Modern intercontinental rockets capable of transporting nuclear charges, and launch vehicles that put spacecraft into near-Earth orbit, have their origins in the era of the invention of gunpowder in the Celestial Empire and its use to delight the eyes of emperors with colorful fireworks. What was the first rocket and who was the creator of the rocket, no one will ever know, but the fact that it had the shape of a tube with one open end, from which a jet of combustible composition flew out, is documented.
The popular predictor - science fiction writer Jules Verne in the most detailed way in the novel "From the Cannon to the Moon" described the device of a rocket capable of overcoming the earth's gravity and even reliably indicated the mass of the Apollo ship, which was the first to reach the orbit of the earth's satellite.
But seriously, the creation of the first rocket in the world is associated with the Russian genius K.E. Tsiolkovsky, who designed this amazing device in 1903. A little later, in 1926, the American Robert Goddard was able to create a full-fledged rocket engine using liquid fuel (a mixture of gasoline and oxygen) and launched a rocket.
This event can hardly serve as an answer to the question: "When was the first rocket created?", simply due to the fact that the height that was then taken was only 12 meters. But this was an undoubted breakthrough, ensuring the development of astronautics and military equipment.
The very first domestic rocket, which in 1936 reached a height of 5 km, was developed as part of experiments to create anti-aircraft guns. As you know, the implementation of this particular project, codenamed GIRD, decided the fate of the Great patriotic war when the Katyushas threw the German invaders into a panic.
Even small children now know who invented the rocket that sent the first artificial Earth satellite into space in 1957. This is the Soviet designer S.P. Korolev, with whom the most outstanding achievements of astronautics are associated.
Until recently, there were no fundamental discoveries in the rocket field. And so the year 2004 became known as the year of creation and testing of steam rockets (in other words, the "external combustion system"), which are unsuitable for overcoming Earth's gravity, but can be successful for interplanetary transportation of goods.
Another breakthrough in the rocket industry happened, as usual, in the military industry. In 2012, American engineers announced that they had created the very first personal rocket-bullet, which, during bench tests, showed amazing hit accuracy results (20 cm deflection per kilometer of distance versus 10 meters of a conventional bullet). With a length of about 10 cm, this new generation ammunition is equipped with an optical sensor and an 8-bit processor. In flight, such a bullet does not rotate, and its trajectory resembles a small cruise missile.
The depth of the starry sky still attracts a person, and I would like the subsequent achievements in the field of rocket engines and ballistics to be associated only with scientific and practical interest, and not with military confrontation.
Meet NPO Energomash, which has recently become part of the United Rocket and Space Corporation of Russia. This is the place where the best and most powerful liquid rocket engines in the world. They pulled almost the entire Soviet space program, and now they are pulling the Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even the American one.
Here, in Khimki near Moscow, engines were developed for the Soviet-Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian "Zenith" and "Dnepr"; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first...
1. After checking the passport and the arrival of the escort, we advance from the checkpoint to the museum of the plant, or as it is called here “Demonstration Hall”.
2. Curator of the Hall Vladimir Sudakov - Head of the Information Department. Apparently, he copes well with his duties - he was one of all my interlocutors who knew who Zelenyikot was.
3. Vladimir gave a short but capacious tour of the museum.
Do you see a 7 centimeter pshikalka on the table? The entire Soviet and Russian space has grown from it.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, the head there was Valentin Petrovich Glushko, later he became the general designer of NPO Energomash.
The disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spacecraft. The disk was supposed to contain solar panels. In the background are the first models of liquid propellant rocket engines developed by GDL.
Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. went real work on government funding. Here GDL worked together with the Royal GIRD. AT war time in "sharashka" they developed rocket boosters for serial military aircraft. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid propulsion.
But all the weather was spoiled by the Germans, who created the first A4 ballistic missile, better known in Russia as the V-2.
Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.
4. First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using completely Soviet materials. During this period, German engineers were still helping our engineers. But they tried not to let them in on secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.
5. First of all, the engineers began to speed up and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.
6. The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom, they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided Soviet Union superiority in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned cosmonautics to this day.
7. Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.
