Hell instead of start
History The world space program is a chain of triumphs and tragedies. And if we learn about victories immediately, then failures remain for decades under a veil of secrecy. 24 October 1960 of the year. On that day, an explosion of an intercontinental ballistic missile at the Scientific Test Site No. 5 of the USSR Ministry of Defense near the village of Tyuratam in Kazakhstan (for a long time in the Soviet media it was called the Baikonur cosmodrome) claimed 76 lives - military personnel, scientists, designers ... Then the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces also died. The Chief Marshal of Artillery MI Nedelin. There are fewer and fewer witnesses of that terrible state of emergency. One of them is a retired colonel, doctor of technical sciences V. A. Rubtsov.
HOW IT WAS...
“I was collecting and processing telemetry data,” recalls Victor Afanasyevich. - He was a member of the commission as a curator from the Scientific Research Institute-4 MO and was closely associated with the design bureau of Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel. The famous rocket P-16 was the brainchild of a huge number of designers, academics, military specialists.
As it is necessary according to the instructions, when 45-minute readiness was announced, he left the launch pad and was at his devices at a distance of a kilometer from it. In the window is clearly visible illuminated beautiful rocket. She looks into the sky with a huge cigar. So, looking from the devices to the window, anticipating the start. It would be an exaggeration to say that I felt absolute confidence in success. There were many reasons for this. Khrushchev hurried because the next anniversary of the October Revolution was approaching. An important role was played by the confrontation of the two political systems. In general, there were flaws. But I really wanted to be the first in this type of weapon.
Of course, before the start of attention only on the readings of devices. And suddenly I hear a deaf clap. A look out the window - I see that the rocket is bent in half and the upper part is already parallel to the ground. For four seconds, this effect (I - a kilometer from the launch pad, and the speed of sound - 330 meters per second)! Began real hell. Explosions, crashing incredible, a huge flame. And this is all against the background of a completely black sky.
I sat like a paralyzed man. The explosions followed one after another, the picture was constantly changing. Suddenly some sparks or asterisks began to separate from the general hell of the flame. The heart shrinks even more. Understood: it's burning people scatter!
Then, after a few days, I saw burned backs, necks ... Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, the chairman of the state commission on testing this rocket, was at that moment in violation of all the instructions and was near the launch pad. Of course, the losses were irrecoverable.
THE TURNS OF FATE
Victor Afanasyevich Rubtsov was born in 1925 year. He took part in the Great Patriotic War - in its last period. In January, 1946 was assigned to the Novosibirsk Military District. And immediately wrote a report: "I ask you to give the opportunity to finish the studies interrupted by the war in high school." The command went to meet. Demobilized quickly, and after three days Rubtsov became a student at the Moscow Institute of Communications.
“I came with good recommendations, but without a certificate of maturity,” recalls the veteran. - I never had it, because I got to a high school right from the ninth grade before the war. This was external: in 1942, specialists of the highest category were needed, and the guys older than me already fought at the front.
He studied well and from the second course became a Stalin scholarship. After graduation left in graduate school. But one meeting turned the biography again on a military path.
A colonel who lived in the adjuncture of the N. Ye. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy lived in the dormitory. In adjuncture there were empty seats. The colonel began to persuade Victor to return to the Armed Forces. The graduate student was not tormented for a long time with doubts: army life is familiar and quite acceptable, the chosen profession will not have to be changed either - it is demanded in full. And one more important incentive is money. Victor was already married, and the scholarship at Zhukovka was larger than at the institute.
So in November 1952, he again put on an officer's uniform. And at the end of the postgraduate high school admission, they were sent to a military town near Moscow, where the research institute-4 was located. At the time, he was led by General Andrei Illarionovich Sokolov. The institute developed, the whole team worked with great enthusiasm: after all, he was involved in the creation of both ballistic missiles and spacecraft.
CAPTAIN AGAINST GENERALS
As the investigation into the circumstances of the P-16 catastrophe showed, the start contacts of the second-stage engines closed at the start. Looking for a reason for a long time. The error was in the schemes of the ground part of the rocket control.
