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Further Reading

Earth Orbit Tracking in the USSR/Russia

1971-1975

Soviet public statements about their tracking capabilities for the early years made particular reference to optical tracking facilities. These were in many parts of their own country. They also encouraged observers in Soviet bloc countries to send reports of observations to Moscow . Some of the equipment was relatively simple: only a few more advanced telescope systems were pictured, with no indication of how many of these better systems there were.

Even with Soviet reticence in discussing more than optical tracking there were Western reports of a network consisting of a master station and twelve others equipped with receivers to measure Doppler shifts in radio signals, tracking radars, and photo theodolites, transmitting data to a central computation center. (31) Four such stations were revealed as to location by the Russians in 1964 in a COSPAR report. (32)

The first official and more extensive listing came in connection with the Apollo Soyuz Test Project in 1975. This included the following seven land bases: Yevpatoriya, Tbilisi , Dzhusaly, Kolpashevo, Ulan-Ude , Ussuriyisk, and Petropavlovsk . (33) More likely than not, there are other stations to meet the needs of particular programs.

In addition to tracking stations tied to specific programs, the Russians have a space defense system, akin to the facilities which feed data to NORAD on this continent. There have been frequent references in the Western press to their ABM defense system, which of necessity is not only a missile launching system, but is also an elaborate tracking system, built around large arrays of radar referred to as Hen House. Any system which tracks long range strategic missiles also tracks space objects crossing Soviet territory or its approaches, regardless of nationality and absence of active signal emissions.

Because of the size of the Soviet Union in geographic terms, stretching as it does to a width close to two and a half times that of the continental contiguous United States , the domestic space tracking network does a better job of coverage than would a U.S. domestic system. But any worldwide tracking capability must extend beyond the political borders of any single nation.

1. SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS, 1971-75, OVERVIEW, FACILITIES AND HARDWARE MANNED AND UNMANNED FLIGHT PROGRAMS, BIOASTRONAUTICS CIVIL AND MILITARY APPLICATIONS PROJECTIONS OF FUTURE PLANS, STAFF REPORT , THE COMMITTEE ON AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE .SCIENCES, UNITED STATES SENATE, BY THE SCIENCE POLICY RESEARCH DIVISION CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, VOLUME – I, AUGUST 30, 1976, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1976,

31. Aviation Week, New York , January 28,1969 , p. 26.

32. Cospar Bulletin, No. 18, Paris , April 1964, pp. 10-11.

33. Aviation Week, New York . May 5, 1975 , pp. 42-43.