Chelomei: né voici 95 ans

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Ce "constructeur" spatial soviétique est né il y a 95 ans. Né en 1914, mort en 1984. C'est l'occasion pour Roscosmos de publier une petite synthèse de ses contributions majeures.

Pour les passionnés du spatial soviétique puis russe...

On citera particulièrement ce passage qui montre qu'il est à l'origine de la fusée Proton:
Chelomei became Korolev`s internal competitor in the "Moon race". Chelomei proposed that the powerful UR-500 be used to launch a small two-man craft on a lunar flyby, and managed to gain support for his proposal by employing members of Khruschev`s family. He also claimed the UR-500 could be used to launch a military space station.
Following Khruschev`s removal, Chelomei`s and Korolev`s projects were combined, but the Soviet Lunar program continued. The first launch of the UR-500 (also known as Proton) took place on March 10, 1967.
Although it was never used to send cosmonauts to the Moon as Chelomei had hoped, Proton has been widely used to launch Soviet satellites, as well as all Soviet/Russian space stations and modules including two of the first three components of the International Space Station (ISS).

http://www.roscosmos.ru/NewsDoSele.asp?NEWSID=6615