Monument to the first rocket

Monument to the First Rocket - a monument at the Kapustin Yar training ground, near the city of Znamensk, Astrakhan Region . It was installed on October 18, 1962 ^[1] at the site of the first launch of the first Soviet ballistic missile R-1 (A-4) .

Monument
Monument to the first rocket
A country	Russia
Location	Kapustin Yar training ground, Astrakhan region
Architect	B.V. Boltovets, V.O. Popkov, M. M. Kulichenko
Construction	1962

History and Description

October 18, 1947 at 10 hours 47 minutes Moscow time from the 4th State Central Testing Ground " Kapustin Yar ", created a few months earlier, the ballistic missile was first launched in the USSR. It ended successfully, the rocket was able to rise to a height of 86 kilometers and reached the earth's surface 207 kilometers from the launch site ^[2] .

It was a powerful breakthrough into a completely new field of technology. It took only a year for the defense industry of the USSR, which was rapidly recovering after the war, to master a completely new type of sophisticated weapon.

In honor of this significant event, 15 years later, on October 18, 1962 , at the launch site, a mock-up of the very first R-1 (A-4) missile was installed on a pedestal.

The monument was made by the forces of the missile weapons service range. The work was carried out by the personnel of the missile weapons repair shop, which was headed by Lt. Col. B.V. Boltovets. In the construction of the monument, the workshop mechanics took an active part: V.O. Popkov and M.M. Kulichenko. The pedestal of the monument was made in Volgograd at the Production Association "Barricades" ^[3] .

Patch of military personnel of the 4th GTsMP with the image of the monument

A memorial plaque with the names and initials of the main participants of the historical launch was attached to the pedestal. 33 surnames are placed on the board, including: D.F. Ustinov , S.P. Korolev , V.I. Voznyuk , N.A. Pilyugin , V.P. Barmin , N.D. Yakovlev , A.M. Isaev and others.

The monument was dedicated to the verses of an unknown poet:

  “In the endless steppes of the Astrakhan land,
 Where the eagles soaring in the sky
 Where the scorching sun rolls,
 There the first rocket is an obelisk.  "