8. In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply reject the entire marching chamber of the engine. Problems with combustion instability could not be completely solved, so most of the engines designed by Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.
9. There is only one single-chamber giant in the hall, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing NK-33 version for the H1 rocket won.
The difference between them is that H1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, while Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. Such a mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this does not in the least prevent China from now launching its taikonauts on just such a mixture.
10. You can also look at the Proton engine.
11. And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in Voevoda missiles, commonly known under the NATO name Satan.
However, now they, under the name "Dnepr", are also launched for peaceful purposes.
12. Finally we get to the pearl of Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.
To date, this is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. Surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, against one in the F-1.
The RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project as side booster engines. According to the original design, the boosters were supposed to be reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities.
After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket. AT Soviet time it, as well as the Voevoda, was developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, which, after the collapse of the USSR, ended up abroad. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, together with the United States and Norway, the project " sea launch". Although it never reached profitability, it went through a reorganization and now its future is being decided, but rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space lack of money in the 90s and early 2000s.
13. How to achieve node mobility at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, bullshit question: only 12 layers of metal and additional booking rings, fill it with liquid oxygen between the layers - and there are no problems ...
This design allows you to rigidly fix the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle, using a gimbal suspension. On the engine, it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with red plugs.
14. Americans like to repeat about their space: "We stand on the shoulders of giants." Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase also applies to Russian cosmonautics. The same "Angara", although the brainchild of already Russian designers, but its engine - RD-191, evolutionarily goes back to RD-171.
In the same way, the “half” of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American astronautics, when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked if there was a propaganda element in this victory - could the Americans conclude a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space? They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the goofy eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the performance of the RD-180 was almost twice that of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power / weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.
Here, on the test video of the Merlin-1D engine, you can see how a jet of generator gas is whipping from the tube next to the nozzle:
15. Finally, the completion of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Scienses, which needed to replace the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket crashed in October.
16. At the plant, this trio of RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called "liter", "half a liter" and "quarter".
17. There are a lot of interesting things at the plant, and most importantly, I managed to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a pile of steel and aluminum ingots.
Yesterday the President visited Samara, where he visited one of the leading Russian enterprises- OJSC Rocket and Space Center (RCC) Progress - and held a meeting on the socio-economic development of the region.
Vladimir Putin began inspecting factory products right from the helipad on the factory site. Here, the president was shown samples of aviation and water equipment. The head of state even sat at the helm of the Rysachok twin-engine turboprop aircraft, which is produced at the enterprise.
The history of the enterprise began with airplanes. Since 1917, it was the State Aviation Plant No. 1, and it was located in Moscow. And a bicycle repair shop was born back in 1894, and everything started from it. The plant was evacuated to Samara (then called Kuibyshev) in 1941. From here, Il-2 and Il-10 attack aircraft, MiG-3 fighters were sent to the front. And in 1959, the first serial intercontinental ballistic missile took off from the Baikonur test site, since April 12, 1961, all launches of domestic space crews were carried out on Samara carriers.
The modern history of the enterprise is also successful. Vladimir Putin was shown and told about the plant's international and promising projects. For example, the Soyuz international project, which is being implemented at the Guiana Space Center, involves about 50 launches of launch vehicles over 15 years, which provides Progress with a long-term order for the production of Soyuz-ST class rockets.
The company is working on promising space projects for the creation of new medium-class rockets of the Soyuz-5 type, launch vehicles of heavy and super-heavy classes for flights to the Moon and Mars, production of small spacecraft and other high-tech projects.
In the workshop for assembling and testing launch vehicles used to launch manned and transport spacecraft, the President was shown both serial and prototype launch vehicles, the main product of the enterprise.
As told CEO plant Alexander Kirilin, for 50 years at the Samara RCC, nine modifications of medium-class launch vehicles have been created - Vostok, Molniya, Soyuz. And over the years, more than 1800 of them have been launched, and also 980 spacecraft, which are also made at Progress. Moreover, they solve many problems, including national security, scientific and economic goals.
In the evening, in the administration building of the plant, Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the socio-economic development of the Samara Region. Its participants were government ministers, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and leaders large enterprises areas in oil refining, automotive, aerospace and housing.
