H-1, apotheosis and epic fail of the sixties

Dedicated to the recent family trip to the museum of cosmonautics.

What is this post about?

I will try to tell in an accessible form about the most surprising and, probably, the most tragic episode of the Soviet cosmonautics - about the history of the development of the H-1 super-heavy rocket.

How it all began

The official start of the “N-1” project was laid down by the Decree of the Government of the Soviet Socialist Republic of June 23, 1960 “On the creation of powerful launch vehicles, satellites, spacecraft and the exploration of outer space in 1960-1967.” The Decree provided for “conducting in 1960- 1962 design study and the required amount of research in order to create in the coming years a new space rocket system with a launch mass of 1000–2000 tons, providing a heavy interplanetary spacecraft with a mass of 60–80 tons, powerful high-performance liquid-propellant rocket engines with high performance, Liquid rocket engine on liquid hydrogen, nuclear and electrojet engines, high-precision systems of autonomous and radio engineering control, space radio communication systems, etc. ”
')
In fact, the Resolution secured a sketchy design already underway at OKB-1 Korolyov of a launch vehicle designed for a wide range of tasks - outputting heavy geostationary satellites, a large orbital station, and finally launching TMK, a heavy interplanetary spacecraft.

For design studies, a variant with a payload mass of 75 tons in near-earth orbit was adopted. Calculations showed that such a mass would be optimal for the assembly in orbit of large stations and interplanetary ships. This value of the mass of the payload corresponds to the starting mass of a PH of 2,200 tons, and it was taken into account that the use of hydrogen as fuel on the upper steps, instead of the originally planned kerosene, will increase the weight of the payload to 90-100 tons with the same starting mass.

TMK

The H1-TMK complex is the brightest project of the Queen, the apogee of his work as Chief Designer. Despite the loss (and destruction) of archival materials, some information about this project, for which the H-1 missile was originally intended, has been preserved.

The original version, the ship TMK-1 was intended for a manned flight to Mars of a crew of 2-3 people along a fly-by trajectory (without disembarking) and then returning to earth.

TMK-1 had the following dimensions: total length - 12 meters, maximum diameter - 6 meters. The total mass of the ship was 75 tons, which allowed it to be withdrawn after 1 launch of the H-1 rocket.

TMK-1 included a living, working, biological, aggregate compartments, a descent vehicle for returning to Earth and a corrective propulsion system. After launching the solar concentrators and batteries of power supply, as well as antennas of communication with the Earth, the multi-month non-stop flight began to unfold on the flight path.
In order to cope with the problem of weightlessness, a variant of artificial gravity created by rotating individual units of the ship around an axis was proposed. Such a technique was relatively simple, but led to a new problem - the small size of the “centrifuge” led to the emergence of Coriolis accelerations that distort human perception of gravity and adversely affect the body. Then they decided to abandon the constant rotation and briefly turn on the rotation of the blocks only in certain areas of the flight.

To test the elements and blocks of the closed life support system on Earth, as well as clarify the psychological issues of the crew’s long stay in the closed volume of the ship, an analogue of the TMK dwelling compartment was built - a ground based experimental complex in which testers G. Manovtsev, V. Ulybyshev and A. Bojko .

The further development of the TMK project was the IEC - Martian Expedition Complex. The project received the informal name “Aelita”.
The ship consisted of two unmanned units weighing 75 tons each, which were put into orbit by H-1M missiles. The first unit, in turn, consisted of two sections - the IOC (Martian Orbital Complex) and the IPC (Martian Seeding Complex). The second unit was a complex of electric propulsion system (ERE) with a nuclear power source.
The overall length of the IEC was 175 meters, the maximum diameter was 4.1 meters, and the gross weight was 150 tons.

