Episode 50 A bit of everything!
A mixture of topics for the 50th edition.
Well, how did I get here so fast? 50 episodes of Soviet Space Substack. I decided it would be cool to do a broad mix of subjects, a little on each one, to represent the breadth of coverage. Here goes.
1974 Permanent Orbital Station.
The original plans for the first permanent space station were a LOT more ambitious than MIR. I have diagrams of most of the modules, and I am working on a more detailed article.
A few years later, and it’s clear that plans have been scaled back a lot.
Yuri Gagarin in the UK.
Yuri Gagarin’s visit to the UK was a huge success, and in my opinion changed the British view of Russian people utterly. Rather than a grim, humourless, military man, in Major Gagarin they found someone charming, with an infectious smile, who had strong opinions on where he wanted to go. One place he went to was Manchester, at the invitation of the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers. (Gagarin had trained as an apprentice foundry worker at the Lyubertsy Steel Plant in Moscow.)
On the day of his visit, it was raining heavily, but he insisted on opening the roof of the car, and standing to greet the crowds . “Surely the least I can do is get wet too" he said.
Video of his Manchester visit:
A propaganda poster:
One less known aspect of Soviet culture was “Cosmism” , a mix of mysticism, science and philosophy about mans future amongst the stars. This poster’s slogan captures that.
Object E-6, the Luna program:
Two source technical diagrams from the Luna program.
A cosmic New Year’s Card:
This New Year’s Card shows Grandfather Frost racing three spacecraft. It’s worth a bit of explaining!
The figure in the sledge is Grandfather Frost, (often shown with The Snow Maiden). Not Father Christmas, (though the traditional blue of Grandfather Frost seems to have been eroded by the western red). And notice that the three horses are not the same - they form a Troika, which, in the hands of a skilled driver, delivers greater speed by not running with the same gait. At full speed a troika can reach 45–50 kilometres per hour. This is also the source of the political meaning of troika.
So there's a direct link between the 3 speeding satellites, and the 3 horses pulling the sled at impressive speed.
Rocket Modelist, R1-E rocket:
This historic rocket was used as a geophysical sounding rocket, the inheritance from the V2 is clear. Author unknown, this from the magazine “Rocket Modelist”. All dimensions in millimetres.
Two mission patches, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5.
Weird Soviet Space Hardware!
Up until now, I’d only seen Vostok illustrated with a “ring fin” around the back in postage stamps, like the one above. But it turns out to be based on some actual hardware!
So, what’s going on? It looks to be actual Vostok fairings with some extra bits added on the back. Perhaps they would stabilise it while it was being carried under the helicopter? Apparently there was a military air parade in Tushino in 1961, and something called “Vostok” was carried on a sling under a helicopter. (One person on a Russian forum remembers seeing it).
And this seems to have been the basis for the artwork!
My shot at a heroic Soviet style poster:
Trying to get out of my comfort zone, I decided to try and make something in the style of a Soviet propaganda poster.
The vehicle is based on this cover from the magazine, “Technology for Youth”.
N1 animation, the 4 flown versions.
As the N1 was what got me into this stuff in the first place, it seems appropriate to include a bit of my CGI here. This shows all four flown versions, latest information I have. Note in particular that the N1-7L has a dark sector. It was previously thought to be 100% white.
This editions cool visual:
Test driving development versions of Lunokhod. Russian commentary.
This editions cool links:
If you like this stuff, you will probably enjoy the things I post on Mastodon and Facebook, often single photos that never make it to a substack post.
Me on Mastodon.
Me on Facebook.
This editions special download:
As usual, this will be available for 1 week only for free download, no exceptions.
PDF, 1972 illustrated report, (in Russian), on the achievements of Venera 8 at Venus.
The ring fin Vostok photos are quite a find.
The imagery of a troika symbolizing (things) Russian goes back at least to Gogol and Dead Souls. I’m no expert so I don’t want to speak out of turn but I know enough to say that’s laden imagery.
Congratulations on producing 50 posts, Nick.
Q: Do you know what the canoe-like fairings are on the sides of the RE-1 rocket?