"Carey Sublette" writes:

"John Schilling" wrote in message
...

[Tsar Bomba barely fits in a Bear]

Wouldn't a deployed Tsar Bomba carrier have been a militarized Proton,
aka UR-500 aka 8K82? The space launch version uses only storable
propellants, can put twenty tons into low orbit with the smallest
fairing easily holding a 2 x 8 meter payload, and my references on
the space launch side claim that it was developed with the ICBM role
and the Tsar Bomba payload in mind from the start (1961).

Which was a stupid idea from the start, and so never implemented,
but rather less stupid than trying to send an overladen Bear across
the arctic.

The only references I recall seeing for models that were actually made were
bomb versions. They could have been used against NATO (but this has nothing
to do with MAD).

It seems likely that they investigated the Proton idea since it is the only
way to get it to America. Do you know of any attempts to develop an RV for
this? Can you give me any specific citations?


The one on my desk is _International Reference Guide to Space Launch
Systems_, Steven J. Isakowitz, Joseph P. Hopkins. and Joshia B. Hopkins,
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1999.

No mention of RVs, which would be outside Isakowitz's focus, but the
historical section on the Proton includes:

"The Proton launch vehicle was developed by the design bureau of Vladimir
Chelomei. The Proton was designed to serve as both a heavy missile capable
of carrying 100 megaton warheads and as a large space launch vehicle. In
competition with his rival chief designers, Sergei Korolev and Michael
Yangel, Cjhelomei proposed to build the Proton as part of a family of
Universal Rockets of various sizes and functions. The small UR-100
[became the SS-11 ICBM, then SS-19 ICBM, then Rokot and Strela launch
vehicles]. The UR-200 medium ICBM was beaten out by Yangel's R-36
[which became the SS-9 ICBM, then the Tskilon launch vehicle]. Chelomei's
UR-700 ultraheavy-lift launch vehicle design also lost out to Korolev's
N-1 for the role of a manned lunar launcher. However, the UR-500 was
selected as a military heavy-lift launcher in 1961 and was given article
number 8K82.

Because the UR-500 was to serve a military role, it needed storable
propellants and large engines to burn them. Chelomei turned to Valentin
Gushko, who had proposed such engines for Korolev's N-1 booster. Korolev
had rejected them, preferring to use less toxic oxygen/kerosene propulsion,
but the design was suitable for Proton. Engine tests from 1961 to 1965
demonstrated the propulsion system, and Chelomei's designers had considered
a number of configurations for the launch vehicle. By 1965, the first
two-stage UR-500 was completed. By this time its military role had been
dropped. The cost of building silos would have been high, and it is likely
that improvements in missile targeting began to make the Proton's huge
warheads unnecessary. The first space launch was conducted on 16 July 1965"


Only other sources I can find, are probably derived from Isakowitz. But
his work is the bible in the space launch field, so I'm inclined to
believe him. And the timing and technology both fit - right about the
time of the Tsar Bomba test, the Soviets start developing a storable
propellant rocket the right size to loft a Tsar Bomba and RV towards the
United States.


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