Tsyklon
Overview, Supporting Facilities and Launch Vehicles of the Soviet Space Program *
By Dr. Charles S. Sheldon II*
1976-1980
* Prepared by the late Charles S. Sheldon II and Geoffrey E. Perry M.B.E. Dr. Sheldon was the Senior Specialist in Space and Transportation Technology, Mr. Perry is a Senior Teacher at Kettering Boys School, England, and the leader of the Kettering Group of amateur satellite observers.
THE MILITARY SPACE LAUNCH VEHICLE ("F")
The cumbersome SS-6 Sapwood ICBM represented a beginning for the Soviet intercontinental missile stockpile, but its use of cryogenics and awkward shape for potential silo use must have indicated fairly early that despite its continuing usefulness for space, it was not especially good for missile purposes, unless these were first strike. In a 1967 article m Red Star, General Tolubko stated that these surface launches of the (Sapwood) took a long time to prepare and that later version rockets were smaller and placed in silos. (48) As Soviet missile capabilities improved, they conducted more and more tests at the principal test site of Tyuratam which extended to the Kamchatka target areas, and then beyond to the mid-Pacific. These flights were often protested by the Japanese when target area closures were announced by the Russians. Photographs released by the U.S. Government of Soviet missile tracking ships in mid-Pacific and even of splashes of reentry bodies suggested that the United States was monitoring Soviet tests in the same way that Soviet ships monitor U.S missile tests. The Russians have always described these Pacific tests as further tests of carrier rockets, often signaling through variation in the language that new models were coming into the test program, rather than just continuation of earlier series. The observations made of the flights suggest they have definitely been tests of military missiles, not space carrier rockets as such. Every so often in the past, Soviet military leaders made specific reference to the high accuracy with which these tests delivered the "penultimate" stage of the carrier rockets to the assigned area.
As table 16 summarizes, the Western powers have assigned SS designators up through the SS-23 so far with four more unassigned, and there are NATO code names for most but not all of these, depending on whether they have been available on display or pictured in clear photographs. Of the longer range missiles, the SS-4, SS-5, and SS-6 have already been discussed in the context of their adaptation to space flight. At one time the SS-7 Saddler made up a large part of the Soviet missile inventory, but it was never put into a Moscow parade, and so far as can be judged was not adapted for space use. It was apparently a fairly modest capacity ICBM, which may have been the missile once shown in a rather blurred film clip from a Soviet movie and pictured on the cover of Missiles and Rockets magazine in the United States. The SS-8 Sasin was paraded in Moscow for a number of years, as the first Soviet ICBM ever given such public exposure. It seems never to have played a very prominent part in the inventory, but did become operational. According to U.S. Department of Defense testimony before Congress, the SS-11 replaced the SS-7 as the principal part of the Soviet ICBM inventory. Despite its extensive use, it has not been paraded in Moscow, and it does not seem to have come into space use. Having been hidden so carefully, it lacked any publicly known NATO code name until quite recently, but is now called Sego. It was also of relatively modest capacity.
Three other ICBM class missiles have been paraded in Moscow. These are the SS-9, SS-10, and SS-13. Taking them in reverse order, the SS-13 Savage is the technological equivalent of a Minuteman. But the Russians seem not to have favored solid propellant missiles for long range missile or space launch use. Some observers have said this is because their chemistry has not kept up with the same state of the art attained in the United States. In general, the Russians have moved from the early cryogenic systems to storable liquid propellants.
Figure 17 shows the SS-9 and SS-10 along with a concept of SS-11. The SS-10 Scrag was first paraded in May 1965 and has not been seen since 1971. It was a long, cigar shaped three-stage rocket described by the Russians as "akin" to the Vostok launcher (which was then still 2 years away from its first public unveiling). The stages were joined by open truss sections. The Russians also hinted that this vehicle was capable of putting a bomb in orbit for delivery to any place on Earth. In November 1965, when it was paraded again, the Russians were a little defensive in their comments stressing it did not violate any treaty restrictions on use of space weapons because such agreements prohibited their use, not their production. Further, they said in a sense, every ICBM is a space weapon, anyway, as all such missiles fly through space and their use is permitted under the terms of the space treaty.
