Rokot
![]() | |
Function | Orbital carrier rocket |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Eurockot Launch Services |
Country of origin | Soviet Union |
Cost per launch | US$41.8 million[1] |
Size | |
Height | 29 metres (95 ft) |
Diameter | 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) |
Mass | 107,000 kilograms (236,000 lb) |
Stages | 3 |
Capacity | |
Payload to LEO | |
Mass | 1,950 kilograms (4,300 lb) |
Payload to SSO | |
Mass | 1,200 kilograms (2,600 lb) |
Launch history | |
Status | Active |
Launch sites | Baikonur 175/1 (inactive) Plesetsk 133/3 |
Total launches | 31 |
Success(es) | 28 |
Failure(s) | 2 |
Partial failure(s) | 1 |
First flight | 20 November 1990 26 December 1994 (orbital) |
First stage | |
Diameter | 2.5 m (8.2 ft)[1] |
Powered by | 3 RD-0233 (15D95) 1 RD-0234(15D96)[2][3] |
Maximum thrust | 2,080 kN (470,000 lbf)[4][5] |
Specific impulse | 310s[4] |
Burn time | 120 seconds |
Propellant | N2O4/UDMH |
Second stage | |
Diameter | 2.5 m (8.2 ft)[1] |
Powered by | 1 RD-0235 (15D113) 1 RD-0236 (15D114)[2][3] |
Maximum thrust | 255.76 kN (57,500 lbf)[6][7] |
Specific impulse | 310s[6] |
Burn time | 180 seconds |
Propellant | N2O4/UDMH |
Third stage – Briz-KM | |
Powered by | 1 S5.98M |
Maximum thrust | 19.6 kilonewtons (4,400 lbf) |
Specific impulse | 325 sec |
Burn time | 3,000 seconds |
Propellant | N2O4/UDMH |
Rokot (Russian: Рокот meaning Rumble or Boom), also transliterated Rockot, is a Russian space launch vehicle that can launch a payload of 1,950 kilograms into a 200 kilometre Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It is a derivative of the UR-100N (SS-19 Stiletto) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), supplied and operated by Eurockot Launch Services. The first launches started in the 1990s from Baikonur Cosmodrome out of a silo. Later commercial launches commenced from Plesetsk Cosmodrome using a launch ramp specially rebuilt from one for the Kosmos-3M rocket. The cost of the launcher itself was about 15 million in 1999;[8][9] The Eurockot contract with ESA for launching Swarm in September 2013 was worth €27.1 million ($36 million).[10]
Specifications
Rokot's total mass is 107 tonnes, its length 29 metres and its maximum diameter 2.5 metres. The liquid-fueled rocket comprises three stages. The lower two are based on the Soviet UR-100N ICBM; the first stage uses an RD-0244 engine, while the second stage uses an RD-0235. The third stage is a Briz-KM (Russian: Бриз-КМ meaning Breeze-KM), which has a mass of about 6 tonnes when fuelled, and is capable of flying for 7 hours and reigniting its engine six times during flight, allowing different satellites to be placed into different orbits. All stages use UDMH (unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine) as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide as oxidiser. The Strela is a similar rocket, also based on the SS-19.[8]
History
The first suborbital test launch succeeded on 20 November 1990 in Baikonur Cosmodrome. On 26 December 1994 Rokot brought its first satellite into Earth orbit. In 1995, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center formed a company with German DaimlerBenz Aerospace to market Rokot launches for commercial use. Later, the company was renamed to Eurockot Launch Services. Eurockot bought 45 Rokots from the Russian strategic missile forces to build its inventory. In 2000, Eurokot was partly bought by the German company Astrium GmbH, a shareholder of Arianespace. Astrium now holds 51% of Eurockot's shares, while Khrunichev holds 49%.[8]
Although there are several silos in Baikonour capable of launching Rokots, it was decided to build an open, non-siloed launch pad at Plesetsk Cosmodrome instead. This is because of concerns that the amount of noise generated during a silo-based launch would damage satellites. In the new pad, Rokot is wheeled up to the structure in a vertical position, and then embraced by its launch tower. The payload is lifted by a crane and placed on top of the bottom two stages. The procedure is in contrast to other Russian launchers, which had traditionally been assembled horizontally and then transferred to the launch site via railways. The first launch from Plesetsk took place on 16 May 2000.[8]
