R-7 missile launches

[jcm]

In  discussions with Anik on the Progress M-12M failure thread, it became clear that there were two R-7 missile launches in 1966 that I didn't have in my lists.
It seems a good moment to summarize and review the R-7 and R-7A missile flight program incorporating info from 'Zadacha Ocoboy Gosudarstvennoy
Vashnosti', a recent book giving details of the 1957-1959 launches.

The R-7 (8K71) was the first, test version of the ICBM. After a partially successful flight in May 1957 and a failure in July, the Aug and Sep 1957
flights reached the Kura target region in Kamchatka but the reentry vehicles
distintegrated during descent. The Mar 1958 flight was the first in which a
reentry vehicle impacted the target  (it's not clear to me exactly what happened to the RV on the Jan 1958 flight). The R-7 had a distinctive long conical reentry vehicle (GCh, Golovniy Chast',  nose cone). I'm not sure if the R-7A had a different GCh, and I don't know what the specific designations of the GCh were.

The May 1958 flight had an engine failure toward the end of Blok A burn, and again
the unseparated Blok A/RV reentered near the target.

The Jul 1958 flight of missile B1-4 is reported (Spaceflight 38, 51)  to have been a suborbital
test flight of the 8K72, using the 8K71/III packet with a dummy third stage; it would
have tested stage separation had failure not intervened. I haven't seen confirmation of this in more recent sources.

The 1959 Feb 17 launch was the first rocket from Kubyshev Factory No. 1.
The 1959 May 30 and Jun 9 flights to Kura wildly overshot when the commanded shutdown did not
occur, and landed in the Pacific (the first at 43 45 30N 179 41 00W).


The 1959 Oct 22 and Oct 25 flights were targeted at the Pacific, to 38 45N 178 46E. The 1960 Jan 20 and Jan 31 (and presumably Jan 24, which failed) were also to the Pacific. As far as I know all other launches were targeted at Kura - it's possible some of the later flights in 1961-1967 were also Pacific targets, does anyone know?



The operational version R-7A (8K74) was first flown in Dec 1959.

[jcm]

Here is my list of R-7 and R-7A launches, comments welcome.

[Stan Black]

Good start, one small step…

Where does the 8K710 fit in?
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/photogallery/gallery_031/index.html

Or is it just 8K74 R-7A L1-12
http://internetelite.ru/cosmopark/r7/r7.htm
http://internetelite.ru/cosmopark/r7/r72.htm

[Stan Black]

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5311

[Stan Black]

 The two launches on 20^th and 30^th January 1960, featured blok-I third stage powered by 8D715, and an inert fourth stage with control system for the blok-I.

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/numbers/063/11.shtml
Soviet Rocketry That Conquered Space, part 4

[jcm]

 The two launches on 20^th and 30^th January 1960, featured blok-I third stage powered by 8D715, and an inert fourth stage with control system for the blok-I.

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/numbers/063/11.shtml
Soviet Rocketry That Conquered Space, part 4

Good catch. I've been a bit nervous about including this info because I haven't seen it repeated since, and I can't find it in original sources like 'Korolev i evo delo'. And the launches appear to be in the lists as 8K74
rather than 8K72 or 8K78. So,  what is the primary source for this information? Are we sure it is correct?
Or could it be a back reporting of the Western analysis of the TASS cover story for the Pacific impacts (when USSR didn't want to admit they were long range missile tests?)
If the Jan 20 and 30 launches were 8K78 test flights, what about the Jan 24 one?

[jcm]

Good start, one small step…

Where does the 8K710 fit in?
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/photogallery/gallery_031/index.html

Or is it just 8K74 R-7A L1-12
http://internetelite.ru/cosmopark/r7/r7.htm
http://internetelite.ru/cosmopark/r7/r72.htm

I imagine the 8K710 is an unflown variant.. I don't see where it is in your link though, can you give the image URL?

Oh, and I note that in Varlomeev's  more recent article - NK Jul 2007 No 7 p 70 - he lists the Jan 1960 flights as if they were regular 8K74 flights.
That's why I am worried...

[Stan Black]

Good start, one small step…

Where does the 8K710 fit in?
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/content/photogallery/gallery_031/index.html

Or is it just 8K74 R-7A L1-12
http://internetelite.ru/cosmopark/r7/r7.htm
http://internetelite.ru/cosmopark/r7/r72.htm

I imagine the 8K710 is an unflown variant.. I don't see where it is in your link though, can you give the image URL?