USE AS A WEAPONS CARRIER, F-l-r
When Soviet test flights of fractional orbit bombardment systems (FOBS, see volume III) began in 1966, unofficial Western observers wondered if they were seeing the SS-10 Scrag being flown. Later, the U.S. Department of Defense credited the FOBS flights to the SS-9 Scarp with added stages. Apparently the SS-10 Scrag never entered the operational inventory. It was paraded again in May 1966 and November 1966. The same brief description of its orbital use continued. However, when it was paraded in November 1967, no reference was made to an orbital capacity, and in the parade appeared for the first time the SS-9 Scarp. The Tass report on this new SS-9 was: "The last to appear were mammoth rockets each of which can deliver to target nuclear warheads of tremendous power. These rockets can be used for intercontinental and orbital launchings." (49)
The SS-9 has indeed become an important element in the Soviet arsenal, and in retrospect it is possible to trace its further extension to use in the space program as well, for missions closely allied with military functions, but not the more civilian and scientific part of the space program.
In December 1965, the Russians announced rocket tests which they called tests of "landing systems" with "some elements" falling in the Pacific (staging, not payloads), which fitted the operational pattern of FOBS flights which came later. In November 1966, General Dankevich associated orbital rockets with silo launches, and said these vehicles carried very large warheads. (50) Secretary Laird in the United States stated that the SS-9 Scarp was the carrier of the FOBS system. (51)
The SS-9 Scarp was paraded as a 33.2-35 meter long, bottle-shaped rocket, with a principal diameter of 3 meters. In the parade the warhead section was about 1.15 meters in diameter, then expanding into a cone to join the main 3 meter diameter cylinder. It is hard to tell precisely whether the SS-9 Scarp as paraded was a two or three stage vehicle. It may have been divided at about 17.5-19.7 meters up from the base, with perhaps another 10.4-8.5 meters making up the second stage, and 5.3 meters making up either a third stage with warhead or simply a warhead.
Since for 2 years the SS-10 Scrag was described as an orbital weapon, it is possible that the third stage of that vehicle was transferred to the SS-9 Scarp for a further version which has not been pictured or put on display. In some of its space uses, a fourth stage is also required, to account for the patterns of debris or expended rocket casings which can be observed in flight. Figure 18 shows a concept of the F-l-r configuration based on SS-9 and SS-10. An alternative final stage is also depicted.
Our interest in this rocket in the context of this report is as a military space payload carrier, the F-l-r or F-l-m. We cannot say what the whole assemblage looks like today. From parade views, we know the first stage differs from that of the A class vehicles. While the A class uses a core with four strap-on boosters, the F class first stage shows six fixed nozzles, and four swivel-mounted vehicles enclosed in protective covers, while a plate covers the center part of the base. An article reviewing the use of the Scarp missile in its space-launcher role by dark was published recently m Spaceflight. (52)
The first known space use of the system was for FOBS tests, apparently in a four stage version. The first stage is sub orbital. A carrier rocket stage, whether second stage or third stage is not clear, is abandoned in the initial orbit attained. The Royal Aircraft Establishment gives its dimensions as 8 meters long by 2.5 meters in diameter. In flight, a further change in orbit occurs, and this places an orbital platform in still another position. It is from this latter object that retrofire occurs (hence the designator "r" symbolizing the retrofire fourth stage) which drives the warhead back to Earth, while the rest of the orbiting hardware continues in space for at least a few more orbits.
References:
1. SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS: 1976-80, SUPPORTING FACILITIES AND LAUNCH VEHICLES, POLITICAL GOALS AND PURPOSES, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN SPACE, ADMINISTRATION, RESOURCE BURDEN, FUTURE OUTLOOK PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF HON. BOB PACKWOOD, Chairman, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, UNITED STATES SENATE, Part 1, Dec. 1982.
48 Tolubko, V. F. Moscow, Krasnaya Zvezda, Nov. 18, 1967 , p. 1A.
49. Tass, Moscow , 0710 GMT, Nov. 7,1967 .
50. Dankevich, P. E. Interview on Moscow Radio. 1430 GMT, Nov. 18, 1966 .
51. Laird, Melvin R. Fiscal Year 1971 Defense Program and Budget. Feb. 20, 1970 , p. 103.
52. Clark, Phillip S., The Scarp Program,. Spaceflight, London , May 1981, vol. 23, pp. 147-152.
53. Clark, P. S., op. cit.
54. Perry, G. E., private communication to C. S. Sheldon, Oct. 9, 1980 .
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