The rocket is the only vehicle capable of launching a spacecraft into space. And then the author of the first space rocket one can recognize K. Tsiolkovsky, although the origins of the emergence of rockets belong to the distant past. From there we will begin to consider our question.
The history of the invention of the rocket
Most historians believe that the invention of the rocket dates back to the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), the discovery of gunpowder and the beginning of its use for fireworks and entertainment. When a powder shell exploded, a force arose that could move various objects. Later, according to this principle, the first cannons and muskets were created. Gunpowder weapon shells could fly long distances, but they were not rockets, since they did not have their own fuel reserves, but it was the invention of gunpowder that became the main prerequisite for the emergence of real rockets. The description of the flying "fire arrows" used by the Chinese shows that these arrows were missiles. A tube of compacted paper was attached to them, open only at the rear end and filled with a combustible composition. This charge was set on fire, and then the arrow was fired with the help of a bow. Such arrows were used in a number of cases during the siege of fortifications, against ships, cavalry.
In the XIII century, together with the Mongol conquerors, rockets came to Europe. It is known that rockets were used by the Zaporozhye Cossacks in the 16th-17th centuries. In the 17th century, a Lithuanian military engineer Kazimir Semenovich described a multi-stage rocket.
At the end of the 18th century in India, rocket weapons were used in battles with British troops.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the army also adopted military missiles, the production of which was established by William Congreve (Congreve's Rocket). At the same time, a Russian officer Alexander Zasyadko developed the theory of rockets. Great success in improving missiles was achieved in the middle of the century before last by the Russian general of artillery Konstantin Konstantinov. Attempts to mathematically explain jet propulsion and create more effective missile weapons were made in Russia Nikolai Tikhomirov in 1894.
theory jet propulsion created Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He put forward the idea of using rockets for space flight and argued that the most efficient fuel for them would be a combination of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. He designed a rocket for interplanetary communication in 1903.
German scientist Hermann Oberth in the 1920s he also laid out the principles of interplanetary flight. In addition, he conducted bench tests of rocket engines.
American scientist Robert Goddard in 1926 he launched the first liquid-propellant rocket, fueled by gasoline and liquid oxygen.
The first domestic rocket was called GIRD-90 (an abbreviation for "Jet Propulsion Study Group"). It began to be built in 1931, and was tested on August 17, 1933. GIRD at that time was headed by S.P. Korolev. The rocket took off at 400 meters and was in flight for 18 seconds. The weight of the rocket at the start was 18 kilograms.
In 1933, in the USSR, the Reactive Institute completed the creation of a fundamentally new weapon - rockets, the installation for launching which later received the nickname "Katyusha".
At the rocket center in Peenemünde (Germany), a A-4 ballistic missile with a range of 320 km. During World War II, on October 3, 1942, the first successful launch this rocket, and in 1944 it began combat use called V-2.
The military application of the V-2 showed the tremendous potential of rocket technology, and the most powerful post-war powers - the United States and the USSR - also began to develop ballistic missiles.
In 1957 in the USSR under the leadership Sergei Korolev as a means of delivering nuclear weapons, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created, which in the same year was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite. Thus began the use of rockets for space flights.
Project by N. Kibalchich
In this regard, it is impossible not to recall Nikolai Kibalchich, a Russian revolutionary, a member of the People's Will, and an inventor. He was a participant in the assassination attempts on Alexander II, it was he who invented and manufactured throwing shells with “explosive jelly”, which were used by I.I. Grinevitsky and N.I. Rysakov during the assassination attempt on the Catherine Canal. Sentenced to death.
Hanged with A.I. Zhelyabov, S.L. Perovskaya and other Pervomartovtsy. Kibalchich put forward the idea of a missile aircraft with an oscillating combustion chamber for thrust vector control. A few days before the execution, Kibalchich developed an original design for an aircraft capable of making space flights. The project described the device of a powder rocket engine, flight control by changing the angle of inclination of the engine, a programmed combustion mode, and much more. His request to transfer the manuscript to the Academy of Sciences was not granted by the commission of inquiry, the project was first published only in 1918.
