation for the subsequent rapid development of rocket and space technology in China. On November 5, 1960, the first launch of a Chinese ballistic missile took place. On the chest of Pyotr Meleshin – two medals "Sino-Soviet friendship".
In the same year, a sharp cooling of bilateral relations began; our specialists were recalled. Pyotr Ivanovich from OKB-1 was included in the joint commission with GSKB Barmina on the complex of ground equipment "Tsar-rockets" N-1. At the same time, Meleshin was one of the few who trusted contacts with outstanding nuclear scientists: Kurchatov, Sakharov, Khariton. In June 1966, Meleshin was approved as the lead designer, in September 1972 he was listed as a senior researcher – chief specialist. Knight of three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor. In China, by that time (April 1970), the first satellite had already entered orbit.
BEARERS OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF A NUCLEAR POWERThe level of military-technological developments of the People's Republic of China today is determined by the modern systems themselves.
If anti–missile weapons have existed, so to speak, since the last century, then anti-satellite weapons have existed since 2007. China already has three types of anti-satellite missiles.
The whole family of Chinese ballistic missiles of various ranges was gradually expanded and modernized. The DF-4 missile with a range of 4,500 km is the first mine–based product. And the new "Dongfeng" with two–digit numbers already have a multi-block warhead, each part of which has a capacity of up to 1 Mt.
At the parade in Beijing on October 1, 2019, DF-31AG mobile ground-launched strategic missile systems were demonstrated. The improved solid-fuel rocket in many ways resembles our Topol complex. It is believed that the DF-31AG ICBM, known in the past as the DF-31B, is equipped with several units with individual guidance. The flight range is up to 11 thousand km.
At the beginning of 2017, the DF-5S ICBM was launched. According to Western experts, with a launch range of 13 thousand km, the missile is equipped with ten individual guidance combat units, has numerous means of overcoming missile defense.
Along with dual–use satellites, projects of ultra-high-frequency (microwave) weapons are being developed as an asymmetric response to the dominance of American satellite threats. Beijing has its own Beidou space navigation group. Hypersonic missiles are now in the arsenal.
TO THE MOON AND MARSAt the turn of the XXI century, the first unmanned Shenzhou spacecraft was launched into orbit.
Following several test launches in 2005, the first taikonaut Yang Liwei went into space. China has become the world's third space power capable of putting manned ships into orbit.
The mission of the three Taikonauts is to build up the structure of the Tiangong orbital station, which has been plowing near–Earth space since last year. We are talking about the docking of two laboratory modules to the base case at once. In the future, the mass of the station is 90 tons. In addition to the taikonauts squad of 14 people, the space program includes the launch of automatic stations to the Moon and Mars.
Moreover, in the first case, the device landed on the invisible side of the celestial body. And launched in 2021 from the five-ton orbiter "Tianwen-1" (translated as "Questions to the sky"), the rover "Zhuzhong" (named after the Chinese god of fire), after walking two kilometers, "fell asleep" on command from Earth for the period of the Martian winter.
For interplanetary missions, a heavy-class launch vehicle was already required. "Changzheng-5" ("The Great Campaign-5") he made his first flight in 2016. In terms of payload capacity, the carrier is second only to two American ones – the Delta IV Heavy and Falcon Heavy. The Changzheng-9 superheavy rocket is being designed for a flight to Jupiter and a mission to deliver soil from Mars.
And China can also boast of the successful launch of a reusable suborbital spacecraft. As well as the world's largest terrestrial radio telescope with a mirror diameter of 500 m. Next in line is a network of telecommunications satellites of 13 thousand vehicles, Earth remote sensing satellites, asteroid development projects.
Four cosmodromes have appeared in the country, more than a hundred satellites have been launched, including foreign ones. Already in 2018, China became a world leader – 37 launches per year. In 2021, their number has grown to 55.
PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATIONAt the end of the twentieth century, already under agreements with the Russian Federation, China was assisted in the development of a manned spacecraft, the creation of spacesuits and methods of training astronauts.
In the conditions of the new world order, the task of mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of high technologies is becoming more and more important. As well as peaceful space exploration and prevention of actions with the threat of the use of nuclear weapons. If in the first part Beijing is interested in our RD-180 engines, nuclear engine projects and a joint lunar base project, then in the second direction we are talking about strategic interaction of politicians, the adaptation of military doctrines to new realities, joint or complementary exercises and maneuvers. On cooperation on global satellite programs GLONASS and Beidou, on countering military information and other threats from the unfriendly West.
And the successes of Chinese space technologies already play an important role in the transformation of the national economy, stimulate the development of a number of advanced industries, increase the international competitiveness and prestige of the PRC.
Alexander PeslyakAlexander Mikhailovich Peslyak – Candidate of Philosophical Sciences.