According to the plan, after the docking of the IEC / IPC blocks and the NEDD, the ship was taken out of the zone of influence of the Earth’s radiation belts. Then the crew was delivered to the complex with the help of the Zond ships. The acceleration of the complex was carried out along a gradually unwinding spiral. The duration of the flight to Mars and back was 630 days.
It was assumed that after the end of the active part of the acceleration, the nuclear power plant was turned off, the power plant switched to the “idling” mode and the complex made a passive flight for 150 days. Then the second active part of the flight to Mars begins - braking (61 days), flying along a twisting spiral to enter the ISM orbit (24 days), as a result of which the MEC finds itself in a near-Marsian orbit. During the 30-day ISM orbit, the IPC is separated from the complex, which will make a soft landing on the surface of Mars and will stay there for 5 days. After completing the research, the take-off part of the IPC starts from Mars, which goes beyond the orbit of the artificial satellite of Mars, carries out a mutual search, rendezvous and docking with the IOC. The astronauts go into the residential compartments of the orbital complex, and the landing ship that is already unnecessary is dropped.
After this comes the third part of the flight - the return to Earth. IOC engines are switched to acceleration mode, which lasts 17 days in the scope of Mars and another 66 days outside of its limits. After a long passive area, when the trajectory of the complex passes at the closest distance from the Sun (between Venus and Mercury), a 17-day active return area follows - in fact, this was done to correct the trajectory correction to reduce the flight duration by increasing the speed. Then again there is a passive segment, and three days before the flight to Earth, the nuclear propulsion system starts up again, reducing the speed of the complex. At the final stage, at the entrance to the Earth’s scope, the descent vehicle is separated from the IEC and makes a soft landing.

Metamorphosis

In 1961, US President Kennedy set the national task of becoming the first on the moon .

The Soviet space program at that time did not include a landing on the moon. The plans included the improvement of the manned spacecraft "North" and "Soyuz", the construction of an orbital station and the preparation of the TMK project. However, the political response from the Kennedy statement was so great that at the very top it was decided to “catch up and overtake”.

Since for the lunar program, first of all, an appropriate carrier is necessary, it is logical that the H-1, which is in sufficient degree of readiness, was reoriented specifically for flights to the Moon.

To this end, the development of a forced version of the “N-1F” began, capable of bringing 90 tons of cargo into a near-earth orbit, which was the minimum value for a manned flight of a two-person crew with one of them landing on the surface of the Moon at one launch and manned complex “L3” .

Unfortunately, the goal was not achieved. There are several reasons for this, which were thoroughly analyzed by experts in their time:

• Excessive forcing of the rocket. The dimension of 75 tons was quite enough for the initial tasks, but it was not enough for the flight to the Moon. The increase in carrying capacity up to 90 tons, which was produced in a hurry, led to a lack of well-developed design.
• Initially, the wrong choice of engine dimensions for the rocket. Instead of equipping the first stage with 30 (thirty!) Low-power engines, it was necessary to spend time and resources on designing engines of greater power. However, the personal conflict between the two designers, Korolev and Glushko, did not allow it.
• Refusal of gradual testing of units and blocks of the rocket on the stand. In order to save time, it was decided to debug the rocket by test launches. None of them completed successfully.

In addition to the lunar program for the "N-1" was prepared another application - as a global nuclear ballistic missile.
The Rask program included equipping the H-1 with seventeen warheads with individual aiming at the target. One launch of Rascal guaranteed to cover the entire territory of a potential enemy ...
Unfortunately, no details about the program "Roll" is not preserved.

Flight tests

The first launch of H1 carrier with the Zond-M unmanned vehicle as a payload on February 21, 1969 ended abnormally. As a result of a fire in the tail section (engine number 2) and a malfunction in the engine control system, this system issued a false command to 68.7 seconds to shut down all the engines, followed by the detonation of the carrier at a height of 12.2 km.

The second launch of H1 with the Zond-M unmanned spacecraft and the L3 lunar landing ship of the L3 complex was conducted on July 3, 1969 and also ended abnormally due to the abnormal operation of engine No. 8 of block A and shutdown of all engines for 23 flight, after which the carrier fell to the starting place. As a result of the largest explosion in the history of rocket science, one launching table was completely destroyed, and the second one was seriously damaged. It took two years to analyze the results of the tests, additional calculations, research and experimental work and restoration of the launch tables.

