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• Space

Marine Space Fleet - First Ships

In 1959, when preparing the program for launching interplanetary stations, a problem emerged: ground-based measuring points located on the territory of the country would not be able to see and control the “second launch”. This is the name of the moment of launching of the upper stage taking place over the Gulf of Guinea, which takes the spacecraft from an intermediate orbit to the desired trajectory. The problem was solved by installing telemetry equipment on merchant ships. In 1960, it was decided to rent four vessels from the Ministry of the Merchant Fleet and install the necessary equipment to obtain required information (motor ships - Krasnodar, Voroshilov-Ilichevsk, Dolinsk and the tanker Aksai).

Radio telemetry equipment was installed right on the berths of Leningrad and Odessa. Automatic telemetric stations, bodies along with the equipment placed in them were removed from the chassis of the cars, lowered into the cargo hold and mounted there in a marching manner. Benzoelectric power units were also placed there. In separate rooms, darkrooms were equipped. For each of the three vessels, an expedition was formed of 8-10 people from the personnel of ground-based measuring points and the employees of NII-4.

In 1960, all the ships were dispatched to the sea and started to practice. On August 1, 1960, these first vessels of the Marine Space Fleet [morskogo kosmicheskogo flota] went on a training flight. On the next voyage, in February 1961, these ships provided the launch of the first Soviet automatic interplanetary station Venera, and on 12 April 1961, together with the first TOGE-4 spacecraft, the flight of Yuri Gagarin. TOGE – USSR Navy missile range instrumentation unit, created to support ICBM launches in the Pacific. Since 1967, they began to be replaced by completely refitted vessels - the Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov and the vessels of the Selena project. And the first ships of the "space" fleet, having completed their task, returned to the Ministry of the Navy.

Voroshilov (Ilyichevsk) and Krasnodar have been withdrawn from the research fleet in 1965/66 and assigned to the Black Sea Shipping Company (merchant fleet). In the early 70s they were scrapped. Ilyichevsk went down in 1972. Dolinsk made its last voyage for space program in 1973 and returned to the Baltic Shipping Company (merchant fleet).

	Voroshilov / Ilyichevsk Merchant ship with telemetry equipment 10 expeditions from 1960 to 1966. Built in Haverton Hill, England * Displacement - 3,904 tons (GRT) Length - 110.6 meters. Speed ??- 12 knots. 1924-25 - "Tramore" (Brit.), 1925-33 - "Brazilian Prince" (Brit.) 1933-62 - "Voroshilov", from 1962 - "Ilyichevsk" 1960 - started service 1965 - deducted from service 1974 (?) - decommissioned
	Krasnodar Merchant ship with telemetry equipment 10 expeditions from 1960 to 1966 Built in Malmö, Sweden Displacement - 4,121 tons (GRT) Length - 113.69 m. / 367 feet Speed ??- 12 knots 1925-28 - "Skåneland" (Shvets.) 1928-45 - "Pernambuco" (German) 1945-46 - "Empire Dart" (British) from 1946 - "Krasnodar" 1960 - started service 1965 - deducted from service 1975 - disassembled in Split (Yugoslavia) )
	Dolinsk Merchant ship with telemetry equipment 14 expeditions from 1960 to 1973 Built in 1959 at the STX shipyard, Turku, Finland Displacement - 5,419 tons (GRT) Length - 139.4 m. Speed ??- 15 knots. 1960 - started service 1973 - deducted from service Dismantled in China - 1986
	Aksai Tanker and measuring point 10 expeditions from 1962 to 1972 Built in 1961 at the Rauma Repola shipyard, Finland Project 6404 Displacement - 5,000 tons Length - 105.4 m Speed ??- 14 knots. 1962 - started service 1972 - deducted from service Retired - 1984
	Ristna 10 expeditions from 1966 to 1976. Built in 1963 at the Neptune shipyard, Rostock, GDR Displacement - 6,680 tons Length - 105.8 m Speed ??- 13.5 knots. 1966 - started service 1976 - deducted from service Dismantled in Calcutta - 1995
	Bezhitsa 10 expeditions from 1967 to 1977. Built in 1963 at the Kherson Shipyard. Project 595 Displacement - 17,000 tons Length - 155.7 m Speed ??- 15.6 knots. 1967 - started service 1977 - deducted from service Dismantled at Chittagong - 1988