| Akademik Sergey Korolev | |
|---|---|
 A starboard quarter view of the Soviet Korolev class civilian space associated ship Akademik Sergey Korolev underway. (1/1/1988) | |
| Career | |
| Name: |
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| Owner: |
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| Operator: |
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| Port of registry: |
 Soviet Union Ukraine Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
| Builder: | Black Sea Shipyard, Nikolayev |
| Yard number: | 209/704 |
| Completed: | December 1970 |
| Identification: |
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| Fate: | Scrapped in Alang, August 1996 |
| Class overview | |
| Name: | Korolev (Soviet Project 1908) |
| Builders: | Black Sea Shipyard, Nikolayev |
| Operators: | Academy of Sciences |
| Completed: | 1 |
| Retired: | 1 |
| General characteristics Akademik Sergey Korolev | |
| Type: | SESS / Vigilship (Veladora) |
| Tonnage: | 7,067 DWT |
| Displacement: | 17,115 tons standard, 21,250 tons full load |
| Length: | 596 ft (182 m) |
| Beam: | 82 ft (25 m) |
| Draft: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 diesel (Bryansk/Burmeister & Wain); 12,000 hp (8,900 kW), 1 shaft |
| Speed: | 17.5 knots (32 km/h) |
| Range: | 22,500 nmi (41,670 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Complement: | approx. 190 + 170 scientist-technicians |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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The Akademik Sergey Korolev (Russian: Академик Сергей Королев) was a space control-monitoring ship or Vigilship (Veladora) constructed in 1970 to support the Soviet space program. Named after Sergei Korolev, the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, the ship also conducted upper atmosphere and outer space research.[1]
In Soviet times, the Akademik Sergey Korolev was a large communications ship which was part of a fleet of communications ships. These ships greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and unmanned missions were not within range of Soviet land-based tracking stations.[2] The ship mainly operated in the Atlantic Ocean monitoring spacecraft trajectory, telemetry data, and guaranteed a communications link with the cosmonauts.[3]
The ship had about 1200 accommodations, including 79 laboratories, in which 188 scientific workers performed their duties.[3]
In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American Apollo-Soyuz joint test program.[4]
Sold for scrapping and renamed OROL, arriving at Alang on 18 August 1996
See also[]
- Kosmonavt Yuri Gagarin, another Soviet satellite tracking ship
- Kosmonavt Vladimir Komarov, another Soviet satellite tracking ship
- List of ships of Russia by project number
References[]
- ↑ Norman Polmar, Guide to the Soviet Navy, Fourth Edition (1986), United States Naval Institute, Annapolis Maryland, ISBN 0-87021-240-0
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Askar, Research ship Akademik Sergey Korolev (2006), (Russian) Online, Accessed 6/14/2008
- ↑ SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, (U.S.) NASA, Online Article
External links[]
- A. Karpenko, ABM and Space Defense, Nevsky Bastion, No. 4, 1999, pp. 2–47, Federation of American Scientists (Online)
The original article can be found at Akademik Sergey Korolev and the edit history here.