After six entirely successful launches, a launch failure occurred on 8 October 2005, leading to the loss of the European Space Agency's CryoSat spacecraft. The launch vehicle 2nd stage main engine was not shut down properly, resulting in a catastrophic failure and automatic termination of the launch mission by the on-board computer. The payload was lost. After the failed CryoSat launch, all Rokot launches were suspended until the failure was identified. The root cause was unambiguously identified; it was a failure in programming of the Briz-KM (which was contracted to the company JSC "Khartron"). The failure of this high-profile mission led to major reforms in Khrunichev: the director of the company Alexander Medvedev was dismissed, new launch procedures were introduced, the lines of management were straightened out to catch errors and the new Khrunichev chief, Viktor Nesterov, was required to report directly to the head of the Russian Space Agency, Anatoli Perminov.[8] Corrective measures for Rokot's return-to-flight were implemented for the South Korean Kompsat-2 earth observation satellite launch which took place successfully on 28 July 2006. The Korean side reportedly praised the level of service they received, encouraging the Rokot team to rebuild its order book.[8]
Another launch failure occurred in February 2011, when a Briz-KM malfunction[11] resulted in the Geo-IK-2 No.11 satellite being placed into a lower orbit than planned.
Launch history
Flight № | Date / time (UTC) | Rocket, Configuration |
Launch site | Payload | Payload mass | Orbit | Customer | Launch outcome |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 20 November 1990 04:00 |
Rokot/Briz-K | Ba LC131 | Experimental Payload | Success | |||
Suborbital test flight | ||||||||
2 | 20 December 1991 21:31 |
Rokot/Briz-K | Ba LC175/1 | Experimental Payload | Success | |||
Suborbital test flight | ||||||||
3 | 26 December 1994 03:01 |
Rokot/Briz-K | Ba LC175/1 | Radio-ROSTO | Success | |||
First orbital mission. Amateur radio satellite | ||||||||
4 | 22 December 1999 | Rokot/Briz-K | Pl LC133 | RSVN-40 | Failure | |||
No launch; rocket irreparably damaged during preparation. Experimental payload | ||||||||
5 | 16 May 2000 08:27 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | SimSat-1 and 2 | Success | |||
Iridium-mock-ups | ||||||||
6 | 17 March 2002 09:21 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | GRACE-1 and 2 | Success | |||
Research satellite | ||||||||
7 | 20 June 2002 09:33 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Iridium-97 and 98 | Success | |||
Communication satellites | ||||||||
8 | 30 June 2003 14:15 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | MIMOSA DTUsat MOST Cute-I QuakeSat AAU CubeSat CanX-1 Cubesat XI-IV Monitor-E mockup |
Success | |||
NLS satellites and Monitor-E-Mockup | ||||||||
9 | 30 October 2003 13:43 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | SERVIS-1 | Success | |||
Japanese test satellite | ||||||||
10 | 26 August 2005 18:34 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Monitor-E1 | Success | |||
Earth observation satellite | ||||||||
11 | 8 October 2005 15:02 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | CryoSat | Failure | |||
Earth observation satellite. Launch terminated after 2nd stage main engine was not shut down correctly, resulting in an explosion, causing the vehicle to exceed its flight envelope limit and thereby causing the automatic termination of the launch and the re-entry of the combined Rokot 2nd stage/3rd stage/CryoSat spacecraft stack | ||||||||
12 | 28 July 2006 07:05 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | KOMPSAT 2 | Success | |||
Earth observation satellite | ||||||||
13 | 23 May 2008 15:20 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Kosmos 2437 Kosmos 2438 Kosmos 2439 (3X Strela-3) Yubileiny[12] |
Success | |||
Communications and amateur radio satellites | ||||||||
14 | 17 March 2009 14:21 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | GOCE[13] | Success | |||
ESA Earth observation satellite | ||||||||
