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

352 Rudolph, Arthur L.
Rudolph, Arthur L. (1906–1996)
A German-born rocket scientist who helped develop the
American program that took men to the Moon in 1969.
One of 118 top German rocket experts secretly brought
to the United States after World War II, Rudolph became
project manager of the Saturn V rocket, which powered
the Apollo missions. In 1984, nearly a decade after he
retired, the Department of Justice accused Rudolph of
participating in a slave-labor program when he was operations
director of a V-2 rocket factory during the war
(see “V” weapons). Though he contested the charges,
Rudolph relinquished his American citizenship and
returned to Germany. While the Justice Department did
not pursue his case, he was refused a U.S. visa in 1989 to
attend a twentieth-anniversary celebration of the first
Moon landing.
rumble
A form of combustion instability, especially in a liquidpropellant
rocket engine, characterized by a low-pitched,
low-frequency rumbling noise.
Russia in space
See the following biographical entries: Vladimir Chelomei,
Yuri Gagarin, Valentin Glushko, Msitslav
Keldysh, Nikolai Kibalchich, Sergei Korolev, Vassily
Mishin, Boris Rauschenbach, Nikolai Rynin, Mikhail
Tikhonravov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Mikhail Yangel.
Also see: Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Cosmos (spacecraft),
Energia Rocket & Space Corporation, Glavcosmos,
International Space Station, Luna, Mars, Mir,
Molniya (satellite), Progress, “R” series of Russian missiles,
Russian launch vehicles, Russian Space Agency
(RKA), Russian-manned Moon programs, Salyut,
Soyuz (spacecraft), Space Race, Sputnik (satellites),
Vega, Venera, Voskhod, Vostok, Zenit, and Zond. 149
Russian launch sites
The three main Russian launch centers, or cosmodromes,
are Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kaputsin Yar, and Plesetsk
Cosmodrome. One of the problems with the location of
these is that spent Russian rocket stages, unlike their
American counterparts, tend to fall on land rather than
into the ocean. The arctic tundra around Pletesk is littered
with debris, which the locals refer to as “metal from
heaven.” Residents of Dzhezkazgan, which lies close to
the flight path of rockets from Baikonur, have complained
that toxic fuel from crashed rocket stages has contaminated
the soil and made it impossible to graze lifestock.
For this reason, the latest generation of Russian rockets,
including the Angara and Zenit launch vehicles, burn a
more environmentally friendly mixture of propellants.
Russian launch vehicles
Early Russian/Soviet launch vehicles were based on ballistic
missiles (see “R” series of Russian missiles), and
various naming schemes have sprung up to identify particular
rockets. These include the official Russian “R” designations
and various Western names (assigned by the
U.S. Department of Defense, NATO, and others) for
the original military missiles, and further names for the
derived space rockets, including manufacturers’ codes
and names derived from the major types of satellite
launched. For example, the rocket that placed the first
satellite in orbit is known as Sputnik (after the satellite),
8K71PS (the manufacturer’s index), R-7 (the ballistic missile
from which it was derived), SL-1 (the American
Department of Defense designation for the missile), and
SS-66 and Sapwood (the NATO code number and name
for the missile). More recently, the Russians have given
specific names to their rockets. See Angara, Buran,
Cosmos (launch vehicle), Dnepr, Energia, Molniya
(launch vehicle), N-1, Proton, Rockot, Shtil, Soyuz
(launch vehicle), Sputnik (launch vehicle), Start,
Strela, Tsyklon, Voskhod (launch vehicle), Vostok
(launch vehicle), and Zenit.
Russian manned lunar programs
See article, pages 353–354.
Russian Space Agency (RKA)
An agency formed after the breakup of the former Soviet
Union and the dissolution of the Soviet space program.
RKA (Rosaviacosmos) uses the technology and launch
sites that belonged to the former Soviet space program
and has centralized control of Russia’s civilian space program,
including all manned and unmanned nonmilitary
spaceflights. The prime contractor used by the RKA is
Energia Rocket & Space Corporation, which owns and
operates the Mission Control Center in Kaliningrad.
The military counterpart of RKA is the Military Space
Forces (VKS), which controls the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
RKA and VKS share control of the Baikonur
Cosmodrome, where the RKA reimburses the VKS for
the wages of many of the flight controllers during civilian
launches. RKA and VKS also share control of the
Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
Russian Space Research Institute (IKI)
The organization within the Russian Academy of Sciences
mainly responsible for the long-term planning and
development of space research programs of which a considerable
part is performed within the framework of international
space research cooperation. IKI are the Russian
initials for Space Research Institute.