57 years ago, August 28, 1964, the combat calculation of the Baikonur cosmodrome was held the first launch of the space appointment missile “East-2M”. She successful brought a satellite “Cosmos-44” to the near-earth orbit.
East carrier rocket repeated the design and layout diagram of the previous options P-7. This scheme remains unchanged for all modern “seven” (as often referred to as PH type P-7), such as Soyuz-U or “Lightning-M”. The blocks of the first two steps were connected in parallel, in the “package”, consisting of four identical side blocks of the first stage, which surrounded the central unit of the second stage.
When starting, the motor settings of all blocks turned on simultaneously. The side units were reset after 118-120 seconds of the flight, and the central unit continued to work for another 180-190 seconds. The third stage was installed on the second sequentially, and its motor installation was included at the end of the second stage.
The third stage is made according to the cross-division scheme, installed on the central unit and is connected to it with a rod farm – it is the sixth block of the carrier rocket. Each of the blocks is equipped with an independent propulsion unit, fuel on all blocks – liquid oxygen and kerosene. The engine of the central unit is a multi-chamber, has a craving in an emptiness of 941 kN and consists of one four-chamber main RD and 4 single-chamber steering RDs, the chambers of which are fixed on the pin and can be rotated by steering drives, creating the necessary control moments.
On April 12, 1961, a piloted ship “East” with the first cosmonaut of the Earth Yury Gagarin was introduced to the near-earth orbit. The carrier rocket “East” became the first cosmic launch vehicle for manned flights. The first launch of “East-2” was carried out on June 1, 1962 – with its help space ships of the East series were launched. In total, 47 launches of the “East-2” missiles were held, of which 43 successful. After some modernization of the Rocket “East-2m” was operated until August 29, 1991, when an IRS-1B Indian satellite was replaced at the near-earth orbit. In total, more than 90 launches of this modification were carried out.
On March 18, 1980, the Plesetsk (Arkhangelsk Region) cosmodrome, during preparing for a launch, exploded the Vostok-2M carrier missile. Then, as a result of the catastrophe killed 48 people, more than 40 were injured and burns. The Rocket “East-2m” was characterized by a high level of reliability: for the previous 16 years of its launches with Baikonur and Plesetsk cosmodromes, there was only one accident and two failed starts, and since 1970 accidents were not at all.
According to the memoirs of the former commander of the military-space forces of Russia, Vladimir Leontievich Ivanova, the Commission concluded that the cause of the catastrophe was “an explosion (ignition) with oxygen tissue as a result of unauthorized actions of one of the combat calculation numbers” participating in the elimination of liquid oxygen When refueling the third stage.