The Russian Missile Saga: Personal Notes from a Direct Participant

Abstract

The Institute of Chemical Physics (ICP) and The Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics (IPCP), Academy of Sciences of the USSR (AS USSR) played a decisive role in the creation and development of solid propellants under the guidance of N.N. Semenov. This article presents first-hand facts as eye witnessed by the author, deputy of Semenov on this topic. Study of combustion and explosion of explosives and gunpowders, thermal self-ignition and explosion, detonation, kinetics of thermal decomposition of explosives, and more were initiated at the ICP AS USSR from the beginning of its establishment in the 1930s, along with the creation of the theory of branched chain reactions. Initial studies mainly concerned processes in gases. Later, a full investigation started on the synthesis and study of high-energy materials that were potential components of explosives and propellants. At the end of the 1950s, the question of the creation of the intercontinental ballistic missile based on a solid fuel arose. In the middle of the 1960s, the theoretical foundations and the practical development ways of the solid composite propellants industry were established. The key role of the condensed phase reactions was clarified, thus allowing to control the combustion mechanism by means of catalysts or additives affecting the solid fuel. This was quite different from the theory developed by Summerfield in the USA and based on the controlling role of mass diffusion in the gas phase. By the end of the 1980s, energy, ballistic, and performance properties outran those available in the USA.