Raketno kosmchsky krp En imn SP Krl : 60 years since the first successful launch of missile R-7

60 years since the first successful launch of missile R-7

Sixty years ago - on August 21, 1957 domestic intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 15:25. The launch was successful - the missile reached the given area on the Kamchatka peninsula.

The first domestic two-stage intercontinental ballistic long-range missile developed at Special Design Bureau OKB-1 (now it is S.P. Korolev RSC Energia) was intended for the combat charge delivery to any point of the territory of the probable enemy.

Structurally R-7 was fundamentally different from the rockets developed earlier in overall dimensions and weight, the system number and purpose, the layout and structure diagrams and the propulsion system power.

The missile went into service of the country on January 20, 1960 and became one of the most important components of the nuclear-missile shield of the country.

The following rockets which provided the solution of many priority tasks of national cosmonautics were developed on the basis of R-7, namely first space rocket Sputnik which was used to inject the world's first artificial Earth satellite into near-earth orbit; Vostok, Molniya, Soyuz rockets.

The Soyuz MS manned spacecraft and the Progress MS cargo spacecraft are launched under the International Space Station Program by modern Soyuz which are now developed at RSC Progress. The Soyuz launch vehicles are used to launch other spacecraft.

Dozens of enterprises and organizations of the country took part in the rocket development, construction and launch; among them were OKB-456 (V.P. Glushko), NII-885 (M.S. Ryazansky, N.A. Pilyugin), NII-3 (V.K. Shebanin), NII-4 (A.I. Sokolov), TsIAM (G.P. Svischev), TsAGI (A.A. Dorodnitsyn, V.V. Struminsky), NII-6 (V.A. Sukhikh), Steklov Mathematical Institute (M.V.Keldysh) and others.
The main developers, designers and researchers of this rocket at OKB-1 were: B.E. Chertok, P.I. Ermolaev, K.D. Bushuev, S.S Kryukov, E.F. Ryazanov, I.P. Firsov, A.I. Nechaev, G.S. Vetrov, G.N. Degtyarenko, Ya.P. Kolyako, O.N. Voropaev, S.S. Lavrov, R.F. Appazov, P.F. Shulgin, P.A. Ershov, V.M. Udodenko, A.F. Kulyabin, V.F Roschin, A.F. Tyurikova, V.F. Gladky, O.D. Zherebin, S.F. Parmuzin, V.M. Protopopov, V.M. Liventsev, A.N. Votsifer, V.A. Udaltsov, M.V. Melnikov, I.I. Raikov, B.A. Sokolov.
Production and testing of missile R-7 at plant-88 OKB-1 (now it is ZEM RSC Energia) were provided by R.A. Turkov, V.M. Klyucharev, N.M. Berezin, S.K. Koltunov, V.M. Ivanov, I.V. Povarov, N.A. Pshenichnikov, A.V. Kirov, D.M. Shilov, A.G. Zigangirov, Yu.D. Manko, L.A. Medvedev, B.M. Afanasiev, A.N. Andrikanis and others.