V.A. Rubtsov reports:
- Imagine: the locks, which are shot at the launch of the second stage, were held tightly, the rocket bent down, the tanks of the first stage struck - and it went ... The process is clear, but it was not possible to find the starting point for a long time. All the people involved in the work on the rocket did not sleep at night. What versions only did not advance! But the actual confirmation was not found. And it turned out that I guessed the reason for the failure in the management system on the basis of my professional experience; by that time it was already quite large.
This moment Victor Afanasyevich considers the most important in his life. He managed to make a significant personal contribution to the acceleration of the tests of a ballistic intercontinental rocket: it was he who discovered a defect in autonomous control systems.
Scar is mentally transferred to the 60 year:
- The commission had to argue with leading designers of the country. And who was I at that time? Just a captain, PhD. Around these names, titles! Right on the proving ground, he proved his point. Then for the first time a gyroplatform was placed on the rocket. She was excited, giving malfunction. On the test bench checked my version. Raised the voltage to a certain level - the platform "started singing." My guess was completely confirmed. All signed that agree with my version of the fault. And the chairman of the commission gave the command to stop the tests for two weeks: “Understand!”.
Understood. Charged the rocket, put on the start.
“It was the second ICBM, which was already fully completed,” continues Victor Afanasyevich. - I was still a member of the commission as an expert from SRI-4. The head of our institute, General Sokolov, who is also the chairman of the commission, after hearing the opinions of academicians, suddenly turns to me: “What do you say?”. I answer: “The input of the amplifier was blighted. The phenomenon that led to the failure, suppressed. " And hesitated. I still regret that I did not get the courage and did not express myself clearly at such a representative meeting. But you should have said straight out: you can start a rocket. He did not dare, although he was completely convinced that the reason was found, you just need to continue the tests. Then the technical manager Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel (the last word remained behind him) chided me: “You brought some ambiguity with your emotions. Well, we will vote. " All raised their hands for letting the rocket. And here is the joy: it falls exactly into the square. It was a great celebration for the whole team. Noted widely how much fantasy. We received big awards, but nobody was awarded orders, because many people died in the first test.
... Could there be an international conflict
V. A. Rubtsov became the first in the Scientific Research Institute-4 head of the telemetry laboratory. Successfully run launches of one, then the second rocket. But there are no smooth ways when it comes to new types of weapons, high technology.
In 1961, Viktor Afanasyevich is urgently demanded to Baikonur. It turned out that the next launch took place with a deviation from the set parameters on 50 kilometers, then on 75. Rocket flew almost into a neighboring state.
Rubtsov was convinced of a new problem, as they say, the hard way:
- As soon as I arrived I was assigned tests. And suddenly the rocket fell down at a distance of 200 meters from my measuring point, right behind the fence. Happiness that the wind blew in the other direction. I had nowhere to run, no gas mask. And there one goryuchki 140 tons, acid, and more. Who had the car - all sped off instantly. I came to my senses a bit - and immediately ask for all the parameters of the control system. Began to understand.
The tests were carried out as follows: the rocket works in full, only the propulsion system does not turn on. All teams pass as if it is flying. That is, the information on my devices comes the most reliable. The gyroplatform is a very thin design. At that time, the next batch of missiles, including new gyro platforms, was launched. Small changes in technology - and there were the same problems. I looked, in several places again visible signs of arousal. Already there was not enough desensitization that they had done before.
Again, Academician, Director of the Research Institute of Applied Mechanics Viktor Ivanovich Kuznetsov dismisses his people for two weeks: “Think!”.
Invented: changed the parameters of the amplifier. Put new filters. The problem was solved. This rocket never again gave surprises.
After retirement, Doctor of Technical Sciences Viktor Afanasyevich Rubtsov works as a leading researcher at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise for Measuring Equipment. For the front orders of the Red Star and World War II for all the following decades, only one more medal was added - “For Military Merit”. So marked his contribution to the preparations for the launch of the first military satellites (even before the flight of Gagarin). For the main rocket in his life did not receive an award, because the tragedy P-16 closed this question forever.
Information