R-7 Rocket

TMA-12 blasts off yesterday

The basic design of the launcher which took Korea's first astronaut (or is she a cosmonaut as she went in a Russian rocket?) is over 50 years old and is very much a design classic.

The R1 in 1948

The first Russian built rocket was just a re-engineered V2 (or, more correctly, an A4) and was launched in 1948 under the technical management of Sergei Koralev ( properly, Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov) and was called the R-1.

A series of developments of the original R-1 followed (R-1B R-1D, R-1E and R-1V) and they carried the first scientific experiments and the first living creatures (dogs) into space on the very fifties retro-looking (retro rocket?) R-1D in 1951.

The R-1D. The first cool looking Soviet rocket.

Work took place on a series of rockets, or more properly missiles, for a variety of strategic uses but the race was on with the USA to build the world's first inter-continental ballistic missile.

The R5. The first missile to carry a nuclear warhead.

The R5 broke the altitude record for rockets in 1958 reaching 473km.

In 1953 Korolev began work on a ICBM launcher originally called the 8k71 (catchy!). It featured strap on boosters which gave what became the R-7 its distinctive (and very cool) look.

An early R-7 launch

The first three launches, in 1957, were all disasters but the fourth on August 21st 1957 was a success. The R-7 was 34 m long, 3 m in diameter and weighed 280 metric tons, it was two-stage, powered by rocket motors using liquid oxygen (lox) and kerosene and was capable of delivering its payload at around 8,800 km, with an accuracy (CEP) of around 5km. As an ICBM the rocket entered service in 1960 but it was not exactly a success. Only six launch sites were built and each site cost 5% of the Soviet defence budget. The rocket needed 20 hours to prepare for launch and this would have made it very vulnerable to enemy strikes.

Nasty, brutish and short. The R-7 ICBM

However, in parallel to its role as an ICBM the R-7 launcher was used to transport the Sputnik satellite into orbit on October 4th 1957. A brave thing to do for a rocket that had only had one successful and three unsuccessful launches!

The more elegant lines of the current Soyuz FG

Later the same basic rocket, with added extra stages, was used for all the Soviet and then Russian manned flight missions. The Soyuz version was first launched in 1963 and since then there have been around 1,200 launches of that configuration. If the earlier incarnations of the R-7 are included as well then the total number is around 1,700. In the early eighties the Soviets were churning out 60 a year.

Soyuz under construction

The current version is the Soyuz FG with a Fregat booster. A new version is due out this year. The rockets are assembled in a horizontal position which is much cheaper than the typical American vertical build. They are then transported by rail to the launch pad and raised up into the firing position.

TMA-12 in its gantry.

Preparing for launch

5,4,3,2,1

Lift-off!

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Koreans send babe into space.

Korea has its first astronaut in the better than average shape of engineer, Yi So-yeon.

Brarst off!

The 29 year old is the youngest woman to go into space and blasted off on the Soyuz TMA-12 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday.

So-yeon suggests a zero gravity activity to fellow cosmonaut Sergei Volkov which isn't in the official flight plan.

So-yeon, a bio-engineer, travelled with two Russian cosmonauts and and will rendezvous with the International Space Station tomorrow.

Frying high! But Ko San is about to be gazumped

The Korean's have given the Russians $20,000,000 to get an astronaut into space so must have been a bit miffed when the Russki's kicked the Korean's first choice astronaut, male mathematician (a dodgy bunch) Ko San, off the programme for, allegedly, borrowing technical manuals and taking them home to Korea (by mistake, allegedly).

TMA-12 heads out to the launch pad.

We all now expect a nice Hyundai rocket with four strap on boosters, air conditioning, CD player and built in Sat-Nav within five years.

Hyundai man reckons, "We could build one of those, no problem!"

Over 36,000 Koreans applied to be the country's first astronaut and posed the problem for the Russians of how to produce dog-flavoured squeezy space meals. Never mind, it wouldn't be the first time the Russians have blasted dog into space.

How are you feeling? "Ruff!"

Laika (Russian for "barker"!) was not only the first living thing (or Earthling, anyway) into space but the first female. Of course she was never meant to survive her flight in Sputnik 2 and died five to seven hours into the flight on November 3rd 1957. The capsule was burned up on re-entry five months later thus barbecueing what was left of poor Laika. Which brings us neatly full circle to Koreans in space.

Anyway, Agent Triple P wishes So-yeon a good flight and happy randings!

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