First roll-outs

As early as 1979 crude full-scale mock-ups of the core stage and one of the strap-ons (“EUK-13”) were built in situ at Baykonur just to get a feel of things to come [5]. During that same year the Progress factory in Kuybyshev manufactured a core stage called 4M that was to be used for a variety of pad tests at Baykonur. However, the beginning of those pad tests hinged on the completion of the UKSS test stand as well as the availability of the VM-T Atlant carrier aircraft to fly elements of the core stage from Kuybyshev to the cosmodrome. After completing its test flights at Zhukovskiy, the VM-T delivered the 4M core stage to Baykonur in two ferry flights on 8 April and 11 June 1982. At about the same time KB Yuzhnoye shipped four mock-up modular sections of strap-on boosters to the launch site.

By the autumn of 1982 the Interdepartmental Coordinating Council (MVKS) set the goal of assembling the first Energiya rocket before the end of the year, which was expected to be a major morale-booster for cosmodrome personnel. This was easier said than done, because much of the equipment needed for this at the Energiya assembly building was not yet in place and NPO Energiya’s ZEM factory was running late in supplying the nose and tail sections for the mock-up boosters. In order to meet the deadline, tail sections for the mock-up boosters were quickly manufactured by the Atommash factory in Volgodonsk, which produced large-scale components for the Soviet Union’s nuclear power program. Mustering all their improvisation skills, workers managed to complete the assembly of the first so-called “packet’’ in the final days of 1982, using a specially ordered crane to mount the final two boosters on the stack.

A first demonstration roll-out took place in the late winter, but the exact date is unknown and it is not clear if the vehicle was actually placed on the UKSS. US reconnaissance satellites observed the rocket outside the assembly building in March 1983 [6]. The next step would have been to conduct fueling tests of the 4M’s LOX and LH2 tanks, but much of the 4M core stage’s internal plumbing had not yet been supplied by the Progress plant and the UKSS had not been completely finished either. However, engineers came up with an alternative plan to use the 4M stack for dynamic tests that would normally be done much later at the Dynamic Test Stand, the construction of which was running many years behind schedule. The purpose was to learn more about the effects of longitudinal and transverse vibrations on the core stage, the boosters, and the mechanical systems joining them. Another objective was to study the effects of an emergency shutdown of two RD-0120 engines. For the tests

the stack was equipped with a wide array of sensors capable of monitoring 85 different parameters.

For the longitudinal vibration tests, a cable would be suspended between the top and bottom sections of the core stage, where one of the engine nozzles was removed. Pyrotechnic bolts would then be fired to release the cable either at the bottom end or top end of the core stage, thereby creating longitudinal vibrations. Dubbed 4M-D (D for “dynamic”), the stack was rolled out to the UKSS for these tests on 7 May 1983. Dynamic tests were later continued with the same stack in horizontal position in the Energiya assembly building. Several months later the UKSS was finally ready for fit checks, and launch pad chief designer Vladimir Barmin insisted on doing another roll-out. In October 1983 the 4M stack once again slowly made its way to the UKSS and all its systems were hooked up to the pad, which had not been the case in the earlier tests [7].