( 509) For this crucial meeting, Korolev outlined his case in a special letter. On March 21, the Presidium of the Central Committee convened to consider the issue of the Vostok program, along with the Soyuz project. One such spacecraft could carry a cosmonaut on a record-breaking, 10-day mission, Serbin wrote. On the way out of the meeting, Malinovsky yelled at Vershinin for his tacit support of the idea: "Why are you sticking your head out, he will leave you without pants! What's the hell we need that space (program) for?" ( 574) Next day, a powerful Kremlin apparatchik Ivan Serbin, responsible for the defense industry, informed Soviet leaders about official proposals to build four Vostoks in the 2nd and in the 3rd quarter of 1963. Kozlov "advised" Malinovsky to staff the new processing unit at the expense of disbanding one of the air bases. On March 18, 1963, the Secretariat of the Central Committee chaired by Frol Kozlov reviewed the future plans for Vostoks but made no decision, except for throwing the Vostok processing into the Air Force's lap. The Ministry of Defense, already burdened with the support of the manned space program, resisted this new responsibility. However "operational" missions would also require the military to form a 200-person strong unit that would take over from the industry the pre-launch processing of manned spacecraft. Kamanin still hoped that the expansion of various military experiments onboard Vostoks would eventually convince the Air Force to adopt them as an operational weapons system. ( 509) At the time, the head of cosmonaut training Nikolai Kamanin planned for four or five Vostok missions in 1963 and two or three launches in 1964. ( 574) The next day, Ustinov sent a formal request to the Central Committee of the Communist Party to fund four extra Vostok spacecraft during the first half of 1963. According to the document, three of four new ships to be built in the first half of 1963 would be used for a 6-, 8-, and 10-day manned missions, while the fourth spacecraft would fly a 30-day unmanned flight with an animal onboard. The powerful Military Industrial Commission, VPK, chaired by Dmitry Ustinov, endorsed the program on February 8, 1963. Not without Korolev's political maneuvering, proposals to continue the Vostok program also came from the State Commission for the Defense Technology, GKOT, which oversaw the rocket industry, and from the Academy of Sciences, the USSR's top academic body. The document also proposed a 30-day mission with animals onboard as early as 1963. The letter stated that the capabilities of the Vostok had not been yet exhausted and the spacecraft could push the duration of manned missions in a quest to understand medical and biological problems of space flight. ![]() ![]() 11, 1962, after several months of feet-dragging, Radion Malinovsky and the Commander of the Air Force Konstantin Vershinin finally signed a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party requesting follow-on Vostok missions beyond already approved Vostok-5 and Vostok-6.
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