Akademik Sergei Korolev

The Akademik Sergei Korolev ( _ru. Академик Сергей Королев) was a space control-monitoring ship constructed in 1970 to support the Soviet space program. The ship also conducted upper atmosphere and outer space research.Norman Polmar, "Guide to the Soviet Navy", Fourth Edition (1986), United States Naval Institute, Annapolis Maryland, ISBN 0-87021-240-0]

In Soviet times, the "Akademik Sergei 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 over the USSR."Tracking sites and ships", [http://suzymchale.com/kosmonavtka/tracking.html Komsmonavtka Website] , Retrieved 6/13/2008] The ship mainly operated in the Atlantic ocean monitoring spacecraft trajectory, telemetry data, and guaranteed a communications link with the cosmonauts.Askar, "Research ship Akademik Sergey Korolev" (2006), ru icon [http://www.space-ru.com/russian-research-ships/research-ship-akademik-sergey-korolev/ Online] , Accessed 6/14/2008]

The ship had about 1200 accommodations, including 79 laboratories, in which 188 scientific workers performed their duties.

In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American Apollo-Soyuz joint test program."SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project", (U.S.) NASA, [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4209/ch10-12.htm Online Article] ]

The communications ships belonged to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The maritime part fell under the responsibility of the Baltic- and Black sea shipping. The ships had home ports in Ukraine (the "Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin" and the "Akademik Sergei Korolyov") so, after the fall of the Soviet Union the ships were transferred to Ukraine – ending their role in spaceflight. The ship was later renamed "OROL" and sold for scrapping, arriving at Alang in August 1996.

See also

* List of ships of Russia by project number

References

External links

* A. Karpenko, "ABM and Space Defense", Nevsky Bastion, No. 4, 1999, pp. 2-47, [http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/program/soviet/990600-bmd-rus.htm Federation of American Scientists (Online)]