Modern rocket engines
Most modern rockets are equipped with chemical rocket engines. Such an engine can use solid, liquid or hybrid propellants. The chemical reaction between the fuel and the oxidizer begins in the combustion chamber, the resulting hot gases form an effluent jet, are accelerated in the jet nozzle (or nozzles) and expelled from the rocket. The acceleration of these gases in the engine creates thrust, a pushing force that makes the rocket move. The principle of jet propulsion is described by Newton's third law.
But not always chemical reactions are used to propel rockets. There are steam rockets, in which superheated water flowing through a nozzle turns into a high-speed steam jet that serves as a propeller. The efficiency of steam rockets is relatively low, but this is compensated by their simplicity and safety, as well as the cheapness and availability of water. The operation of a small steam rocket was tested in space in 2004 aboard the UK-DMC satellite. There are projects for the use of steam rockets for interplanetary transportation of goods, with water heating due to nuclear or solar energy.
Rockets like steam, in which the heating of the working fluid occurs outside the working area of the engine, are sometimes described as systems with external combustion engines. Most designs of nuclear rocket engines can serve as examples of external combustion rocket engines.
Currently being developed alternative ways lift spacecraft into orbit. Among them are the "space elevator", electromagnetic and conventional guns, but so far they are at the design stage.
This article will provide the reader with such interesting topic, like a space rocket, a launch vehicle and all the useful experience that this invention brought to mankind. It will also be told about payloads delivered into outer space. Space exploration began not so long ago. In the USSR, this was the middle of the Third Five-Year Plan, when the Second World War. The space rocket was developed in many countries, but even the United States failed to overtake us at that stage.
First
The first in a successful launch to leave the USSR was a space launch vehicle with an artificial satellite on board on October 4, 1957. The PS-1 satellite was successfully launched into low Earth orbit. It should be noted that for this it took six generations, and only the seventh generation of Russian space rockets were able to develop the speed necessary for reaching near-Earth space - eight kilometers per second. Otherwise, it is impossible to overcome the attraction of the Earth.
This became possible in the process of developing long-range ballistic weapons, where engine boosting was used. Not to be confused: a space rocket and a spaceship are two different things. A rocket is a delivery vehicle, and a ship is attached to it. Instead, there can be anything - a space rocket can carry a satellite, equipment, and a nuclear warhead, which has always served and still serves as a deterrent for nuclear powers and an incentive to preserve peace.
Story
The first to theoretically substantiate the launch of a space rocket were the Russian scientists Meshchersky and Tsiolkovsky, who already in 1897 described the theory of its flight. Much later this idea was picked up by Oberth and von Braun from Germany and Goddard from the USA. It was in these three countries that work began on the problems of jet propulsion, the creation of solid-fuel and liquid-propellant jet engines. Best of all, these issues were resolved in Russia, at least solid-fuel engines were already widely used in World War II ("Katyusha"). Liquid-propellant jet engines turned out better in Germany, which created the first ballistic missile - the V-2.
After the war, the team of Wernher von Braun, having taken the drawings and developments, found shelter in the USA, and the USSR was forced to be content with a small number of individual rocket assemblies without any accompanying documentation. The rest they invented themselves. Rocket technology developed rapidly, increasing the range and mass of the load carried more and more. In 1954, work began on the project, thanks to which the USSR was the first to carry out the flight of a space rocket. It was an intercontinental two-stage ballistic missile R-7, which was soon upgraded for space. It turned out to be a success - exceptionally reliable, providing many records in space exploration. In a modernized form, it is still used today.
"Sputnik" and "Moon"
In 1957, the first space rocket - that same R-7 - launched the artificial Sputnik-1 into orbit. The United States later decided to repeat such a launch. However, in the first attempt, their space rocket did not go into space, it exploded at the start - even live. "Vanguard" was designed by a purely American team, and he did not live up to expectations. Then Wernher von Braun took over the project, and in February 1958 the launch of the space rocket was a success. Meanwhile, in the USSR, the R-7 was modernized - a third stage was added to it. As a result, the speed of the space rocket became completely different - the second space rocket was reached, thanks to which it became possible to leave the Earth's orbit. A few more years, the R-7 series was modernized and improved. The engines of space rockets were changed, they experimented a lot with the third stage. The next attempts were successful. The speed of the space rocket made it possible not only to leave the Earth's orbit, but also to think about studying other planets of the solar system.
