The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War adversaries,the Soviet Union and the United States,to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security,and became part of the symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites,robotic space probes to the Moon,Venus,and Mars,and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon.
PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia,also known as RSC Energia,is a Russian manufacturer of ballistic missiles,spacecraft and space station components. The company is the prime developer and contractor of the Russian crewed spaceflight program;it also owns a majority of Sea Launch. Its name is derived from Sergei Korolev,the first chief of its design bureau,and the Russian word for energy.
The R-7 Semyorka,officially the GRAU index 8K71,was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War,and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1961,but was never deployed operationally. A derivative,the R-7A,was deployed from 1959 to 1968. To the West it was unknown until its launch. In modified form,it launched Sputnik 1,the first artificial satellite,into orbit,and became the basis for the R-7 family which includes Sputnik,Luna,Molniya,Vostok,and Voskhod space launchers,as well as later Soyuz variants.
Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny,Arkhangelsk Oblast,about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk,the cosmodrome dates from 1957. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile,it also served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7 and other rockets. Its high latitude makes it useful only for certain types of launches,especially the Molniya orbits,so for much of the site's history it functioned as a secondary location,with most orbital launches taking place from Baikonur,in the Kazakh SSR. With the end of the Soviet Union,Baikonur became a foreign territory,and Kazakhstan charged $115 million usage fees annually. Consequently,Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s.
The Voskhod programme was the second Soviet human spaceflight project. Two one-day crewed missions were flown using the Voskhod spacecraft and rocket,one in 1964 and one in 1965,and two dogs flew on a 22-day mission in 1966.
Human spaceflight programs have been conducted,started,or planned by multiple countries and companies. Until the 21st century,human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments,through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004,a new category of human spaceflight programs –commercial human spaceflight –arrived. As of July 2021,three countries and one private company (SpaceX) have launched humans to Earth orbit,and two private companies have launched humans on a suborbital trajectory. The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale defines spaceflight as any flight over 100 kilometers (62 mi). In the United States professional,military,and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 80 kilometers (50 mi) are awarded the United States Astronaut Badge. This article follows the FAI definition of spaceflight.
Vostok was a family of rockets derived from the Soviet R-7 Semyorka ICBM and was designed for the human spaceflight programme. This family of rockets launched the first artificial satellite and the first crewed spacecraft (Vostok) in human history. It was a subset of the R-7 family of rockets.
The Voskhod rocket was a derivative of the Soviet R-7 ICBM designed for the human spaceflight programme but later used for launching Zenit reconnaissance satellites. It consisted of the Molniya 8K78M third stage minus the Blok L. In 1966,all R-7 variants were equipped with the uprated core stage and strap-ons of the Soyuz 11A511. The Blok I stage in the Voskhod booster used the RD-0107 engine rather than the crew rated and more powerful RD-0110 used on the Soyuz. The sole exception to this were the two manned Voskhod launches,which had RD-0108 engines,a crew-rated RD-0107 but with the same performance.
The Soviet space program was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR),active from 1955 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Soyuz-U launch vehicle was an improved version of the original Soyuz rocket. Soyuz-U was part of the R-7 family of rockets based on the R-7 Semyorka missile. Members of this rocket family were designed by the TsSKB design bureau and constructed at the Progress factory in Samara,Russia. The first Soyuz-U flight took place on 18 May 1973,carrying as its payload Kosmos 559,a Zenit military surveillance satellite. The final flight of a Soyuz-U rocket took place on 22 February 2017,carrying Progress MS-05 to the International Space Station.
Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,Robert H. Goddard,and Hermann Oberth. First successful large-scale rocket programs were initiated in the 1920s Germany by Fritz von Opel and Max Valier,and eventually in Nazi Germany by Wernher von Braun. The Soviet Union took the lead in the post-war Space Race,launching the first satellite,the first man and the first woman into orbit. The United States caught up with,and then passed,their Soviet rivals during the mid-1960s,landing the first man on the Moon in 1969. In the same period,France,the United Kingdom,Japan and China were concurrently developing more limited launch capabilities.
The Polyot was an interim orbital carrier rocket,built to test ASAT spacecraft. It was required as a stopgap after the cancellation of the UR-200 programme,but before the Tsyklon could enter service. Only two were ever launched,the first on 1 November 1963,and the last on 12 April 1964. Both of these flights were successful.
The R-7 family of rockets is a series of rockets,derived from the Soviet R-7 Semyorka,the world's first ICBM. More R-7 rockets have been launched than any other family of large rockets.
The Luna 8K72 vehicles were carrier rockets used by the Soviet Union for nine space probe launch attempts in the Luna programme between 23 September 1958 and 16 April 1960. Like many other Soviet launchers of that era the Luna 8K72 vehicles were derived from the R-7 Semyorka design,part of the R-7,which was also the basis for the Vostok and modern Soyuz rocket.
Site 41,also known as Lesobaza and SK-1,was a launch complex at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. It consisted of a single pad,Site 41/1,and was used by R-7 derived rockets between 1959 and 1989.
The Vostok-L,GRAU index 8K72 was a rocket used by the Soviet Union to conduct several early tests of the Vostok spacecraft. It was derived from the Luna rocket,with a slightly enlarged second stage to accommodate the larger payload,and was a member of the Vostok family of rockets. It used the new 8K74 core instead of the 8K71 used on the original R-7 ICBM and the Luna boosters. The 8K74,first tested in December 1959,had a number of technical improvements to increase reliability and make servicing easier. Four launches were conducted between 15 May and 1 December 1960,three of which successfully reached orbit.
The Vostok-K,GRAU index 8K72K was an expendable carrier rocket used by the Soviet Union for thirteen launches between 1960 and 1964,six of which were manned. It was derived from the earlier Vostok-L;however,it featured uprated engines to improve performance,and enlarge its payload capacity. It was a member of the Vostok family of rockets.
The Vostok-2,GRAU index 8A92 was an expendable carrier rocket used by the Soviet Union between 1962 and 1967. Forty five were launched,of which five failed. It was derived from the earlier Vostok-K,with uprated engines. It was a member of the Vostok family of rockets.
The Vostok-2M,GRAU index 8A92M was an expendable carrier rocket used by the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1991. Ninety-three were launched,of which one failed. Another was destroyed before launch. It was originally built as a specialised version of the earlier Vostok-2,for injecting lighter payloads into higher sun-synchronous orbits. It was a member of the R-7 family of rockets,and the last Vostok.
The RD-0109 is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has single nozzle and is an evolution of the RD-0105. It was the engine used on the Vostok Block-E that launched Yuri Gagarin to orbit.
