From the moment it was founded to the present day, our
organization - which was successively known under the names
of Special Design Bureau number 1(SDB-1)/TsKBEM/NPO Energia/S.P.Korolev
RSC Energia - has been successfully carrying out the most
daring rocket and space projects requiring revolutionary
engineering solutions. The organization has been changing
its name, while preserving and increasing both its production
capacity and intellectual resources. Today's powerful scientific
and engineering potential of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia allows
it to work on the projects of the highest level of complexity.
The history of S.P.Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation
is the story of the company and its people, who, in the
most difficult years that came after the end of World War
II, and then, in the tense years of the Cold War, were destined
to become pioneers in rocket and space technology, create
a new type of weapon which assured the parity between the
two opposing military and political alignments, and, for
many decades, retain a leading position in the most advanced
and science-intensive area of human endeavor in the twentieth
century - the space science.
The story of the pioneering days of the Russian rocket
and space technology is a story of people and their deeds,
the people who were united in their desire to protect their
country and save mankind from self-destruction in a nuclear
war. It is more than fifty years now since the day when
our company was founded and gave birth to the rocket and
space industry. In its early formative days, getting ahead
of its time and outstripping the existing level of technology,
it made possible a speedy development of the most efficient
system for delivering nuclear weapons to their targets,
which became the basis for creating the weapon of deterrence
- the nuclear and missile shield of our country. Rapid development
and improvement of this weapon made the countries in possession
of such a weapon to look for mutually acceptable compromises
and opened for the mankind the door to the study and exploration
of the infinite expanses of the Universe. In the designers'
rooms, on the shop floors, in the offices of the management
of the Special Design Bureau number 1 - now known as S.P.Korolev
Rocket and Space Corporation Energia - a new area of human
endeavor - the study and exploration of space as a new environment
for human habitation - was being born.
Foundations of the company were laid by S.P.Korolev. Over
the course of two decades, his most important contribution
consisted in his ability to transfuse his desire to fathom
the unknown to thousands of people who were working with
him, to continuously confront his team with creative challenges.
He knew how to arrive to a trade-off decision to solve
a problem, and to direct his team's efforts to the solution
of those problems that were the most critical at that
moment. At various times the company was headed by members
of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences Chief
- S.P.Korolev, V.P.Mishin, V.P.Glushko, Yu.P.Semenov,
V.A.Lopota, while its Experimental Machine-Building
Plant was headed by P.I.Maloletov, F.P.Gerasimov, R.A.Turkov,
V.M.Klucharev, A.A.Borisenko, A.F.Strekalov. Always
at their side have been their associates, a team of scientists,
engineers, workers, with state-of-the-art skills, who are
united in their complete dedication to their work, their
constant focus on the search for the most practical solutions,
systems approach in analyzing development trends, both
in the rocket and space technology as a whole and in specialized
problems that have to be addressed in order to further
its development.
High level of each employee's professionalism coupled with
the principle of joint decision-making became the rule guiding
the operation of our company, and assured the success of
the efforts to develop highly complex rocket and space technology,
which made it possible for our country to remain the leader
in manned spaceflight for many years. Pride of place in
the history of space science in our country is held by the
R-7 rocket design effort. This rocket, originally developed
at a short notice as a vehicle for delivering a nuclear
warhead to any point on the globe, became a starting point
for a long line of launch vehicle modifications that are
still being used for putting into space manned spacecraft
and spacecraft for various applications. The Special Design
Bureau Number One, the organization which started the missiles
industry and has been continuously building up its intellectual,
technological and production potential, happened to be chosen
by History to become the pioneer in virtually all the fields
of space industry in our country, as well as to play a leading
role in bringing into being and developing the world's space
science.
The reorientation of the Special Design Bureau Number One
towards space science was initiated by an S.P.Korolev's
memo "On the Earth's Artificial Satellite" submitted to
the Government in May 1954. The launch by our country of
the Earth's first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957,
ushered in the Space Age in mankind's history. After that
event, the Special Design Bureau Number One and its subcontractors
began living on a compressed time-scale. While the world
was still astounded by the launch of the Earth's first artificial
satellite, the company, concurrently with development of
missiles, speeded up its work on the interplanetary probes
for the study of near and deep space, the Moon, planets
of the Solar System, on unmanned spacecraft for observing
Earth's surface, and on space communications system based
on Molniya satellites. All this work was being done along
with addressing complex scientific, technological and logistical
problems attendant upon the formation of new production
facilities and providing support for the launch of a manned
spacecraft.
April 12, 1961 became the day of triumph for the Human
Mind. For the first time in history, a man-made vehicle
with a human onboard emerged into the expanses of the Universe;
for the first time in history, a human voice was heard from
space, a voice of a citizen of planet Earth, our compatriot,
Yuri Gagarin. It was a real exploit on the part of all the
participants in this work.
