ZOND 1, THE SOVIET SPACECRAFT TO REACH VENUS

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of one of her closest friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon. Joseph loves Astronomy, and they have been talking about Zond 1, the spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program that was launched on a day like today in 1964.

Zond 1 was a spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program.

It was the second Soviet research spacecraft to reach Venus, although communications had failed by that time.

It carried a 90 cm spherical landing capsule, containing experiments for chemical analysis of the atmosphere, gamma-ray measurements of surface rocks, a photometer, temperature and pressure gauges, and a motion/rocking sensor in case it landed in water.

At least three previous Soviet planetary probes had been lost due to malfunctions of the ullage rockets (BOZ) on the Blok L stage, but an investigation found that the problem was easily resolved.

The spacecraft, a Venera 3MV-1, was launched on April 2, 1964 from Tyuratam and this time the launch vehicle performed flawlessly.

During the cruise phase, a slow leak from a cracked sensor window caused the electronics compartment to lose air pressure. This was a serious problem as Soviet electronics relied on vacuum tubes which would overheat without cooling air. An ill-timed command from ground control turned on its radio system while there was still a rarefied atmosphere inside, causing the electronics to short out by corona discharge.

More information: Russian Space Web

Chief Designer Sergei Korolev was upset at the failure of the mission and demanded higher quality control from the OKB-1 Bureau, including X-rays to test for pressure leaks.

By mid-April, the electronics in the main spacecraft had completely failed and all signal transmission ceased, but communication via the lander could still be performed, and space radiation and atomic-hydrogen spectrometer measurements were received.

The star trackers in the spacecraft were also used to align it for a course-correction burn, but the second one was off by 20 meters per second. Also, one of the star trackers failed, forcing ground controllers to place Zond 1 into a spin-stabilization mode. However, all communications had failed by May 14. It passed 100,000 km from Venus on July 14, 1964.

A similar design of landing capsule was used in Venera 3.

Zond's missions were presented as engineering tests by the Soviet Union and to an extent at least that may have been the case Western observers at the time suggested that the name was used as a cover for failed missions in the same manner that Kosmos designations were used for missions that failed to leave Earth orbit. More recently it has been suggested that Zond was genuinely the internal program designation for engineering tests, but Zond 1 would have been upgraded to Venera had it been more successful.

Zond 1 was actually the second craft that was meant to carry the Zond name, but its predecessor failed to leave Earth orbit and was designated Kosmos 21.

More information: NASA

Spaceflights can’t be stopped.
This isn’t the work of any one man or even a group of men.
It is a historical process which mankind is carrying out
in accordance with the natural laws of human development.

 

Yuri Gagarin

SPUTNIK 1: A WON SOVIET BATTLE DURING THE COLD WAR

Saint Francis of Assisi's church, Poble Nou

Today, October 4, is Saint Francis of Assisi the women’s Order of Saint Clare founder.

The Grandma went to a Franciscan school when she was young and she remembers this day singing and praying to Saint Francis, to the animals and to the sun. It was a real nightmare for a child. But today, The Grandma wants to congratulate all people who celebrate their day, especially Paqui Jones and Paqui Bean.

Franciscus means the Frenchman and it is widely used in most Romance languages, including Italian, Catalan, French, Occitan and Castilian, and place of origin is Italy. It is derived from the same source as the female name Frances, and the male names Francesco, Francesc, Francis and Francisco.

The Grandma is going to visit the Saint Francis of Assisi's church in El Poble Nou, Barcelona, where she has a meeting with Joseph de Ca'th Lon who is going to explain her one of the most interesting things that happened on a day like today in 1957: the Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, was launched.

During the travel by urban bus, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Chapter 36).

More information: Travel and holidays

Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere.

It was a 58 cm diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable even by radio amateurs, and the 65° inclination and duration of its orbit made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth. This surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, a part of the Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments.

A Soviet scientist works in the Sputnik 1

Tracking and studying Sputnik 1 from Earth provided scientists with valuable information. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave data about the ionosphere.

Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR, now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The satellite travelled at about 29,000 kilometres per hour, taking 96.2 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. 

Sputnik burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earth's atmosphere, after three months, 1440 completed orbits of the Earth, and a distance travelled of about 70 million km.

