The Soviets Blast Out in Front

By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

When the 170 million-horsepower Energia rocket thundered from its launching pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in Kazakhstan on May 15, the Soviet Union took another stride in its steady march toward pre-eminence in space. Streaking eastward, the massive heavy-lift rocket reached 6,000 m.p.h. and 30 miles in altitude before the first stage separated and dropped to earth as planned. At nearly 14,000 m.p.h. and 60 miles up, the second stage fell away and splashed into the Pacific Ocean "in strict conformity with the flight mission," as the official report put it. Then, unexpectedly, there was a glitch: the payload, a full-size dummy satellite, crashed into the sea because of a "faulty operation of its onboard systems," instead of propelling itself into orbit.

But the failure was nothing compared with the magnitude of the feat. For the first time, the Soviets successfully tested the brand-new Energia, a 220- ft. rocket capable of thrusting more than 100-ton payloads into orbit, at least four times that of the U.S. space shuttle's orbiter. A Soviet TV commentator declared in a post-launch videotape that the new rocket could lift into space "the blocks from which cities will be built." Even U.S. observers were impressed. "It's the most powerful rocket in the world -- ever," said James Oberg, a Houston-based expert on Soviet space ventures, after the launch. Unlike the usual Soviet behemoths, he added, "it's a sophisticated technological rocket" comparable to the Saturn V that launched Skylab. The only difference, according to Oberg, is that "ours are rusting in museums and theirs are flying."

Indeed, the nagging suspicion among American space observers that the Soviet Union is pulling ahead of the U.S. is turning into reality. While the American space program is gridlocked over when and how to deploy a space station, for example, the Soviet Mir (Peace) station, up for more than a year, has been manned for half that time and is now being expanded. This year the U.S. has carried out only four successful orbital launches, while the Soviets have had 37. The U.S. space shuttle is grounded until at least the summer of 1988. In the meantime, the evidence grows that a scaled-down Soviet shuttle has already been tested. TASS, the Soviet news agency, last week disclosed that the new rocket will launch "reusable orbital spaceships." U.S. experts believe the first manned Soviet shuttle flight may come late this year or in early 1988.

Energia's debut may push the balance of space power decisively into Soviet hands. With it, Moscow can easily launch its own shuttle. The Soviets can send up large modules to Mir to convert it into a full-fledged research and manufacturing station or send them into orbit to be assembled as a manned interplanetary ship. And they now have the muscle to do what the Pentagon cannot for the foreseeable future: orbit antisatellite and antimissile laser and particle-beam weapons for Star Wars-like battle stations in outer space.

Moscow insists that it is observing a moratorium on testing and deployment of antisatellite weapons, but Western experts say that at least one such weapon is already operational and that laser and particle-beam weapons are under development. Moreover, experience in building the Mir complex could also be applied to construction of an orbiting weapons platform. While the Kremlin claims peaceful intentions, the supersecret Soviet military still dominates the space program. "In a few years," says Oberg, "we might find ourselves as space outlaws, with these big stations as sheriff."

Western experts believe Energia's power comes from four engines, propelled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (reportedly the first time a Soviet booster has used this fuel), built into the rocket's central core, and four more engines strapped on the outside. These strap-on boosters are probably fueled by a mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen. The Soviet shuttle would ride piggyback on the launch vehicle in much the same way that the U.S. orbiter does, but other payloads could sit on top.

Some Western sources speculate that the Soviets, with their new booster, a large orbital base and growing expertise on long stays in space, may be ready to launch a manned mission to Mars before the end of this century -- a goal often hinted at by the Soviets. And just last week, at a conference in Pasadena, Calif., a Soviet scientist presented a comprehensive list of unmanned missions -- to the surfaces of Mars and one of its moons, to asteroids and a comet -- already scheduled between next year and the late 1990s. U.S. plans are far less ambitious; no Mars landing is in the works until after 2000.

Whatever the eventual uses of the Energia, the Soviets are basking in the glow of their newly and grudgingly acknowledged competence. They are also trying to make some money from it. Two weeks ago, a team of Soviet salesmen arrived in the U.S. to try to sell low-priced launching services to American companies whose satellites have been grounded by the hiatus in shuttle flights. They got nowhere: it is against U.S. law to send high-tech electronics to the U.S.S.R. Even so, the Soviet space success is giving Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev a rallying point in the campaign to modernize his country's economy. And it shows that while the U.S. won the race to the moon almost two decades ago, the major planetary-science breakthroughs of the future may come increasingly from the Soviet Union.

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CREDIT: TIME Diagram by Paul J. Pugliese

CAPTION: AN IMPRESSIVE DEBUT

Soviets launch Energia (1). The first stage drops onto land (2), and the second stage into the Pacific (3), as planned. But the payload falls into the ocean instead of going into orbit (4).

DESCRIPTION: Color illustration: Map of U.S.S.R. and Pacific Ocean with trajectories from Baikonur Cosmodrome.

With reporting by Ken Olsen/Moscow and Richard Woodbury/Houston