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RUSSIAN NUCLEAR HISTORY

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HISTORYThe first national research russian centers were two and started in 1920, one of them in Ukraine (Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute) and Moscow (Institute of Physical Chemistry of Moscow).

Igor Kurchatov was a soviet physicist and the leader of the first soviet atomic project. The russian NVKD (Naródniy komissariat vnútrennij) in 1943 got a copy of a British secret report on the feasibility of atomic weapons, after that Stalin created the start of a Soviet nuclear program.

In 1946 Russia created the first soviet nuclear reactor (the F1), and after that the first plutonium was obtained to create the first russian nuclear bomb.

Emil Fuchs was a German-born British theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to Soviet Union after the end of the Second World War. After that, when Fuchs obtained the papers of Manhattan Project, the russians built the first atomic bomb (the RDS-1):

After RDS-1, appeared the soviet proof RDS-2 which exploded with a force of 38 kilotons in 1951, and at the same year the Russians threw the first atomic bomb

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dropped from a Tupolev Tu-4 bomber. And They continued the development through the years to the RDS-9.

In 1953 the Russians tried their first hydrogen nuclear bomb, the RSD-6 who has an uranium 235 core surrounded by two alternating layers of lithium deuteride and natural uranium with a 200 kilotons of power. After that in 1955 appeared the RSD-37, an hydrogen bomb with the first thermonuclear device of two stages and with a 1.600 kilotons of power. RDS-37 H bomb:

Soviet Union, November 1953. The Politburo meets in one of the most important meetings since the death of Stalin. All present agree that the USSR should build an intercontinental missile (ICBM) capable of launching a nuclear weapon against the United States from Soviet territory. The USSR built a huge rocket much larger than necessary.

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Sakharov and fusion bomb

Sakharov was the prodigal child of the nuclear soviet program; he was a soviet cosmologist-physicist and a spokesman of the Nobel Peace Committee. He was the real mentor of the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb. Sakharov and his team designed the rocket who can transport the new nuclear fission weapon, but the problem was the weigh of the bomb, because the rocket could not transport it. The entire Soviet Politburo and industry expect the verdict to get to work as soon as possible. The commitment is inescapable: if the decision to build an intercontinental missile to know exactly how much will weigh a weapon of operational merger is delayed, it may be too late by then and the US already have a similar rocket. Sakharov became in one of the most important warriors of the democracy and defensor of the human rights, and helped to bring down the Stalin's Dictatorship. The builded missile was capable to be launch as a weapon from 5,5 tons to 9.000 km.

But engineers Sakharov's report leaves them completely stunned. By then, the most powerful Soviet missile was the R-5, a derivative of V-2 / A-4 German with a range of only 1200 kilometers and a payload of 1.4 tons. The new technical challenge before them was overwhelming. However, the calculation of Sakharov would be totally wrong. Physical overestimated the mass of the future Soviet hydrogen bomb and as a result of this error the first intercontinental missile in history would be much more powerful than expected.

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The born of R-7 Semiorka

First launched in 1957, the R-7 became the biggest leap in the world's rocketry since German A-4. The story of the first Soviet intercontinental missile dates back to 1947, when Korolev OKB-1, then known as NII-88- institute, he embarked on the R-3 project, a missile with a range of 3000 kilometers, ten times to the Nazi V-2 rocket.

The R-7 was 34 m long, 3.02 m in diameter and weighing 280 tons, had two stages, with rocket engines using liquid oxygen and kerosene and able to deliver its payload of up to 8,800 km, with a precision of about 5 km. A single thermonuclear warhead was performed with a nominal yield of 3 megatons of TNT. The initial launch was powered by four strap-on rocket liquid propellants forming the first stage engine 'sustaining' a feeding center through the first and second stage. Each strap-on booster includes two vernier thrusters and central scenario includes four. The inertial guidance system was with the radio control vernier thrusters.

That first Soviet Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, ICBM, the R-7 had grown obsolete as a weapon even before it started flying. Yet, as a launch-vehicle, it has continued serving the Russian space program more than half a century after it was originally conceived. In the 21st century, the R-7-derived space boosters have remained only vehicles delivering Russian manned spacecraft into orbit.

Korolyov and his deputy Vasily Mishin conceived the R-3 as the first step toward an intercontinental missile with a range of 8000 kilometers. But how to build it ? the first option was join three R-2 missiles together to simplify the development of the vehicle , the concept was a missile as a package. His team also calculated that a R-3 with two stages would be able to put an artificial satellite into orbit. In December 1950 the Soviet government formally approves the R-3 development and forms part of the N-1 program, while creating the N-2 and N-3 programs.

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The R-3 consists of a 'Package' of three missiles R-2 as proposed by Mikhail Tijonrávov (A. Shlyadinski)

The R-3 had a weakness: its engine. Being conceived as a single-stage rocket, Korolev needed a rocket engine with a thrust of 120 tons, a true giant leap compared to the engine of 25 tons of the V-2. Valentin Glushko, the head of the OKB-456 and in charge of the construction of engines for missiles of the OKB-1 engineer, tried to change his mind at Korolyov about their ambitious plans for the R-3. Simply, there was no way I could build such engine on schedule by Korolyov.

In 1951 the R-3 would cancel the project and began their efforts to build a smaller and shorter-range missile known as R-5, but the concept of package had flexibility when designing an ICBM. The missile depend on the maximum thrust of engines Glushko problematic. The February 13, 1953 the Council of Ministers of the USSR approved the construction of the first Soviet ICBM.

The January 30, 1954 the most outstanding leaders of aerospace engineers met to determine the final specifications of the new missile.

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The R-7 was an impressive machine that could easily reach the orbital speed of 8 km / s, a capability that Korolyov took advantage in their favor. Its load capacity left behind to the first American ICBMs, Atlas missile, rocket or small Vanguard with the US wanted to put the first artificial satellite.

The Vostok rocket was a variant of the R-7 three stages. On October 4, 1957 a modified R-7 placed in Earth orbit the first artificial satellite in history, the famous Sputnik. The R-7 was a magnificent space launcher, but a terrible strategic weapon and soon would be replaced by other projects of Soviet intercontinental missiles.

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