But first, the attention of mankind was almost completely riveted to the natural satellite of the Earth - the Moon. In 1959, the Soviet space station Luna-1 flew to it, which was supposed to make a hard landing on the lunar surface. However, due to insufficiently accurate calculations, the device passed somewhat by (six thousand kilometers) and rushed towards the Sun, where it settled into orbit. So our luminary got his first own artificial satellite - a random gift. But our natural satellite was not alone for long, and in the same 1959, Luna-2 flew to it, having completed its task absolutely correctly. A month later, "Luna-3" delivered us photos reverse side our night light. And in 1966, Luna 9 softly landed right in the Ocean of Storms, and we got panoramic views of the lunar surface. The lunar program continued for a long time, until the time when the American astronauts landed on it.
Yuri Gagarin
April 12 has become one of the most significant days in our country. It is impossible to convey the power of national jubilation, pride, truly happiness when the world's first manned flight into space was announced. Yuri Gagarin became not only a national hero, he was applauded by the whole world. And therefore, April 12, 1961, a day that triumphantly went down in history, became Cosmonautics Day. The Americans urgently tried to respond to this unprecedented step in order to share space glory with us. A month later, Alan Shepard took off, but the ship did not go into orbit, it was a suborbital flight in an arc, and the US orbital only turned out in 1962.
Gagarin flew into space on the Vostok spacecraft. This is a special machine in which Korolev created an exceptionally successful, decisive set of all kinds of practical tasks space platform. At the same time, at the very beginning of the sixties, not only a manned version of space flight was being developed, but a photo reconnaissance project was also completed. "Vostok" generally had many modifications - more than forty. And today satellites from the Bion series are in operation - these are direct descendants of the ship on which the first manned flight into space was made. In the same 1961, German Titov had a much more difficult expedition, who spent the whole day in space. The United States was able to repeat this achievement only in 1963.
"East"
An ejection seat was provided for cosmonauts on all Vostok spacecraft. This was a wise decision, since a single device performed tasks both at the start (emergency rescue of the crew) and a soft landing of the descent vehicle. Designers have focused their efforts on the development of one device, not two. This reduced the technical risk; in aviation, the catapult system was already well developed at that time. On the other hand, a huge gain in time than if you design a fundamentally new device. After all, the space race continued, and the USSR won it by a fairly large margin.
Titov landed in the same way. He was lucky to parachute about railway, along which the train was traveling, and journalists immediately photographed it. The landing system, which has become the most reliable and soft, was developed in 1965, it uses a gamma altimeter. She still serves today. The US did not have this technology, which is why all their descent vehicles, even the new Dragon SpaceX, do not land, but splash down. Only shuttles are an exception. And in 1962, the USSR had already begun group flights on the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft. In 1963, the detachment of Soviet cosmonauts was replenished with the first woman - Valentina Tereshkova went into space, becoming the first in the world. At the same time, Valery Bykovsky set the record for the duration of a solo flight, which has not been beaten so far - he spent five days in space. In 1964, the Voskhod multi-seat ship appeared, and the United States lagged behind by a whole year. And in 1965, Alexei Leonov went into outer space!
"Venus"
In 1966, the USSR began interplanetary flights. Spaceship"Venera-3" made a hard landing on a neighboring planet and delivered there the globe of the Earth and the pennant of the USSR. In 1975, Venera 9 managed to make a soft landing and transmit an image of the planet's surface. And Venera-13 made color panoramic pictures and sound recordings. The AMS series (automatic interplanetary stations) for the study of Venus, as well as the surrounding outer space, continues to be improved even now. On Venus, the conditions are harsh, and there was practically no reliable information about them, the developers did not know anything about the pressure or temperature on the surface of the planet, all this naturally complicated the study.