Oh, and I note that in Varlomeev's  more recent article - NK Jul 2007 No 7 p 70 - he lists the Jan 1960 flights as if they were regular 8K74 flights.
That's why I am worried...

I agree it is more likely an 8K74, number 12 in sequence: I1-1, I1-2, I1-3, I1-4, L1-5, L1-9… L1-12.

And it sounds more likely that the serials numbers of 8K71
1958 May 24 B1-13
1958 Jul 10 B1-14
Also why not include M1-6 in your listings?
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5311

KBKhA say 1st RD-0107 10^th October 1960. But would they have tested the engine with a live satellite?
http://www.kbkha.ru/?p=8&cat=8&prod=37

[jcm]

   

Oh, and I note that in Varlomeev's  more recent article - NK Jul 2007 No 7 p 70 - he lists the Jan 1960 flights as if they were regular 8K74 flights.
That's why I am worried...

I agree it is more likely an 8K74, number 12 in sequence: I1-1, I1-2, I1-3, I1-4, L1-5, L1-9… L1-12.

And it sounds more likely that the serials numbers of 8K71
1958 May 24 B1-13
1958 Jul 10 B1-14
Also why not include M1-6 in your listings?
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5311

KBKhA say 1st RD-0107 10^th October 1960. But would they have tested the engine with a live satellite?
http://www.kbkha.ru/?p=8&cat=8&prod=37

According to that link and to other sources, both attempts to launch M1-6
did not result in a launch - was a scrub or pad shutdown both times.
I'm only including things that got at least a cm or so off the pad.

The sources I have  say B1-3/B1-4, I agree your theory seems possible, but I'll keep what I have pending actual evidence.

And there's plenty of precedent (well, subsequent, I guess in this case) for using a live sat on the first launch.

[spaceman3]

In terms of the Jan 1960 launches, I have

1960 Jan 20 1935 8K74 I1-2 flew 12059 km
1960 Jan 24 1915 8K74 I1-3 failure due to explosion in Blok V, destroyed at T+31s
1960 Jan 31 1917 8K74 I1-4 success

As far as the earlier shots in 1958, what I have is:

1958 May 24 1330 8K71 No. 3 B1-3 failure of Blok A at end of burn
1958 Jul 10 1042 8K71 No. 6 B1-4 failure at launch

Asif

[jcm]

In terms of the Jan 1960 launches, I have

1960 Jan 20 1935 8K74 I1-2 flew 12059 km
1960 Jan 24 1915 8K74 I1-3 failure due to explosion in Blok V, destroyed at T+31s
1960 Jan 31 1917 8K74 I1-4 success

As far as the earlier shots in 1958, what I have is:

1958 May 24 1330 8K71 No. 3 B1-3 failure of Blok A at end of burn
1958 Jul 10 1042 8K71 No. 6 B1-4 failure at launch

Asif

Asif - that's consistent with my data.
For the Jan 1960 launches, do you agree that the story of dummy
upper stages is likely to be incorrect?

[edkyle99]

Below, I attempt to summarize where I think JCM, Anik, and the official TssKB Progress R-7 launch count numbers stand.  These are launch totals only.  Where there is consensus among all three, the numbers are listed only in the "consensus" column.

A surprising bit of variation, still, although these numbers are not adjusted for the recent "prelaunch" failure discussions for 8A92, 8A92M, 11A511, and 11A511U (one each included in Progress numbers but not in Anik's numbers).

                                           TssKB
           Consensus     JCM      Anik     Progress

8K71         26
8K71PS        2
8A91          2
8K72          4
8K72L         9
8K74         28         
8K78          -          24        40       40
8K72K        13
8A92          -          45 [1]    44       45 [1]
11A59         2
11A57       299       
8A92M         -          93        93       94 [1]
8K78M         -         296       280      279
11A510        2
11A511        -          31 [1]    31       32 [1]
11A511L       3
11A511M       8
11A511U       -         768 [1]   766      768 [1]
11A511U2      -          72        72       70
11A511FG     35
14A14-1A      8
14A14-1B      4

Note [1]  Includes one on-pad explosion each vehicle.

 - Ed Kyle

[anik]

I want to explain my statistical data.

