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Pilyugin, Nikolai Alekseyevich

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Pilyugin

Born: 1908-05-18. Died: 1982-08-02.

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Pilyugin

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• Birth of Nikolai Alekseyevich Pilyugin - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Pilyugin. Russian chief designer. Chief Designer 1948-1982 of Nll-885 and NII AP. Specialised in missile and spaceship guidance..

• Vostok 5 Launch - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Bykovsky, Gagarin, Khrushchev, Kirillov, Korolev, Pilyugin, Tyulin. Flight: Vostok 5. Spacecraft: Vostok.

  At 8 am the State Commission meets and approves a five-hour countdown to launch of Vostok 5 at 14:00. The cosmonaut and his backup have slept well and are at medical at 9:00 for the pre-flight physical examination and donning of their space suits. At T minus 2 hours and fifteen minutes they ride the bus to the pad. A few minutes after Bykovskiy is inserted into the capsule, problems with the UHF communications channels are encountered - three of the six channels seem to be inoperable. Gagarin and Odintsov are consulted on how it will be for the cosmonaut to fly with just three channels operable - is it a Go or No-Go? Go! Next a problem develops with the ejection seat. After the hatch is sealed, a technician cannot find one of the covers that should have been removed from the ejection seat mechanism. It is necessary to unbolt the hatch and check - the seat will not eject if the cover has been left in place. At T minus 15 minutes Gagarin, Korolev, Kirillov, and Kamanin go into the bunker adjacent to the rocket.

  A new problem arises -- the 'Go' light for the Block-E third stage won't illuminate on the control room console. It can't be determined if it is a failure of the stage or an instrumentation failure. It will take two to five hours to bring up the service tower and check out the stage. But if the rocket is left fuelled that long, regulations say it must be removed from the pad and sent back to the factory for refurbishment. In that case there can be no launch until August. Krylov and the State Commission would rather defer the launch to August. The last possible launch time is 17:00 in order to have correct lighting conditions for retrofire and at emergency landing zones. But Korolev, Tyulin, Kirillov, and Pilyugin have faith in their rocket, decide that the problem must be instrumentation, and recycle the count for a 17:00 launch.

  The launch goes ahead perfectly at 17:00 - even all six UHF communications channels function perfectly. On orbit 4 Bykovskiy talks to Khrushchev from orbit and good television images are received from the capsule. Bykovskiy reports he can see the stars but not the solar corona. His orbit is good for eleven days.

• Korolev's single-launch lunar scheme reviewed by the Chief Designers - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Glushko, Isayev, Keldysh, Khrushchev, Korolev, Kuznetsov, Pilyugin, Smirnov. Program: Lunar L3. Spacecraft: LK, Soyuz 7K-LOK. How to achieve the additional N1 payload was a key point of discussion.. Additional Details: here....

• N1 development issues - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Korolev, Pilyugin, Raushenbakh. Program: Lunar L3. Spacecraft: LK, Luna E-6, Soyuz 7K-LOK.

  There were two camps on the N1-L3 control systems. One group was within OKB-1, and had developed the systems for the Vostok and Zenit spacecraft, under the personal oversight of Korolev. They stressed the maximum quality and reliability in their systems. The second group had worked with Pilyugin, and had designed the systems for the Mars, Venus, Luna E-6 probes, the R-9, RT-1, RT-2, and GR-1 missiles; and piloted spacecraft. Their design emphasis was on maximum usability and output. Pilyugin had been named chief designer of the control system for the N1-L3. Additional Details: here....

• L3 single-launch spacecraft draft project approved. - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Keldysh, Korolev, Pilyugin. Program: Lunar L3. Spacecraft: LK, Soyuz 7K-LOK.

  Interdepartmental Scientific-Technical Council on Space Research (MNTS-KI) Decree 'On approval of the L3 draft project' was issued. The decree followed a review by a Keldysh-led Academy of Sciences state commission the previous December. The decree moved the first flight of the N1 to the end of 1966. Additional Details: here....