The third launch of carrier H1 with a model of an unmanned lunar orbital ship and a model of a lunar landing ship of complex L3 was held on June 27, 1971. All 30 engines of block A entered the preliminary and main stages of thrust and functioned normally, however, as a result of off-design unfolding moment when maneuvering away from the launching table, the rocket gained roll and continued uncontrolled flight without launching into orbit. Since, to guarantee the safety of the launch complex, the emergency shutdown command of the engines was blocked for up to 50 s, their shutdown by the monitoring system and undermining the carrier that had lost its head and started to collapse were 51 s and 1 km in height.
It is interesting to note the fact that the emergency rescue system worked properly, the lunar landing ship was taken away from the falling missile and made a safe landing a few kilometers from the launch.

On November 23, 1972, the last fourth launch of H1 was made with an unmanned lunar orbital ship and a mockup of a lunar landing ship of the L3 complex. Flight control was carried out for the first time by an on-board computer using the gyro platform commands (chief designer N. A. Pilyugin). The composition of the propulsion system introduced steering engines, fire extinguishing system.
The rocket flew without comment 106.93 s to an altitude of 40 km, but 7 s before the estimated time of separation of the first and second stages there was an almost instantaneous destruction of the oxidizer pump of engine number 4, which led to the elimination of the rocket.

End of project

So, the flight tests of "N-1" ended, in fact, with a failure. Despite the fact that there were two more missiles at different stages of readiness, it was decided to terminate the N-1 program. The main motive was that the USSR actually lost the moon race - and the manned circling of the moon and landing on the surface were by that time successfully carried out by American astronauts. The management did not see any other use for the N-1, the TMK project was postponed, and the military demanded the development of a program of long-term orbital stations (the Almaz and TKS projects) for which a rocket of this dimension was not needed.

In June 1974, all work on the H1-LZ complex was discontinued. The existing reserve was destroyed, the costs were written off (in the prices of the 70s, the costs amounted to about 4 billion rubles).

Comparison with analogues

The only analogue of the N-1 was at that time the American “moon” rocket Saturn-V Werner von Braun.

parameter	Saturn-V	H-1
number of steps	3	3
payload in earth orbit	140 t	90 t (100 t in the forced version)
payload on lunar orbit	41 t	31 tons (34 tons in the forced version)
fuel	kerosene and liquid oxygen in the first stage, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the second and third	kerosene and liquid oxygen
engines	first stage: 5 pcs. F-1 second stage: 5 pcs. J-2 third stage: 1 pc. J-2 total: 11 pcs.	first step: 30 pcs. NK-15 (NK-33) second stage: 8 pcs. NK-15V (NK-43) third stage: 4 pcs. NK-31 (NK-21) total: 42 pcs.

Making a direct comparison of the N-1 with the Saturn-V now, from the height of decades, it is, of course, easy to see the general backwardness of the “royal” project. But do not forget about the conditions in which these missiles were created. The lunar program in the United States had the status of a national project, NASA was created, coordinating all the work on the rocket, the ship, the training of astronauts, etc. and having almost unlimited funding. Korolev, on the other hand, was forced to work “on the table,” in fact, the H-1 was unnecessary. An attempt to catch up with America in the lunar race by forcing the development of the N-1 led, ultimately, to the collapse of both the Soviet lunar program and the missile, which was not originally intended for the "fallen down" tasks.

References to sources

www.buran.ru/htm/gud%2019.htm
ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D-1
ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BD_V
tvroscosmos.ru/?page=zarraketa
www.skeptik.net/conspir/mishin.htm
www.skeptik.net/conspir/append4.htm
physicsbooks.narod.ru/Apollo/N1/N1.HTM
polnaya-chush.blogspot.com/2009/02/34.html
astrotek.ru/proekt-aelita
astrotek.ru/tmk-tyazhelyj-mezhplaetnyj-korabl-kfeoktistova

PS I can not find a thematic blog for this post ...