[FPSPACE] N1 launches on TV

[Charles P. Vick]

>Dear Bart,
>
>        The program was done by Ideal world of London and Glasgow, UK. My
interface was John Lloyd and Dan Clifton producer. Basically they did a fair
job on the US side and the Kuznetsov side. I wrote them about the errors
which I seem to have lost unless Dave has a copy available. There is only
new footage for the NK series of engines there including the major engine
static test firing failure in 1968. There is no new N1 footage.  With in the
program they may the following basic mistakes:
>1. They identified 7L as 3L IE the 3L is the gray bird.
>2. No debre's caused the first failure of 3L only on 5L. 
>3. 5L caused by debree etc.
>4. No third flight that Mishin described is the 7L bird of the 4th flight.
He gets the numbers mixed as he has him self told me because he did not
attend the 7L launch due to heart problems that hospitalized him at the
time. Chertok was the launch director for 7L.
>5. There was no reuse of the #L and 5L launch pad for the other N1 flight
test. It rebuild was not completed until 1972, 73 based on Corona imagery.
>        Basically the overly simplified story of the program is about what
I did in Huntsville, Alabama in the 1980's with the RED STAR - 2000 and
other briefings under David Christianson and my college friend David Dooling
at UAH ( AIAA, NSC) and MSFC for NASA/MSFC, DOD, USAF, Industry, and the
other interested US Gov't communities that attended. After my briefings that
went on for several years of repeated updated discussions. It was then
applied by  Jerry Thomson then of MSFC to the NLS  new closed and open cycle
propulsion studies. I had for some time also been discussing this with the P
& W President Donald Witt now retired who initially headed up the NLS
propulsion development group for industry at P & W both in West Palm Beach
and Huntsville. Once the NLS competition had started I had to be very
careful not to reveal to industry what I had discussed with Jerry Thomson
for NASA and the USAF. I handled my self very professionally and correctly
as I have been credited to have done. Jerry Thomson left MSFC and went with
Aerojet. Based on my efforts he went to Russia repeatedly carried out the
tours and made the contacts you hear about in the program. My good friend
Mr. Bill Hoffman  worked under Jerry Thomson who is now retired to his ranch
in the Huntsville-Tenn. area. Don Witt of P & W then went after the RD-170,
171 and its derivations RD-180, RD-190 for which Mr. Bob Ford of now
Lockheed Martin carried out. P & W got the RD-180 before Aerojet got the
NK-33. In both cases it was done to acquire the closed cycle engine
technology and manufacturing, materials processing etc. to make up for 25
plus years of lack of US rocket engine technology R & D investment by the US
Government. While at the same time it has provided gainful employment to the
Russian entities involved. The RD-180 infact as did the RD-170 greatly
benefitted from the NK-15/NK-33 experience but is still not as good as the
NK-33.  Kistler infact has funding for three flights of their booster which
is moving along rapidly now. I do not know what happened to Rocketdyne
except the really did not get the point and did not benefit except they are
now developing the NLS derivative engine for Delta-4. To make a long
historic story short to quote Jerry Thomoson who said to me " If it were not
for what you did none of this would have been possible". I also have
official letters to that from MSFC from Jerry Thomson's office.
>	Of course no good deed for your country goes unpunished. A lot of what I
did was not understood and was not appreciated. The revenge of some was
total on me. It was very expensive to me personally. Ultimately those
responsible for that great cost to me and what they had done to others were
removed from office in total. I managed to some how survive and save my
Russian Space Library thanks to FAS, and Mr. John Pike.  But as of January
1, 2001 that will be over also unless something changes. Where I will go at
this point is unclear. Work on understanding this engine technology
continues in the US to this day. There is still much to be learned. This is
why P&W and Aerojet have on going contracts with Energomash and Kuznetsov.
I still hope that the NK-33 will power the Space Shuttle fly back boosters
which was my ultimate goal all along. This may yet come true as I dreamed
years ago when I was to young to understand its meaning. It was a rare
privilege to have the opportunity to do what I did for this country and
Russia.  I do not regret it in spite of the cost to me personally. Somehow I
hope I will be able to survive and finish my book of the Soviet Manned Lunar
programs.
>>
>>All the Best,
>>Charles P. Vick
>>
>>At 11:31 PM 11/12/00 +0100, you wrote:
>>>Raoul Lannoy wrote :
>>>
>>>>At this moment, there are fascinating color TV pictures of the N1  four
>>>>launches in a flemish program.
>>>>The third was launched and the pictures are seen  from a distance. The sky
>>>>is all reddish. it exploded at an altitude (must have used  a zoom  to
>>>>picture it) (sorry, I haven't recorded the program from the very beginning,
>>>>but do now-I hope Bart, Tristan and Koen are seeing it too).
>>>
>>>Yes, Raoul, I did see the documentary, which was a Dutch-language version of
>>>a US documentary. There was no indication what the original English title
>>>was, only that it was produced by a certain Dan Clifton. It featured
>>>interviews with Charles Vick and James Harford.
>>>
>>>I think most or all of the N-1 footage in this documentary was from a
>>>compilation of N-1 pictures released by the Videocosmos organisation in
>>>Moscow a couple of years ago. There was also footage of the July 1969 N-1
>>>pad explosion taken from the RKK Energiya 1946-1996 video. The Videocosmos
>>>compilation included a 1973 in-house movie of KBOM, the design bureau that
>>>built the N-1 launch pads. A lot of the footage shown in the documentary was
>>>from the KBOM movie. Actually, I'm quite sure the vehicle shown in the KBOM
>>>movie is 7L, the fourth N-1. Mishin was shown watching the footage and said
>>>it was the third launch, but that was a pre-dawn launch, so he must have
>>>been mistaken. One thing that I don't recall having seen elsewhere was the
>>>apparent break-up of an N-1. I say apparent, because it was shown from too
>>>far to be sure that it was an N-1. It may well have been an entirely
>>>different rocket. Perhaps Charles Vick knows.
>>>
>>>The documentary was slightly misleading in that it began and ended with
>>>footage of the first Atlas-3 launch (carrying NPO Energomash's RD-180),
>>>while the rest of it was devoted to the history of Kuznetsov's NK engines.
>>>There was not a word about the fact that the NK-33 is yet to make its first
>>>flight (and may never do so unless Kistler finally works out its problems)
>>>and that the RD-180 is an altogether different engine than the NK-33.  I'm
>>>sure that many casual viewers went away with the impression that the Russian
>>>engine used on the Atlas-3 is the NK-33. But that's enough nitpicking. It
>>>was fun watching.
>>>
>>>Bart Hendrickx
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
_______________________
Charles P. Vick
Research Analyst
Federation of American Scientists
phone: (202) 675-1025
fax: (202) 675-1024
email: cpvick@fas.org
http://www.fas.org/