At the same time, on the initiative of S.P.Korolev, an
infrastructure was being established and developed for the
newest branch of the domestic industry - the rocket and
space industry which, in the ensuing years, was to become
one of the most advanced and promising fields of science-intensive
technologies. A characteristic feature of that phase was
the creation in our country of companies specializing in
individual fields of space science, which originated within
the walls of the Special Design Bureau Number One, and then
evolved into independent organizations. Later on, they became
the prime organizations for those fields (missiles systems,
communications systems, observation systems, etc.) and developed
rocket and space systems that were at least on a par with
the world's best technology, and in many cases even ahead
of it. The development of rocket and space technology made
it necessary to improve the governmental management structures
in our country. In 1960, within the organizational structure
of the Ministry of Defense, a new branch of military service,
Strategic Missiles, was established, from which Military
Space Force later emerged as a separate branch. In 1965
the Ministry of General Machine-building was established.
Paralleling this, both in time and from the standpoint
of the tasks addressed, was the development of the rocket
and space technology in the United States, with the work
in both countries being a competition in the implementation
of space research programs using manned and unmanned systems
and spacecraft.
The spirit of confrontation existing between the two superpowers
resulted in the USSR and USA embarking on their independent
hugely expensive projects to land a man on the Moon.
That competition, besides achieving political goals, has
enriched scientific and technological knowledge. Science
has acquired reliable information about the Moon and its
surface as a result of studies of the materials brought
back by US astronauts and data obtained from our country's
unmanned spacecraft, while industry has developed new technologies.
Upon completion of that work, the scientists and designers
were faced with a problem of defining what lines of the
manned spaceflight development should be further pursued.
The USSR chose to develop manned space stations and their
transportation and logistics support, while the USA gave
the priority to the development of a reusable manned transportation
spacecraft.
Common interests in space made the heads of the two countries
abandon their political ambitions and start working on the
joint Soviet-American project Soyuz-Apollo. Its implementation
was a success. Scientists and engineers of both countries
have compared the levels of their achievements in the development
of space systems, while politicians have displayed signs
of the two superpowers' mutual respect towards each other.
Unfortunately, that union proved to be short-lived. The
spirit of competition re-emerged. To demonstrate engineering
and technological capabilities of our country, a decision
was made to build a domestic reusable space system that
would be capable of at least as good a performance as its
US analog. Aggressive schedules, the need to coordinate
a large number of disparate companies, the novelty and complexity
of the design effort required a suitably extraordinary approach.
In our country, at that time, NPO Energia was the only
company in space industry which had experience in the development
of gigantic projects that were unique in their complexity,
and possessed the necessary scientific and technological
potential, and that was why the prime overall responsibility
for the project was given to our company. Despite the fact
that the work on that project started later than in the
USA, and the scientific, technological and logistical problems
that had to be addressed were enormous, our company, together
with its numerous subcontractors (amounting to more than
1200 organizations), has accomplished this task. A reusable
orbiter Buran was built and, in the course of its first
unmanned flight, performed, for the first time in history,
an automatic landing of a spacecraft of that class. The
capabilities of the Energia-Buran space transportation system
were many years in advance of its time, while some of its
performance characteristics were higher than those of the
reusable Space Shuttle system currently operated by the
US.
All the development work on the reusable space system Buran
at our company was being done concurrently with the operation
of space stations Salyut, development and the initial phase
of deployment of Mir space station, which also required
selflessness and complete dedication to work from our employees.
The path traveled in the exploration of space cannot be
measured in either the depth of theoretical studies, or
the number of rockets launched, or the exultation of witnesses
of space flights. Only by visualizing the entire path that
the mankind had to travel to reach space, the wide variety
of scientific, technological and logistical problems that
had to be addressed, and by reconstructing the drama of
ideas and the roles of personalities, can one truly realize
the greatness of this feat of science and the importance
of the scientific mission of the people who opened up a
new line in the civilization's historical development -
the practical utilization of space to benefit life on Earth.
The development of the space science required participation
of hundreds of thousands people, hundreds and thousands
of institutes, design offices and factories, their close
cooperation and coordination. A team effort to develop launch
vehicles and spacecraft implies not only the search for
a solution to scientific, technological and logistical problems,
but also hard, dedicated and selfless labor of their creators
who turn individual concepts, ideas and drawings into faultlessly
operating structures, equipment and systems; it implies
a highest degree of responsibility of the management and
engineering staff for working out and adopting specific
technical solutions.
Although not all of the things that were originally envisioned
have been achieved, the space communications and TV, and
the monitoring of weather and the Earth's surface from space
have become an integral and essential part of our everyday
life. No further advances of mankind in the search for the
most efficient areas of space exploration and utilization
can be possible without a well-rounded development of space
science, and manned space programs are playing a decisive
role in this process. The logic of international development
of space science has unavoidably led Russia and USA towards
cooperation in the development of a new-generation of manned
space stations in the name of advancing scientific and technological
progress and supporting man's activity in space. Both countries
consider cooperation in this field as one of the most important
areas that serve the interests of both Russia and USA, as
well as the entire world community.
The mankind is given a chance to pool its efforts in space
research and exploration to the benefit of the entire Earth's
civilization. Such pooling of efforts will allow to implement
not only the International Space Station development plan
currently under way, but also a more ambitious project
of putting a man on the surface of planet Mars!
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