More information: Russian Space Web

On 17 December 1954, chief Soviet rocket scientist Sergei Korolev proposed a developmental plan for an artificial satellite to Minister of Defence Industry Dimitri Ustinov. Korolev forwarded a report by Mikhail Tikhonravov with an overview of similar projects abroad. Tikhonravov had emphasized that the launch of an orbital satellite was an inevitable stage in the development of rocket technology.

Sergei Korolev

On 29 July 1955, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced through his press secretary that the United States would launch an artificial satellite during the International Geophysical Year (IGY).

A week later, on 8 August, the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approved the proposal to create an artificial satellite. On 30 August Vasily Ryabikov, the head of the State Commission on R-7 rocket test launches, held a meeting where Korolev presented calculation data for a spaceflight trajectory to the Moon. They decided to develop a three-stage version of the R-7 rocket for satellite launches.

The control system of the Sputnik rocket was adjusted to an intended orbit of 223 by 1,450 km, with an orbital period of 101.5 min. The trajectory had been calculated earlier by Georgi Grechko, using the USSR Academy of Sciences' mainframe computer.

More information: BBC

The Sputnik rocket was launched on 4 October 1957 at 19:28:34 UTC, 5 October at the launch site, from Site No.1 at NIIP-5. Telemetry indicated that the strap-ons separated 116 seconds into the flight and the core stage engine shut down 295.4 seconds into the flight.  At shut down, the 7.5 tonne core stage with PS-1 attached had attained an altitude of 223 km above sea level, a velocity of 7,780 m/s and velocity vector inclination to the local horizon of 0 degrees 24 minutes. This resulted in an initial orbit of 223 kilometres by 950 kilometres, with an apogee approximately 500 kilometres lower than intended, and an inclination of 65.1 degrees and a period of 96.2 minutes.

October 4, 1957 when Sputnik 1 was launched

The launch came very close to failure, a postflight examination of telemetry data found that the Blok G strap-on had not attained full power at ignition and the resulting imbalanced thrust caused the booster to pitch over about 2° six seconds after liftoff.

Two seconds later, the flight control system tried to compensate by rapidly moving the vernier engines and stabilizer fins. The Blok G strap-on finally reached 100% thrust only one second before the pitch angle would have been great enough to trigger an automatic shutdown command, which would have terminated the launch and sent the R-7 and Sputnik 1 crashing to the ground in a fireball only a short distance from the pad.

More information: Space I & II

Sputnik 1 was not immediately used for Soviet propaganda. The Soviets had kept quiet about their earlier accomplishments in rocketry, fearing that it would lead to secrets being revealed and failures being exploited by the West. When the Soviets began using Sputnik in their propaganda, they emphasized pride in the achievement of Soviet technology, arguing that it demonstrated the Soviets' superiority over the West.

People were encouraged to listen to Sputnik's signals on the radio and to look out for Sputnik in the night sky. While Sputnik itself had been highly polished, its small size made it barely visible to the naked eye. What most watchers actually saw was the much more visible 26 meter core stage of the R-7.

Sputnik 1

Shortly after the launch of PS-1, USSR President Nikita Khrushchev pressed Korolev to launch another satellite in time for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution on 7 November 1957.

Initially U.S. President Eisenhower was not surprised by Sputnik 1. He had been forewarned of the R-7's capabilities by information derived from U-2 spy plane overflight photos, as well as signals and telemetry intercepts. The Eisenhower administration's first response was low-key and almost dismissive. Eisenhower was even pleased that the USSR, not the U.S., would be the first to test the waters of the still-uncertain legal status of orbital satellite overflights.  

Eisenhower had suffered the Soviet protests and shoot-downs of Project Genetrix (Moby Dick) balloons and was concerned about the probability of a U-2 being shot down. To set a precedent for freedom of space before the launch of America's secret WS-117L spy satellites, the U.S. had launched Project Vanguard as its own civilian satellite entry for the International Geophysical Year.

Eisenhower greatly underestimated the reaction of the American public, who were shocked by the launch of Sputnik and by the televised failure of the Vanguard Test Vehicle 3 launch attempt. The sense of fear was inflamed by Democratic politicians and professional cold warriors, who portrayed the United States as woefully behind.

More information: National Archives

The launching of the first two Soviet Sputniks has already thrown 

a sturdy bridge from the earth into space, 

and the way to the stars is open.

Sergei Korolev