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The Mishin Diaries

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We now know that a Soviet manned circumlunar flight would definitely have involved launch of the crew separately from the translunar craft. A Soviet manned lunar landing would have involved two launches of the N1 super booster, with the second launch landing a homing beacon on the moon together with a backup lunar lander. The spacecraft and modules of the Mir space station of the 1980's were originally Phase 1 of a more ambitious program for an military space base, the MKBS. Phase 2, involving an enormous nuclear-powered space station launched by the N1, was cancelled together with the N1 in 1974.

Background

Vasili Pavlovich Mishin (1917-2001) was the Chief Designer of Soviet space design bureau OKB-1 (AKA TskBEM) from 1966-1974, superseding Korolev. He led the bureau in the flight test stages of the L1 and N1-L3 manned lunar programs, the Soyuz manned spacecraft, the Salyut space station, and several previously more obscure programs, notably the MKBS orbital base.

These "diaries" are actually a compilation of notebooks containing handwritten notes jotted down by Mishin during the course of his incredibly busy work days. Most were cryptic notes from meetings, to-do-lists, outlines for presentations, or technical calculations. Therefore full sentences are rare, and many abbreviations were used. A Russian transcription of the diaries, including expert interpretation of the abbreviations, was released in three volumes on 21 January 2015. The editorial team led by Dmitry Payson, assisted by the late Maxim Tarasenko, Charles Vick and David Woods, spent years deciphering the notes.

What follows is a review of the diaries for what they reveal about key remaining secrets of the Soviet space program. In the discussion that follows the source for the information is given in the format (3-60) (e.g. Volume 3 of the Mishin Diaries, page 60).