[FPSPACE] Why Proton 4

[Rex Hall]

Has anyone thought why Proton 4 was launched?

 

Maybe it just seemed like a good idea at the time?

 

Launch was on November 16, 1968 and this was the first flight of the
Proton-K in its three-stage configuration.   Of course, it had been flying
as a four-stage vehicle since March 1967, and only six days earlier the
four-stage Proton-K had been used to launch the L-1/Zond 6 mission around
the Moon.

 

So, there wasn't an obviously-new rocket stage being tested.

 

Also, this was rather a busy time in the Soviet space programme, with the
L-1/Zond 5 mission in September, the two Soyuz missions in October, L-1/Zond
6 just launched and the hoped-for L-1 manned circumlunar mission in December
(which must have been killed stone dead following the Zond 6 recovery
failure).

 

There had been failures in the Proton-K programme so maybe Proton 4 was a
non- L-1 launch vehicle test?   A bit late in the day for that!   Also,
planning and preparing a 17 tonnes satellite takes a little while, so it
cannot have been a last minute decision to test the launch vehicle.

 

Of course, the Soviet priority of space science could have dictated the
launch.   Or maybe part of the radiation monitoring for the payload was
connected with the space environment in support of the planned manned lunar
missions?    Hmmmm, smaller, Prognoz-like flights in highly eccentric orbits
might have been more logical.

 

Maybe the flight was simply to test a new launch profile with the third
stage performing orbital injection?   OK, but the next three-stage Proton-K
launch with a useful payload wasn't for another 30 months when DOS-1/Salyut
was launched, so no great priority to test the vehicle in the midst of the
busy L-1 schedule.

 

So, was there some other reason for flying Proton 4 in November 1968?

 

 

Phillip Clark