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Vostok-1: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Spacetripready.png|link=FlightGear_space_program]] | [[Image:Spacetripready.png|link=FlightGear_space_program]] | ||
Vostok-1 was the first manned spaceflight in history, done by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. The launch vehicle was a Vostok-K rocket carrying the Vostok-3KA capsule. | |||
While the historical space mission was under fully automatic control and Gagarin ejected from the capsule at an altitude of 7 km and parachuted to the ground, the simulation in Flightgear has to be flown manually and lands the capsule itself via parachutes. To that aim, an extra control panel to manage the various stages of the rocket which is not present in the real capsule has been added at the right side of the cockpit. | |||
== Characteristics of the Vostok-K carrier == | |||
The Vostok-K is a three stage rocket. All three stages are powered by RP-1 (a kerosene-like rocket propellant) and liquid oxygene. It works partially with a parallel-burn concept. | |||
The first stage consists of four boosters with a total thrust of 3,883.4 kN. They ignite in parallel with the second stage with a thrust of 912 kN. | |||
The boosters have a burn time of about 118 seconds and are jettisoned when empty. In the later stages of the booster burn, the rocket can reach accelerations in excess of 4 g (the structural limit) and the engines need to be throttled back. | |||
The second stage has a burn duration of 301 seconds and is also discarded when empty. Just as with the boosters, the acceleration may reach the structural limit towards the end of the burn as the tanks deplete. | |||
The third stage has a much lower thrust of 54.5 kN leading to about 0.5 g acceleration. It is used to nudge the capsule into a stable orbit and has a burn duration of 365 seconds. | |||
Control during ascent is provided by maneuvering thrusters rather than thrust vector control by gimbaling the main engines. As a result, Vostok's response to control input in powered flight is considerably less crisp than that of e.g. the Space Shuttle. | |||
== Developer's message == | |||
Well, what can I say? You know what. | Well, what can I say? You know what. | ||