• Guidance system for N1 cannot support planned schedule - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Korolev, Pilyugin. Program: Lunar L3. Spacecraft: LK, Soyuz 7K-LOK. By the second quarter of 1965 Pilyugin was already notifying OKB-1 that he could never have the booster guidance system ready for the planned first launch in 1968 - not to even mention the systems for the LOK and LK..

• Decision to use analogue guidance in early N1 launches - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Keldysh, Korolev, Pilyugin, Ryazanskiy. Program: Lunar L3. Spacecraft: LK, Soyuz 7K-LOK. Pilyugin called Keldysh to tell him he had heard that Keldysh again wanted to form an expert commission to study guidance system development problems with the N1, with Bushuyev as the head.. Additional Details: here....

• Kamanin and Korolev clash - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Glushko, Gorbatko, Katys, Korolev, Kosberg, Pilyugin, Volynov, Voronin. Program: Voskhod. Flight: Voskhod 3. Spacecraft Bus: Vostok. Spacecraft: Voskhod.

  The two have a difficult discussion over crewing for Voskhod 3. Korolev has found that Katys has been taken out of training for the mission. He does not agree with Kamanin's all-military pilot crew of Volynov and Gorbatko. Kamanin is tired of Korolev's caprices and his endless fighting with Glushko, Pilyugin, Voronin, Kosberg, and other chief designers. Korolev has had it with the military excluding civilians and civilian objectives from manned space.

• Mishin discussion with NA Pilyugin - On the supply of (guidance) equipment for the 7K-L1S. - . Related Persons: Mishin, Pilyugin, . Spacecraft: Soyuz, Soyuz 7K-L1, Soyuz 7K-L1S. (Mishin Diaries 1-319).

• Three-launch Soviet lunar expedition pitched - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Afanasyev, Sergei, Chelomei, Glushko, Grechko, Andrei, Keldysh, Kuznetsov, Mishin, Nadiradze, Pilyugin, Tolubko, Ustinov, Yangel. Program: Lunar L3, Lunar L1. Spacecraft: L3M-1970, LK, Soyuz 7K-L1, Soyuz 7K-LOK.

  The 'big' Soviet of Chief Designers meets and the three-launch landing concept developed a month earlier is presented in detail. Pilyugin pointed out that this was a typical contradiction. Mishin had just made a presentation to the expert commission justifying that the one-launch scheme was safe and reliable. Now they wanted to put forward a new scheme because the one-launch scheme was unsafe and unfeasible. Additional Details: here....

• Soviet crisis meeting mulls response to Apollo 8 - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Mishin, Nadiradze, Pilyugin, Ustinov, Yangel. Program: Lunar L3. Flight: Apollo 8. Spacecraft: LK, Soyuz 7K-LOK. Following the success of Apollo 8, Ustinov calls a crisis meeting at the Ministry of Defence. His question - how to reply to the American's success?. Additional Details: here....

• Soviets consider lunar landing alternatives - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Mishin, Pilyugin. Program: Lunar L3. Spacecraft: L3M-1970, LK, Soyuz 7K-LOK.

  A 'small Soviet' of designers was held to review whether to continue pursuing the N1 launch vehicle or not. Although a first manned lunar landing was not achievable, the N1 could still be used to establish a lunar base by the beginning of the 21st Century. Additional Details: here....

• How to beat the Americans to the lunar landing - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Babakin, Chelomei, Keldysh, Mishin, Okhapkin, Pilyugin, Ustinov. Program: Lunar L3, Lunar L1, Luna. Spacecraft: LK-1, Luna Ye-8-5, Soyuz 7K-L1.

