An example of a successful weapon conversion was the Rokot light carrier rocket, developed on the basis of intercontinental ballistic missiles. That is how weapons should become peaceful, and in this case serve the noble purpose of space exploration by man.
Launch Rocket: A History
As part of the conversion of weapons at the State Space Research and Production Center named after M.V. Khrunicheva (Moscow), a member of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation, commissioned by the Russian Ministry of Defense created a three-stage Rokot launch vehicle. To create it, the Salyut design bureau worked with RS-18 two-stage ballistic missiles being removed from service, adding the Breeze-KM booster block as a third component. In the spring of 2000, the first Rokot launch vehicle showed its capabilities at the Plesetsk cosmodrome during a demonstration launch. And since 1990, three launches have been made from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In May 2000, a photo of the Rokot launch vehicle and its launch spread around all the world's media.
Successful conversion result
The Rokot launch vehicle is a light three-stage carrier designed to launch spacecraft into near-Earth orbit. The most focused conclusions with its help are small or medium-sized objects in solar-synchronous or polar orbits. There are also commercial launches carried out by the State Space Research and Production Center named after M.V. Khrunicheva in conjunction with Airbus Safran Launchers as part of Eurockot Launch Services
Instead of two steps, three
The Rokot booster rocket consists of two stages, which are SS-19 blocks of the RS-18 ballistic type rocket accelerators, and the added third, the Breeze-KM booster stage. The steps are connected in a tandem pattern. It was this block that made it possible to launch vehicles with a high degree of accuracy and orientation into orbit. In addition, it allows you to give additional energy supply to the spacecraft during the flight and during its removal from orbits. A special system of the third block of the Rokot launch vehicle is designed to ensure separation of the spacecraft from the upper stage with minimal disturbance.
Management and engines
For this carrier, fairings were developed, the main of which makes it possible to place several spacecraft on it. The control is carried out by four mid-flight engines for the first stage and a special four-chamber engine for the second. Acceleration is given by liquid rocket engines running on combustible dimethylhydrazine, and nitrogen tetraxide is used as an oxidizing agent. Such fuel was developed by the Khimavtomatiki design bureau (Voronezh). Much attention during the development of the carrier was paid to the environmental friendliness and safety of launches, the choice of orbital paths and the assessment of the drop fields.
Features: technical and tactical
The mass of the rocket at launch is 107 tons with a length of 28.5 meters and a diameter of 2.5 meters. The payload when outputting to two hundred kilometer upholstery is 1950 kilograms. The thrust of the first stage - 1880 kN, the second - 225 kN, the third (RB "Breeze") - 19.6 kN. The speed of the Rokot launch vehicle at launch is from 315 to 460 meters per second. The payload (payload mass - 1.82%) that a rocket can put into small orbits is up to 2 tons, and into orbits 1,500 kilometers high - 1,250 kilograms. The Rokot carrier can launch several satellites into space at once and put them in different orbits.
Startup Features
The Rokot launch vehicle is intended for launch from a transport and launch container. The first stage accelerator is detached at an altitude of 60 kilometers, which occurs at the 121st second after the start. At an altitude of 119 kilometers and the 186th second after the start, the fairing flaps are reset. The second-stage accelerator will separate at the 304th second at an altitude of 211 kilometers. And then the “Breeze” booster block will turn on, which with the help of the marching engine will ensure the launch of space objects into predetermined orbits.
Project commercialization
When designing and in technologies for preparing for launch, the design features of foreign spacecraft were taken into account as much as possible. The space main part is assembled as part of the head fairing; the spacecraft are connected to the upper stage in an upright position in special “clean” blocks of the technical complex. Docking with accelerator blocks is carried out directly on the launcher before launch. The temperature and humidity regime necessary for foreign space objects is provided at all stages of preparation for launch.
Media Launch Timeline
The first launches of the Rokot rocket were test and were carried out from the Baikonur mine launchers in 1990-1991. These were suborbital launches along ballistic trajectories. In 1994, the carrier launched the amateur radio satellite Radio-ROSTO (RS-15) into orbit. The first launch of the launch vehicle with simulators of the Iridium SimSat 1 and 2 spacecraft took place on May 16, 2000 at the cosmodrome in Plesetsk. After 9 successful launches, 6 of which were commercial, in October 2005, when the Kriosat satellite was launched in an emergency mode, the upper stage did not separate from the spacecraft. The second stage of the rocket and the booster block fell into the Arctic Ocean near the Arctic coast of Canada. In total, since 2000, 12 rocket launches have been made under the Federal Space Program of Russia and 11 commercial launches commissioned by foreign agencies. Since 2014, when the Russian government refused to supply from Ukraine, the components of the carrier manufactured at the Hartron-Arcos plant in Kharkov stopped flowing. The life of the basic RS-18 carriers ends in 2020, and, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, it is ready to abandon this carrier in favor of the Angara launch vehicle, the components of which are completely manufactured by domestic manufacturers.