For 8K78 I have taken TsSKB-Progress data due to they (I think) know better what rocket to name 8K78 and what rocket to name 8K78M.

As for 8K78M, I think TsSKB-Progress has forgotten to count her last launch in 2010, that is why difference.

TsSKB-Progress did not count yet last 11A511U launch.

As for 11A511U-2, there was discussion on Novosti kosmonavtiki forum that launches on May 22, 1993 and on May 22, 1994 were performed by 11A511U-2, not 11A511U. The first case - it was 11A511U-2, but she was fuelled by kerosene, the second case - it was 11A511U-2, but she was fuelled by kerosene and she was named 11A511U in documents.

[jcm]

I want to explain my statistical data.

For 8K78 I have taken TsSKB-Progress data due to they (I think) know better what rocket to name 8K78 and what rocket to name 8K78M.

As for 8K78M, I think TsSKB-Progress has forgotten to count her last launch in 2010, that is why difference.

TsSKB-Progress did not count yet last 11A511U launch.

As for 11A511U-2, there was discussion on Novosti kosmonavtiki forum that launches on May 22, 1993 and on May 22, 1994 were performed by 11A511U-2, not 11A511U. The first case - it was 11A511U-2, but she was fuelled by kerosene, the second case - it was 11A511U-2, but she was fuelled by kerosene and she was named 11A511U in documents.

I take your point about 8K78M;  [EDIT HERE:]  I'm adopting your totals.
To make the numbers come out right, in the 1966-67 period I am
assigning 8K78 to the Molniya comsat launches and 8K78M to the lunar/planetary launches - for now. Obviously I understand it won't really be that simple, and I'm flagging them with question marks until we get better data.

To comment on Ed's remark, I think we are doing pretty well on the major variants (Soyuz vs Vostok etc) The fine details of things like U vs U2 are good to have and I want to fix them,  but considering where we used to be I'm pretty impressed :-)  On the US side it's not so long ago that we sorted out the minor subvariants of Delta L, Titan 33B etc.

On Soyuz U2 based on your table and your remarks here, I am one off from you: in 1989 I have 6 not 5  (Progress 40/41/M/M-2, Soyuz TM8 and K2031). EDIT: I gather from searching the NK forum that my info on K2031
was incorrect - it was Soyuz-U, not U2. Do you concur? I'm changing it to U.

(I had counted the 1994 May 22 launch as "U (converted from U2)" but I think you are right to count it as "U2 (fuelled as U)", so I am switching it.)

Thinking some more about how to count the 1963 Jul 10 case, I go back and forth between keeping it  (a launch attempt that expended the vehicle) and omitting it (morally equivalent to a prelaunch static test explosion?).

For 11A511, I am now showing  32 [1] in agreement with TsSKB-Progress (haven't updated the web site yet) and 766 [1] for Soyuz-U.

So once we take into account the problematic definitional cases (pad explosions etc) Andrey and I are in agreement except for the 8K78/8K78M
assignments  . I think that's not too bad.

But it's not the end of the story! We still need to figure out the Blok L subvariants (L, ML, 2BL etc) and the Soyuz-U vs Soyuz-U PVB.





 

[anik]

I gather from searching the NK forum that my info on K2031 was incorrect - it was Soyuz-U, not U2. Do you concur?

Yes, Soyuz-U.

[jcm]

I've reread the NK forum and the Varolmeyev articles.
I guess we are conflating a couple of things;
  -  what is the name of the vehicle
  -  what the vehicle really is.

I bow to the experts' ruling that the vehicle was not designated 8K78M
until the 1966 upgrade. But it does seem likely that the 8K78 (1964)
vehicle has different engines in lower and final stages and so is     
sufficiently different from the 8K78 (1960) that it's useful to track it
as a separate variant. I have a mechanism for this in my database, a
'variant' column that I can use to distinguish different rockets with
identical names. I will adopt 'M' as the variant designator for the
1964 vehicle, so:

    "Molniya 8K78"       variant " "      8K74/III +  8K78I with 8D715K engine + 8K78L with S1.5400 engine   
    "Molniya 8K78"       variant "E6"     Same as above with E-6 controlling
    "Molniya 8K78"       variant "M"      8K74/III with engines from 11S59, + 8K78I + 8K78L with 11D33 engine
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant " "      11S59 + 8K78I with engine from 11S510, + 8K78L with 11D33
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "ML"     Same with ML stage - I don't know differences here
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "SOL"
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "2BL"    What is the difference between 2BL and ML??

