The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

An early family of ballistic missiles developed in
the postwar Soviet Union and based initially on
German expertise and experience with the V-2 (see
“V” weapons). From some of these missiles evolved
launch vehicles that made Russia a space superpower
and that are still in use today. The “R” stands for
“rocket,” which translates from the Russian “P” for
“paketa.” Other designations have been given to these
vehicles in the West. See Russian launch vehicles.
R-1
A Soviet copy of the V-2. It was built at Sergei
Korolev’s research institute in Podlipki, to German
design specifications modified only slightly by
Korolev’s group, and powered by a V-2-based engine
designed by Valentin Glushko. Following 30 test
flights from Kapustin Yar in 1948–1949, the missile
was put into military service in November 1950.
Although the R-1 was perfected to serve as a mobile
weapon, during the test flights scientists from the
Physics Institute of the Academy of Sciences were
able to loft instruments high into the atmosphere for
pure research. A series of so-called geophysical rockets,
the R-1A, was also derived from the R-1. The first
in this series tested separable warheads that would be
used on future missiles, including the R-2 (see below).
But the last two of six R-1A launches were vertical scientific
flights to sample the upper atmosphere using
recoverable containers placed on the rocket’s tail. As
the R-1A reached its peak altitude of about 100 km, its
engine was shut down and the containers jettisoned to
land by parachute. Later variants of the R-1 were used
to study cosmic rays, high-altitude winds, and other
upper-atmosphere phenomena, and to fly recoverable
biological payloads.
R-2
“R” series of Russian missiles
An enlarged version of the R-1 capable of doubling
the R-1’s range and carrying a warhead, which dispersed
a radioactive liquid at altitude and resulted in a
deadly rain over a wide area around the impact point.
The ethanol used in the V-2 and R-1 was replaced by
methanol in the R-2 to circumvent the problem of the
launch troops drinking the rocket fuel. Several vari-
ants were developed, including the R-2A, which was
used to extend the scientific work of the R-1 to a
height of 200 km. Some equipment tested on the R-2A
also found its way onto canine flights of Sputnik and
Vostok. The first production rocket was rolled out in
June 1953. In December 1957, an agreement was
signed to license production of the R-2 to China.
From this, China acquired the technological base for
its future rocket programs. See China in space.
R-3
A long-range missile, authorized in 1947 at the same
time as the R-1 and R-2 but far more ambitious in
“R” series of Russian missiles A Soyuz U—a
direct descendant of the R7 missile—lifts off
from Baikonur on May 3, 2000, carrying a
Neman reconnaissance satellite. Sergei Kazak
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