Soviet ship Akademik Sergey Korolyov

The Akademik Sergey Korolyov (Russian: Академик Сергей Королёв) was a space control-monitoring ship or Vigilship (Veladora) constructed in 1970 to support the Soviet space program. Named after Sergey Korolyov, the head Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s, the ship also conducted upper atmosphere and outer space research.[1]

A starboard quarter view of the Soviet Korolyov class civilian space associated ship Akademik Sergey Korolyov underway. (1/1/1988)
History
Soviet Union
Name	1970–1996: Akademik Sergey Korolyov 1996: Orol
Owner	Black Sea Shipping 1996: Polluks Shipping
Operator	Academy of Sciences 1996: Four Seasons Shipmanagement
Port of registry	1970–1992: Odesa,  Soviet Union 1992–1996: Odesa,  Ukraine 1996: Kingstown,  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Builder	Black Sea Shipyard, Nikolayev
Yard number	209/704
Completed	December 1970
Identification	Call sign: UISZ → J8QS6 IMO number: 7052284
Fate	Scrapped in Alang, August 1996
Class overview
Name	Korolyov (Soviet Project 1908)
Builders	Black Sea Shipyard, Nikolayev
Operators	Academy of Sciences
Completed	1
Retired	1
General characteristics Akademik Sergey Korolyov
Type	SESS / Vigilship (Veladora)
Tonnage	7,067 DWT
Displacement	17,115 tons standard, 21,250 tons full load
Length	596 ft (182 m)
Beam	82 ft (25 m)
Draft	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion	1 diesel (Bryansk/Burmeister & Wain); 12,000 hp (8,900 kW), 1 shaft
Speed	17.5 knots (32 km/h)
Range	22,500 nmi (41,670 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h)
Complement	approx. 190 + 170 scientist-technicians
Sensors and processing systems	2 Don-Kay (Navigation); Tracking and communications equipment includes Quad Ring, Ship Bowl, Ship Globe, and Vee Tube antennas.

In Soviet times, the Akademik Sergey Korolyov was a large communications ship which was part of a fleet of communications ships. These ships greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and unmanned missions were not within range of Soviet land-based tracking stations.[2] The ship mainly operated in the Atlantic Ocean monitoring spacecraft trajectory, telemetry data, and guaranteed a communications link with the cosmonauts.[3]

The ship had about 1200 accommodations, including 79 laboratories, in which 188 scientific workers performed their duties.[3]

In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American Apollo–Soyuz joint test program.[4]

Sold for scrapping and renamed OROL, arriving at Alang on 18 August 1996