M-100

Developed in the Design Bureau of Plant No. 74 of the Udmurt Economic Council (now Izhmash in Izhevsk ). The development was led by Deputy Chief Designer Vladimir Naumovich Greenberg (according to other sources, Chief Designer A. T. Chernov). The prototype was a tactical missile 25-2 ground-to-ground with a range of 70 km and a combat charge of 50 kg, not accepted for service. At its base, by order of the Central Administrative District, a two-stage solid-fuel meteorological rocket with a lift height of 100 km was developed.

The first launch took place in 1961 at the Kapustin Yar training ground. After the first successful launch, improvements were made to the design, resulting in a series of emergency starts. The tests were moved to Kazakhstan, where it was completed and testing in 1963. In the same 1963, mass production of the M-100 at the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant began.

The complex was put into operation in 1964 - on the research vessels of the Hydrometeorological Service "Academic Shirshov" , "A. I. Voeikov " and " Yu. M. Shokalsky ” , and then at the rocket sounding station of the Druzhnaya observatory ( Hayes Island, Franz Josef Land ), and the Molodezhnaya station in Antarctica and the Akademik Korolyov vessel of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In the development of launchers took part Boris Arkadevich Berestov .

In the second half of the 1970s, rocket production was transferred to the Stankomash plant in Chelyabinsk .

M-100 is an uncontrolled two-stage solid propellant rocket with aerodynamic stabilizers at both stages. Used in the 60s. ballistic powder caused the use of additional charges.

The launch was carried out along a trajectory close to the vertical, from the launch pad with spiral guides, giving the rocket rotation around its longitudinal axis. Rotation eliminates the influence of the asymmetry of engine thrust and aerodynamics of the rocket hull on the flight path.

The separation of the steps is "hot", after the ignition of gunpowder in the second stage. The head part is separated at an altitude of 65-70 km. At the same time, a parachute opens, which stabilizes the flight on the upper part of the free fall trajectory, and in dense layers of the atmosphere (below 60 km) it drastically slows down the rate of decline and causes the rocket to drift in accordance with the strength and direction of the wind.

The basic composition of the equipment consisted of Pirani pressure gauges - for determining pressure, resistance thermometers designed to measure temperature, containers with dipoles.

In 1962, on the initiative of Academician E.K. Fedorov, a Decree of the Government of the USSR on the development of three new missile systems based on powder engines with elevations of 60 ( MMP-06 ), 90-100 (M-100) and 150-180 km ( MP-12 ), and the equipping of these complexes with new research vessels, the construction of new stations and related infrastructure. Thus, in 1970–1980 , a unique network of 10 missile sounding stations and 10 research ships equipped with missile systems was created in the Eastern Hemisphere almost from the North to the South Pole. The organizational, technical and methodological management of the missile network of stations was carried out by the Central Administrative District. In 1972 alone, 277 M-100 missiles were launched.

In the second half of the 60s, the Soviet Union implemented a program of a manned flyby of the Moon 7KL1. The return of the descent vehicle was to take place in 2 stages: first, entry into the atmosphere in the equatorial region of the Indian Ocean, deceleration to the first space velocity, exit from the atmosphere, and final entry into the atmosphere with landing in Kazakhstan. NII-88, together with the Central Administrative District, was entrusted with providing data on the density and temperature of the atmosphere in the area of ​​the first entry into the atmosphere. Therefore, in 1966-68. Voeikov and Shokalsky vessels regularly made missile-sounding flights to designated areas of the Indian Ocean.

Complicated scientific and technical problems were solved when testing the Mars-2 and Mars-3 SA parachute systems, which were to be introduced in the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 3.5 M. There are no analogs of the system and its testing methods in terrestrial conditions in the world existed. On the basis of theoretical research in 1970, the specialists of the Lavochkin NGO together with the specialists of the Research Institute of Parachute Assault Equipment decided to test the models of the parachute system, which were launched to high altitude by M-100 meteorological rockets. During testing, there was a tendency to collapse the dome of the main parachute at a speed of 3.5M. The necessary changes were made, the effectiveness of which was confirmed by subsequent tests.

The list of M-100 launches is available on the Encyclopedia Astronautica website . © Mark Wade, 1997-2008

• Geophysical rocket
• Meteorology
• Meteorological rocket
• Anti-hail rocket

• Encyclopedia Astronautica. © Mark Wade, 1997-2008