Russian Launch Vehicles and their Spacecraft: Thoughts & News

Big_Gazza wrote:

flamming_python wrote:How about you do some work you fking baboon, instead of devoting all your time to PR and press releases?

I assume you're spruiking your wares to win the job as PDs new paduan?

While I do find it heartwarming that you spend so much time thinking about me (keep doing so, it's better use of your time than your usual daily routine) you went straight to personal insults of someone I don't even particularly like without explaining where did the Zvezda construction workers' paychecks disappeared off to

Did they get dematerialized because of energy field generated by haters?

We need from know full details too. Some protest at Zvezda shipyard. Is what they say true or not? Holding protest is a good way to get attention of this and like all things, higher authorities will get that attention.

It's all due process. This shit happens all the time everywhere.

I do agree, bad management causes this.

Demonstrations, so what? A few years ago some french workers took the CEO of their company as hostage.

Big_Gazza wrote:

flamming_python wrote:How about you do some work you fking baboon, instead of devoting all your time to PR and press releases?

I assume you're spruiking your wares to win the job as PDs new paduan?

I use this forum to among other things, state my own opinions

Any similarity to PD's views, living or dead, is purely coincidental, all terms and conditions do apply.

https://ria.ru/20210414/krylo-sv-1728170796.html

MOSCOW, April 14 - RIA Novosti. The reusable cruise stage of the Krylo-SV light-class launch vehicle being developed in Russia will be able to land both on wheels and on skis, depending on the type of landing strips. This was stated by the head of the experimental design bureau named after Bartini TsNIIMash Boris Satovsky in a video posted on the YouTube channel of the Faculty of Aerophysics and Space Research at MIPT.

"In an extreme case, we assume the possibility of landing even on an unpaved airfield, so the chassis will have interchangeable equipment: if landing on a concrete strip and a cool airfield, then these will be wheels, and if this is a landing on the ground, then it will be skis," Satovsky said ...

Work on the Krylo-SV rocket project began several years ago, and in February 2020, the Scientific and Technical Council of the Advanced Research Fund decided to start developing a flight demonstrator.

Krylo-SV is a reusable cruise stage of a light class missile. It will measure six meters long and 0.8 meters in diameter. The rocket demonstrator is planned to be one-third the size of the original. Krylo-SV will travel at hypersonic speeds - up to six Mach numbers. A new rocket engine called "Whirlwind" is being developed especially for the rocket.

It is planned that after the separation of the second stage, which will continue its flight, the first reusable stage will return to the cosmodrome on wings and using an aircraft engine.

Russia’s new Amur reusable rocket to get lift-off emergency diversion system

If a failure occurs during a lift-off or close to the ground, it won’t be possible to launch the rocket due to its large mass; that is why, the rocket will be diverted to a safe distance not to damage the launch pad

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Russian specialists are developing an emergency system for the new Amur reusable methane-powered rocket that will divert the carrier from the launch pad in case of an incident upon its lift-off, Chief Expert of the Roscosmos Long-Term Programs Department and the Sfera Program responsible for the Amur-LNG project Igor Pshenichnikov told TASS on Monday.

"We are planning to implement the system of diversion and hot spare in the Amur carrier rocket," he said.

If one of the engines breaks down, it will be switched off while the operation of other thrusters will be boosted. In this situation, an option of continuing the mission is even considered. "In this case, it won’t be possible to return the stage and it will fly in its expendable mode," the chief expert explained.

If a failure occurs during a lift-off or close to the ground, it won’t be possible to launch the rocket due to its large mass. That is why, the rocket will be diverted to a safe distance not to damage the launch pad, he said.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and the Progress Space Rocket Center signed a contract in October last year on the conceptual designing of a space rocket system with Russia’s Amur first reusable methane-fueled rocket. The rocket will get a reusable first stage and will be launched from the Vostochny spaceport in the Russian Far East.

In February, Director of the Progress Space Rocket Center (part of Roscosmos) Dmitry Baranov said that the work on the conceptual design of the Amur methane-fueled rocket was due to be completed in the third quarter of 2021.

The Amur is a commercial carrier rocket. With its reusable stage, it will be capable of delivering up to 10.5 tonnes of payload into a low near-Earth orbit compared to 8.5 tonnes carried by Soyuz-2 rockets.

https://tass.com/defense/1279753

Big_Gazza wrote:VORONEZH COMPLETED A TEST CYCLE FOR THE RD0124MS ENGINE CHAMBER

The Voronezh rocket engine building center (part of the integrated rocket engine building structure headed by NPO Energomash JSC of the Roscosmos State Corporation) has successfully completed a cycle of firing tests of the standard chamber of the RD0124MS liquid propellant rocket engine, created at the enterprise for use in the second stage of the promising domestic launch vehicle. Soyuz-5 ".

