Valentin Glushko
Valentin Glushko was born on the 2nd of September 1908 in Odesa to a Ukrainian Cossack father and a Russian peasant mother. At age fourteen, he read novels by Jules Verne that sparked his interest in aeronautics. He wrote a letter to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1923 seeking guidance on rocketry. After graduating from an Odessa trade school as a sheet metal worker, he apprenticed at a hydraulics fitting plant. During his time in the city, he performed experiments with explosives recovered from unexploded artillery shells left behind by White Guards during their retreat. From 1924 to 1925, he wrote articles concerning the exploration of the Moon using Tsiolkovsky's proposed engines for space flight. He attended Leningrad State University where he studied physics and mathematics but reportedly left without graduating in April 1929.
On the 23rd of March 1938, Glushko became caught up in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and was rounded up by the NKVD to be placed in Butyrka prison. By the 15th of August 1939, he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment yet put to work on various aircraft projects alongside other arrested scientists. In 1941, he was placed in charge of a design bureau for liquid-fueled rocket engines while still incarcerated. He was finally released in 1944 after designing the RD-1 kHz auxiliary rocket motor tested in a fast-climb La-7R for protection of the capital from high-altitude Luftwaffe attacks. At the end of World War II, Glushko traveled to Germany and Eastern Europe to study the German rocket program as Colonel Glushko. In 1946, he became the chief designer of his own bureau known as OKB 456 which remained under his leadership until 1974.
Sergei Korolev was an outspoken opponent of hypergolic propellants due to their toxicity often citing the 1960 Nedelin catastrophe as evidence of danger posed by them. Glushko meanwhile was an advocate of Vladimir Chelomei's UR-700 as well as an even more powerful UR-900 with a nuclear-powered upper stage. When Korolev continued protesting about safety risks posed by hypergolic propellants, Glushko responded that the US was launching crewed Gemini spacecraft atop Titan II rockets with very similar propellants without issue. He also argued that the N-1 was not workable because they could not develop RP-1/LOX engines on the scale of the Saturn F-1. When Korolev suggested developing a liquid hydrogen engine for the N-1, Glushko said that LH2 was completely impractical as a rocket fuel. The UR-700 could enable a direct-ascent trajectory to the Moon which he considered safer and more reliable than rendezvous-and-dock approaches used by Apollo or Korolev's proposals.
In 1974 following six successful American Moon landings, premier Leonid Brezhnev decided to cancel the troubled Soviet program to send a man to the Moon. He consolidated the Soviet space program moving Vasily Mishin's OKB-1 into a single bureau headed by Glushko later named NPO Energia. Glushko's first act after firing Mishin altogether was to cancel the N-1 rocket despite one reason for its difficulties being his own refusal to design high-power engines Korolev needed due to friction between them. The disagreement over use of cryogenic versus hypergolic fuel had long plagued their collaboration. After complete failure of Soviet crewed lunar effort uncrewed Mars missions and deaths of four cosmonauts, Mishin was fired in 1973 and Kremlin decided to consolidate entire Soviet space program under Glushko. One of Glushko's first acts was to suspend N-1 program which however was not formally terminated until 1976.
Glushko decided that new heavy lift vehicle Energia would use entirely liquid-fueled engines with an LH2 core stage taking place of Shuttle main engines. The shuttle's solid-propellant strap-on boosters were replaced with liquid boosters using LOX/RP-1 RD-170 engines. While RD-120 engine used for Energia core stage developed quickly with little difficulty, RD-170 proved harder to work out. Glushko instead decided to use engine with four combustion chambers fed from single propellant feed line. RD-170 powered strap-on boosters designed for Energia became basis for Zenit booster family which began flying in 1985. Since Buran space shuttle was not ready for operations, Energia maiden flight in May 1987 carried aloft prototype space station module called Polyus. Ultimately Buran did fly following summer a few months before Glushko's death.
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Common questions
When was Valentin Glushko born and where?
Valentin Glushko was born on the 2nd of September 1908 in Odesa to a Ukrainian Cossack father and a Russian peasant mother.
What happened to Valentin Glushko during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge?
On the 23rd of March 1938, Valentin Glushko became caught up in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and was rounded up by the NKVD to be placed in Butyrka prison. By the 15th of August 1939, he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment yet put to work on various aircraft projects alongside other arrested scientists.
Why did Valentin Glushko oppose Sergei Korolev's choice of rocket fuel?
Sergei Korolev was an outspoken opponent of hypergolic propellants due to their toxicity often citing the 1960 Nedelin catastrophe as evidence of danger posed by them. Valentin Glushko argued that LH2 was completely impractical as a rocket fuel while advocating for Vladimir Chelomei's UR-700 and UR-900 with nuclear-powered upper stages.
When did Valentin Glushko take control of the Soviet space program after World War II?
In 1946, Valentin Glushko became the chief designer of his own bureau known as OKB 456 which remained under his leadership until 1974. In 1974 following six successful American Moon landings, premier Leonid Brezhnev decided to cancel the troubled Soviet program to send a man to the Moon and consolidated the entire Soviet space program under Valentin Glushko later named NPO Energia.
What engine family resulted from Valentin Glushko's work on the Energia vehicle?
RD-170 powered strap-on boosters designed for Energia became basis for Zenit booster family which began flying in 1985. The RD-170 proved harder to work out than the RD-120 engine used for the Energia core stage developed quickly with little difficulty.