The first series of descent vehicles even knew how to swim - just in case. Nevertheless, at first the flights were not successful, but later the USSR succeeded so much in the Venusian wanderings that this planet was called Russian. Venera-1 is the first spacecraft in the history of mankind, designed to fly to other planets and explore them. It was launched in 1961, communication was lost a week later due to overheating of the sensor. The station became uncontrollable and was only able to make the world's first flyby near Venus (at a distance of about one hundred thousand kilometers).
In the footsteps
"Venus-4" helped us to find out that on this planet two hundred and seventy-one degrees in the shade (the night side of Venus), the pressure is up to twenty atmospheres, and the atmosphere itself is ninety percent carbon dioxide. This spacecraft also discovered the hydrogen corona. "Venera-5" and "Venera-6" told us a lot about the solar wind (plasma flows) and its structure near the planet. "Venera-7" specified data on temperature and pressure in the atmosphere. Everything turned out to be even more complicated: the temperature closer to the surface was 475 ± 20°C, and the pressure was an order of magnitude higher. Literally everything was redone on the next spacecraft, and after one hundred and seventeen days, Venera-8 softly landed on the day side of the planet. This station had a photometer and many additional instruments. The main thing was the connection.
It turned out that the lighting on the nearest neighbor is almost no different from the earth - like ours on a cloudy day. Yes, it’s not just cloudy there, the weather cleared up for real. Pictures seen by the equipment simply stunned earthlings. In addition, the soil and the amount of ammonia in the atmosphere were studied, and the wind speed was measured. And "Venus-9" and "Venus-10" were able to show us the "neighbor" on TV. These are the world's first recordings transmitted from another planet. And these stations themselves are now artificial satellites of Venus. Venera-15 and Venera-16 were the last to fly to this planet, which also became satellites, having previously supplied mankind with absolutely new and necessary knowledge. In 1985, the program was continued by Vega-1 and Vega-2, which studied not only Venus, but also Halley's comet. The next flight is planned for 2024.
Something about space rocket
Since the parameters and specifications all rockets differ from each other, consider a new generation launch vehicle, for example, Soyuz-2.1A. It is a three-stage medium-class rocket, a modified version of the Soyuz-U, which has been in operation with great success since 1973.
This launch vehicle is designed to ensure the launch of spacecraft. The latter may have military, economic and social purposes. This rocket can put them into different types of orbits - geostationary, geotransitional, sun-synchronous, highly elliptical, medium, low.
Modernization
The rocket has been completely modernized, a fundamentally different digital control system has been created here, developed on a new domestic element base, with a high-speed on-board digital computer with a much larger amount of RAM. digital system control provides the rocket with high-precision launch of payloads.
In addition, engines were installed on which the injector heads of the first and second stages were improved. Another telemetry system is in operation. Thus, the accuracy of launching the rocket, its stability and, of course, controllability have increased. The mass of the space rocket did not increase, and the useful payload increased by three hundred kilograms.
Specifications
The first and second stages of the launch vehicle are equipped with RD-107A and RD-108A liquid-propellant rocket engines from NPO Energomash named after Academician Glushko, and a four-chamber RD-0110 from the Khimavtomatika design bureau is installed on the third stage. Rocket fuel is liquid oxygen, which is an environmentally friendly oxidizer, as well as low-toxic fuel - kerosene. The length of the rocket is 46.3 meters, the mass at the start is 311.7 tons, and without the warhead - 303.2 tons. The mass of the launch vehicle structure is 24.4 tons. The fuel components weigh 278.8 tons. Flight tests of Soyuz-2.1A began in 2004 at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, and they were successful. In 2006, the launch vehicle made its first commercial flight - it launched the European meteorological spacecraft Metop into orbit.
It must be said that rockets have different payload output capabilities. Carriers are light, medium and heavy. The Rokot launch vehicle, for example, launches spacecraft into near-Earth low orbits - up to two hundred kilometers, and therefore it can carry a load of 1.95 tons. But the Proton is a heavy class, it can put 22.4 tons into low orbit, 6.15 tons into geotransitional orbit, and 3.3 tons into geostationary orbit. The carrier rocket we are considering is designed for all sites used by Roskosmos: Kuru, Baikonur, Plesetsk, Vostochny, and operates within the framework of joint Russian-European projects.