The tests carried out confirmed the operability and characteristics of the camera in the modes specified in the terms of reference. This allows the enterprise to proceed to the following steps: testing the engine chamber with a high-altitude nozzle in high-altitude conditions, as well as the manufacture of finishing engines for ground fire testing.

The rocket engine RD0124MS with a thrust in the void of 60 tons runs on the fuel components "liquid oxygen + naphthyl" and is intended for use in the second stage of the "Soyuz-5" launch vehicle. The engine consists of two blocks located on a common frame. Each of the blocks includes two chambers. The engine provides rocking of the chambers in two planes, as well as work when one of the units is turned off, including at a reduced thrust mode.

It is the world's most efficient kerolox engine to date, with a specific impulse of 361.

Big_Gazza wrote:The rocket engine RD0124MS with a thrust in the void of 60 tons runs on the fuel components "liquid oxygen + naphthyl" and is intended for use in the second stage of the "Soyuz-5" launch vehicle. The engine consists of two blocks located on a common frame. Each of the blocks includes two chambers. The engine provides rocking of the chambers in two planes, as well as work when one of the units is turned off, including at a reduced thrust mode.

Naphthyl? What is this? Something like Syntin?

нафтил

http://wikiredia.ru/wiki/Нафтил

Google translate:
Kerosene is used in rocketry as an environmentally friendly hydrocarbon fuel and, at the same time, as a working fluid for hydraulic machines . The use of kerosene in rocket engines was proposed by Tsiolkovsky in 1914 . Together with liquid oxygen, it is used at the lower stages of many launch vehicles : Soviet / Russian - Soyuz , Molniya , Zenit , Energia , Angara (T-1 aviation kerosene); American - series " Delta " and " Atlas-5 " (under the brand name " RG-1 " in English " RP-1"). To increase the density, and thus the efficiency of the rocket system, the propellant is often supercooled. In the USSR, in a number of cases, a synthetic substitute for kerosene, synthine , was used , which made it possible to increase the efficiency of an engine developed for kerosene without significant changes in the design.

https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/Нафтил

Google translate:
cosm. rocket fuel obtained from oil refined products; a mixture of naphthenes 85–88%, isoparaffins 12–10% and monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons 2.5–3% ◆  Naphthyl is a low-toxic hydrocarbon fuel that differs from the T-1 fuel used in the Soyuz type launch vehicle by a relatively lower content of aromatic compounds. Sergey Mamontov, "" Union "Vostochny cosmodrome will translate into a new fuel Nafta" // "RIA Novosti", 12 September 2016

So... this is just RP-1? Ah wait.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP-1#RP-1-like_fuels

Soviet formulations are discussed above. In addition, the Soviets briefly used syntin (Russian: синтин), a higher-energy formulation, used in upper stages. Syntin is 1-methyl-1,2-dicyclopropyl cyclopropane (C10H16). Russia is also working to switch the Soyuz-2 from RP-1 to "naftil"[7] or "naphthyl".[8][9]

[8]
http://russia-now.com/en/114967/will-russias-1st-carrier-rocket-firing-naphthyl-blast-off/

The use of naphthyl in Soyuz-2 engines will allow bringing a bigger payload into all types of orbit as compared to the oxygen-kerosene pair. At the same time, the use of naphthyl will have the same impact on the environment as kerosene – both types of fuel are referred to the 4th class of hazard.

So it's some kind of Kerosene with more density but it isn't Syntin and it isn't RP-1. Now I am getting confused.
I thought RP-1 was already supposed to be low-sulphur.

PS: I read some thread at nasaspaceflight.com and it seems this is just RG-1 which is basically RP-1. They are switching from T-1 aviation grade kerosene to RG-1 rocket grade kerosene.

https://ria.ru/20210506/raketa-1731250762.html

MOSCOW, May 6 - RIA Novosti. " Roskosmos " postponed to the 2022 preliminary design carrier rocket "Soyuz-6" with the engine RD-180 , which comes in the USA , is evident from the state-owned corporation, located on the site of public procurement .
In December, it became known from state purchases that Roscosmos plans to spend 166.2 million rubles on the creation of a draft design for Soyuz-6 in the period from January to November 2021.
According to public procurement materials, now the development of the project is scheduled for the period from January to November 2022.
In September 2019, Dmitry Rogozin , the general director of Roscosmos, announced that a new rocket, Soyuz-6, would be created in Russia . It will be able to launch 9 tons of cargo into low-earth orbit, 5.5 tons into a sun-synchronous orbit, and 2.3 tons into a geo-transfer orbit. The start of flight tests of the Soyuz-6 at the Baikonur cosmodrome is scheduled for 2025; the rocket will also fly from the Vostochny cosmodrome.
The first stage of Soyuz-6 will use the RD-180MV engine, a modification of the Russian RD-180 engine used in the first stage of the American Atlas-5 rocket. In total, according to NPO Energomash , 116 engines have been sent to the United States since 1999, of which 92 have already been used.