[Stan Black]

I've reread the NK forum and the Varolmeyev articles.
I guess we are conflating a couple of things;
  -  what is the name of the vehicle
  -  what the vehicle really is.

I bow to the experts' ruling that the vehicle was not designated 8K78M
until the 1966 upgrade. But it does seem likely that the 8K78 (1964)
vehicle has different engines in lower and final stages and so is     
sufficiently different from the 8K78 (1960) that it's useful to track it
as a separate variant. I have a mechanism for this in my database, a
'variant' column that I can use to distinguish different rockets with
identical names. I will adopt 'M' as the variant designator for the
1964 vehicle, so:

    "Molniya 8K78"       variant " "      8K74/III +  8K78I with 8D715K engine + 8K78L with S1.5400 engine   
    "Molniya 8K78"       variant "E6"     Same as above with E-6 controlling
    "Molniya 8K78"       variant "M"      8K74/III with engines from 11S59, + 8K78I + 8K78L with 11D33 engine
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant " "      11S59 + 8K78I with engine from 11S510, + 8K78L with 11D33
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "ML"     Same with ML stage - I don't know differences here
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "SOL"
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "2BL"    What is the difference between 2BL and ML??

What about the use of 8D715P on the blok-I?
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=5966.msg666352#msg666352

[William Graham]

    "Molniya 8K78"       variant " "      8K74/III +  8K78I with 8D715K engine + 8K78L with S1.5400 engine   
    "Molniya 8K78"       variant "E6"     Same as above with E-6 controlling
    "Molniya 8K78"       variant "M"      8K74/III with engines from 11S59, + 8K78I + 8K78L with 11D33 engine
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant " "      11S59 + 8K78I with engine from 11S510, + 8K78L with 11D33
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "ML"     Same with ML stage - I don't know differences here
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "SOL"
    "Molniya 8K78M"      variant "2BL"    What is the difference between 2BL and ML??

I have seen the E6 variant called the "Molniya-L" by a couple of websites. Not sure how accurate that is though.

That was also the name of a proposed R-7 variant with a cryogenic upper stage, but reuse of designations is not unheard of.

[Liss]

Oh, and I note that in Varlomeev's  more recent article - NK Jul 2007 No 7 p 70 - he lists the Jan 1960 flights as if they were regular 8K74 flights.
That's why I am worried...

My feeling is that Varfolomeyev misinterpreted the July 1958 and January 1960 launches. No documents surfaced in 15 years since his Spaceflight publications that would confirm the statements of some special tests with dummy stages.

Having said that, I must add that many and many Timothy's revelations of 1994-1999 may be true while these are not confirmed up to now. For example, we have the 'official' Samara book now -- Samarskiye Stupeni Semyorki. It has multiple errors, it has some interesting documents -- on 11A57 for example -- but you would not see in it such things as 8K72 with Block Zh, 8K711, 11A55 and 11A56, 11A58 etc. first described by Varfolomeyev 15 years ago.

[Liss]

It is interesting to note that in some documents published last spring on interplanetary probes instructions are given what rockets to use. Needless to say, these scarce notes do not clear problems in 8K72 and 8K78 histories...

To summarize:

* September 1958 moon shots were to use two first 8K71 / III vehicles, #13 and #14;
* 1960 Mars and 1961 Venus shots were to use four R-7 vehicles from 1960 production plan;
* 1960 Elektron launch(es) was (were) to use two 8K71 of 1959 production;
* Nine 8K74-based vehicles were to launch US satellites from 1962;
* 8K78 for 1962 2MV launches was 8K71-based;
* Two first Zenit-2 were to use 8K74-based vehicles;
* Three 1963 E-6 were to use 8K71-based vehicles;
* Vostok spaceships after Vostok-6 were to use 8K74-based vehicles;
* Five more E-6 were to use 11A57-based vehicles;
* Polyot/IS satellites were to use two-stage 8K74-based vehicle;
* For 3MV probes, document of 1963 explicitly gives 8K78M;
* 1964 Elektron launches were to use 8K72D based on R-7;
* Six E-6 probes of 1965-1966 were to use 8K78;
* Voskhod was to use 11A57 based on R-7A.