Rocket astrophysical observatories launched in Soviet Union in 1960s and early 1970s under the direction of Grigor Gurzadyan

Grigor Gurzadyan

- Life :Gurzadyan was born on October 15, 1922 in Baghdad, to parents who fled in 1915 Western Armenia. Upon graduating the from the Hydrotechnical and Constructional Department of Yerevan Polytechnic Institute in 1944, he became the postgraduate of Victor Ambartsumian, who had just moved to Armenia...

 of Byurakan Observatory

Byurakan Observatory

The Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, or Byurakan Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Armenian Academy of Sciences. It is located on the slope of Mount Aragats in the village of Byurakan in Armenia.-History:...

 in Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

, for the study of the Solar ultraviolet and X-ray emission.

Ballistic rockets R-5 were used, launched from Kapustin-Jar military base. The 500 km altitude flights, after the first 120 km of active regime, were performing 8–9 minutes of observations, with further parachute landing of the payload.

The observatories of K-2, K-3 and K-4 series while undergoing ever developing modifications and combinations, were including:

Lyman alpha camera for Solar chromospheric imaging, of 500 mm focal length, 70 mm slit;

coronal slit Roland spectrograph of wavelength range 500-1300 A and spectral resolution 0.1 A;

chromospheric spectrograph of 700-1800 A of resolution 0.1 A;

camera for coronal imaging at 2000-3000 A and up to 24 Solar radii distance from Solar disk;

camera for monochromatic imaging at 304 HeII and 584 HeI lines of 50 mm slit and of focal length 250 mm;

Solar imaging cameras at wavelengths shorter than 60 A, of focal length 150 mm and angular resolution up to 1 arc minute;

X-ray spectrograph for Solar corona spectra at 10-150 A, with dispersion 3A/mm.

The safe return of the payload was enabling its use at several flights.
During the launch of October 1, 1965 the most powerful Solar X-ray flare among ever detected by then, was observed; the launch of October 3, 1970 also was notable. The very first launch was performed at February 15, 1961, during a Solar eclipse.

In 1970s Gurzadyan's team, then in Garni Space Astronomy Laboratory in Armenia, developed the orbital Orion 1 and Orion 2 Space Observatories

Orion 1 and Orion 2 Space Observatories

The Orion 1 Space Observatory and Orion 2 Space Observatory were space observatories installed in spacecraft launched by the space program of the Soviet Union during the 1970s.- Orion 1 :...

, installed onboard space station Salyut 1

Salyut 1

Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, launched by the USSR on April 19, 1971. It was launched unmanned using a Proton-K rocket. Its first crew came later in Soyuz 10, but was unable to dock completely; its second crew launched in Soyuz 11 and remained on board for 23 days...

 and Soyuz 13

Soyuz 13

Soyuz 13 was a 1973 Soviet manned space flight, the second test flight of the redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft that first flew as Soyuz 12. The spacecraft was specially modified to carry the Orion 2 Space Observatory...

, respectively.

References
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• Gurzadyan, G.A., A Powerful Solar X-ray Flare, Commun. Acad. Sci. Armenian SSR, vol. XLIII, p. 1 (1966)
• Gurzadyan, G.A., Kazarian E.A., Krmoyan M.N., Epremian R.A., Rocket Astrophysical Observatory K-2,

Commun.Acad. Sci. Armenian SSR, vol. LIII, p. 4 (1971)

• Gurzadyan, G.A., Vartanian, K.V., Solar X-Ray Source Unassociated With Sunspots, Space Science Reviews, vol.13, p. 731 (1972); http://www.springerlink.com/content/r721417583622852/