  Meeting of the VPK Military-Industrial Commission to discuss how to beat the Americans to the lunar landing Ustinov called the meeting to order. Mishin was 'sick' again -- Okhapkin represented TsKBEM and gave a summary of the programme to that date:

  • The project had only been authorised on 3 August 1964. It consisted of two parts, circumlunar flights using Chelomei's UR-500K booster and LK-1 spacecraft, and a lunar landing using Korolev's N1 booster and L3 spacecraft.
  • On 25 October 1965 the programme was redirected. Military support was ordered and the decision was made to cancel Chelomei's LK-1 spacecraft and instead use the L1 version of Korolev's Soyuz for the circumlunar flights. This was ordered by the resolution 'On organisation of construction units for support of rocket-space systems for the lunar flyby'. That resolution ordered a manned L1 flight by the end of 1967 or early 1968.
  • The program actually took three years to implement rather than the two planned. Nine launches of he L1 had been made since March 1967, but it had not been possible to man-rate the UR-500K/L1 booster/spacecraft combination due to failures in both the launch vehicle and spacecraft. Flight trials of the N1 booster had not even begun yet.

  Keldysh proposed that further work on the L1 be abandoned, and Proton boosters instead be used to launch the Ye-8-5 lunar soil return robot spacecraft being developed by Babakin. Babakin had been accelerating this programme since the beginning of 1968 with the support of Keldysh, even though it would only return around 100 g of lunar soil, versus the tens of kilograms the Apollo manned flights would return. However it now offered an interesting possibility - he proposed obtaining lunar soil and returning it to earth before an American manned landing. The government's organs of mass communication would say that the Soviet Union's lunar program only consisted of robot probes, emphasising that his was much safer and that Russia would never risk it's citizen's lives for mere political sensation. Additional Details: here....

• The DOS Conspiracy in the open - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Afanasyev, Sergei, Chelomei, Kuznetsov, Viktor, Mishin, Pilyugin, Ryazanskiy, Ustinov. Program: Almaz, Salyut. Spacecraft: Almaz OPS, Salyut 1, Soyuz 7K-S, Soyuz 7KT-OK.

  Afanasyev met with the Chief Designers - Pilyugin, Ryazanskiy, V Kuznetsov, and Chelomei's Deputy, Eydis. Mishin was 'sick' and Chelomei had sent his deputy, as usual, to avoid having to meet Mishin. Afanasyev started with the demand that an Almaz flight take place within less than two years, before the end of the Eighth Five Year Plan. He asked Eydis to install an Igla passive docking system to permit docking with the station of the existing Soyuz 7K-OK as opposed to the planned 7K-S. If Chelomei's bureau could not meet this requirement, then the 'conspirator's' DOS project could be authorised in its place. Additional Details: here....

• N1-6L launch commission - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Isayev, Mishin, Pilyugin. Program: Lunar L3. Flight: Soyuz 11. Spacecraft: Almaz OPS, LK, MKBS, Salyut 1, Soyuz 7K-LOK.

  The review of launch preparations veers off into a discussion of what the booster was now for. Pilyugin questioned the seriousness of intent of the TsKBEM staff. The digital control system priorities within the bureau were with DOS and Almaz -- why wasn't the N1-L3 the priority? Mishin had never been told that the N1-L3 development was lagging. It had no priority with the leadership. Top priority at TsKBEM was Nadiradze's solid propellant ICBM's, followed by the DOS Salyut station, and now Soyuz-Apollo preparations. Meanwhile it was finally recognised that a single-launch scenario was simply impossible, and two N1 launches would be needed to accomplish the lunar landing. But there was no political will to tell the Politburo the bad news -- that two N1's would be needed to be launched to accomplish the landing. The final conclusion was that the bureau needed a new direction, a project with national priority, like the DOS station. Strategic rocket work could be ruled out, as there were already too many players in that field. Additional Details: here....

• Death of Nikolai Alekseyevich Pilyugin - . Nation: Russia. Related Persons: Pilyugin. Russian chief designer. Chief Designer 1948-1982 of Nll-885 and NII AP. Specialised in missile and spaceship guidance..