owais.usmani wrote:https://ria.ru/20210506/raketa-1731250762.html

MOSCOW, May 6 - RIA Novosti. " Roskosmos " postponed to the 2022 preliminary design carrier rocket "Soyuz-6" with the engine RD-180 , which comes in the USA , is evident from the state-owned corporation, located on the site of public procurement .
In December, it became known from state purchases that Roscosmos plans to spend 166.2 million rubles on the creation of a draft design for Soyuz-6 in the period from January to November 2021.
According to public procurement materials, now the development of the project is scheduled for the period from January to November 2022.
In September 2019, Dmitry Rogozin , the general director of Roscosmos, announced that a new rocket, Soyuz-6, would be created in Russia . It will be able to launch 9 tons of cargo into low-earth orbit, 5.5 tons into a sun-synchronous orbit, and 2.3 tons into a geo-transfer orbit. The start of flight tests of the Soyuz-6 at the Baikonur cosmodrome is scheduled for 2025; the rocket will also fly from the Vostochny cosmodrome.
The first stage of Soyuz-6 will use the RD-180MV engine, a modification of the Russian RD-180 engine used in the first stage of the American Atlas-5 rocket. In total, according to NPO Energomash , 116 engines have been sent to the United States since 1999, of which 92 have already been used.

You know my opinion. That rocket is totally redundant with Angara.
This is all institutional politics inside the Russian space industry which insists rockets for people and satellites are fundamentally different things. When they are not.
This is defended by respectively the lobbies at Energia and Khrunichev.

The truth is rockets to deliver satellites need to be just as reliable as those which are made to put people into orbit. Since satellites are just too expensive to simply throw away.

Big_Gazza wrote:

lancelot wrote:
You know my opinion. That rocket is totally redundant with Angara.

Really?  Which Angara configuration delivers 9T to LEO?  

Soyuz-6 replaces Soyuz-2.A/B with a ~10% boost to general lift capacity.  It is essentially a scaled-down Soyuz-5 that can serve as both the Soyuz-2 replacement and the 3rd stage of the Yenisei/Don SHLV stack.

IMHO the Soyuz-5/6 and Angara-1/5 families will cover every possible LEO need from ~3.8T all the way to 140T.

Angara 1.2 - 3.8T
Soyuz 6 - 9T
Soyuz 5 - 17.5T
Angara-5/5M - 24.5T
Angara-5V - 35T
Yenisei - 103T
Don - 140T

Thats a lot of scaled capability from only 2 basic module designs and a single engine family, ie the Soyuz-5/6 core with RD-171MV/180MV and the URM-01 block with RD-191.

If Western nations had developed such a family of standarised launchers that span the full range of launch needs it would be touted as a breakthrough and a clear sign of Western technical superiority.  However since its Russian, all positive assessmenets are strictly verboten and all efforts are made to spin the programs in their worst possible light.  

My view is that Russia needs to push on with the above kerolox launcher systems, while exploring alternatives such as methalox and reusability with pilot projects like Amur. The kerolox systems will provide the basic launch capability needed to meet national priorities, and reuseables can be developed once the learnings from others are absorbed (eg Musk and his flying silo contraptions).  Reducing costs is a worthy goal, but capabilities in hand come first.

Amur is 22 million dollars, Angara-5M is like 57 million dollars I heard it has 3 more tons than previous angara 5 at 27.5 tons https://www.defenseworld.net/news/27321/Roscosmos_Angara_Carrier_Rocket_May_Have_Reusable_Stages#.YJjZyYeSnIU . Anyone go any ideas on the cost of Yenisei or Don rocket launches?

Angara 5 has a center core with four side boosters. There were plans for an Angara 3 which had a center core and two site boosters.
It was cancelled so it wouldn't compete with Soyuz.
Angara 3 would require no extra tooling and little development effort.

Instead they make a new rocket, Soyuz 5, which will likely use facilities in Baikonur increasing the need to rent Baikonur indefinitively.

They can't find the money to develop the hydrogen upper stage for Angara, which has had the hydrogen rocket engine developed and laying fallow for over a decade. This would increase Angara's satellite launch capabilities decreasing the need to launch from lower latitude launch sites outside the Russian Federation. But they can find money to develop whole new rockets using new production RD-171 engines and whole new stages to be launched at Baikonur. Master Chief Rogozin at work.

I felt like doing cost comparison launches and payloads between Space X and Roscosmos. Any additional info that I should have added let me know. https://qr.ae/pGnMVJ