Voskhod (rocket)

The Voskhod rocket (Russian: Восход, "ascent", "dawn") was a derivative of the Soviet R-7 ICBM designed for the human spaceflight programme but later used for launching Zenit reconnaissance satellites.^[1]^[2] It was essentially an 8K78/8K78M minus the Blok L stage and spec-wise was a halfway between the two boosters, with the former's older, lower-spec engines and the latter's improved Blok I design. Its first flight was on 16 November 1963 when it successfully launched a Zenit satellite from LC-1/5 at Baikonur. Boosters used in the Voskhod program had a man-rated version of the RD-0107 engine; this version was known as the RD-0108.^[3]

Starting in 1966, the 11A57 adopted the standardized 11A511 core with the more powerful 8D74M first stage engines, however the Blok I stage continued using the RD-0107 engine rather than the RD-0110. Around 300 were flown from Baikonur and Plesetsk through 1976, almost all of them used to launch Zenit reconnaissance satellites (one exception was the Intercosmos 6 satellite in 1973).

The newer 11A511U core had been introduced in 1973, but the existing stock of 11A57s took another three years to use up.

The rocket had a streak of 86 consecutive successful launches between 11 September 1967 and 9 July 1970.

References

^ Barensky, C. Lardier, Stefan (2013). The Soyuz launch vehicle the two lives of an engineering triumph. New York: Springer. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-4614-5459-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Hall, Rex; Shayler, David J. (2001). The rocket men: Vostok & Voskhod, the first Soviet manned spaceflights. London [u.a.]: Springer [u.a.] p. 226. ISBN 978-1-85233-391-1.
^ Kruse, Richard. "Historic Spacecraft - Soviet and Russian Rockets". HistoricSpacecraft.com. Historic Spacecraft. Retrieved 19 July 2014.

Voskhod (rocket)

See also

References