15 | 6 July 2009 01:26 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Kosmos 2451 Kosmos 2452 Kosmos 2453 (3X Strela-3) |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
16 | 2 November 2009 01:50 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | SMOS PROBA-2[14] |
Success | |||
SMOS: ESA Earth-observation satellite; PROBA-2: Sun-observation satellite testing a new spacecraft platform | ||||||||
17 | 2 June 2010 01:59 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | SERVIS-2 | Success | |||
Japanese test satellite | ||||||||
18 | 8 September 2010 03:30 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Gonets-M-2 Kosmos 2467 Kosmos 2468 (2X Strela-3) |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
19 | 1 February 2011 14:00 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Geo-IK-2 No.11 | Failure | |||
Geodesy satellite. Upper stage malfunction,[11] reached lower orbit than planned. | ||||||||
20 | 28 July 2012 01:35 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Gonets-M-3 Gonets-M-4 Kosmos 2481 (Strela-3) MiR |
Success | |||
Communications and amateur radio satellites | ||||||||
21 | 15 January 2013 16:25 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Kosmos 2482 Kosmos 2483 Kosmos 2484 (3X Strela-3M) |
Partial failure | |||
Communications satellites. Briz-KM failed around the time of spacecraft separation, resulting in the loss of one satellite | ||||||||
22 | 11 September 2013 23:23 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Gonets-M-5 Gonets-M-6 Gonets-M-7 |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
23 | 22 November 2013 12:02 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Swarm A/B/C | Success | |||
Magnetosphere research satellites; Briz-km failed deorbit burn | ||||||||
24 | 25 December 2013 00:31 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Kosmos 2488 Kosmos 2489 Kosmos 2490 (3X Strela-3M) |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
25 | 23 May 2014 05:27 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Kosmos 2496 Kosmos 2497 Kosmos 2498 (3X Strela-3M) |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
26 | 3 July 2014 12:43 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Gonets-M-8 Gonets-M-9 Gonets-M-10 |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
27 | 31 March 2015 13:47 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Gonets-M-11 Gonets-M-12 Gonets-M-13 |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
28 | 23 September 2015 22:00 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Kosmos 2507 Kosmos 2508 Kosmos 2509 (3X Strela-3M)[15] |
Success | |||
Communications satellites | ||||||||
29 | 16 February 2016 17:57 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Sentinel-3A[16] | Success | |||
ESA earth observation satellite | ||||||||
30 | 4 June 2016 14:00 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Kosmos 2517 (Geo-IK-2 No.12) | Success[17] | |||
Geodesy satellite | ||||||||
31 | 13 October 2017 09:27 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Sentinel-5 Precursor | Success[18] | |||
Earth observation satellite | ||||||||
32 | 25 April 2018 17:57 |
Rokot/Briz-KM | Pl LC133 | Sentinel-3B | Success | |||
Earth observation satellite |
Planned launches
Date (UTC) | Type | Launch site | Payload | Payload type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Rokot / Briz-KM | Plesetsk Site 133/3 | Geo-IK-2 No. 3 (Musson 2) | Earth observation satellite |
See also
References
- ^ a b Zak, Anatoly. "UR-100N Family". RussianSpaceWeb.com. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
- ^ a b "RD-0233, RD-0234, RD-0235, RD-0236, RD-0237. Intercontinental ballistic missiles RS-18". KBKhA. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
- ^ a b "Rockot Launch Vehicle". Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
- ^ a b "RD-0233". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2015-08-24. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "RD-0234". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2015-08-24. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ a b "RD-0235". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2015-08-24. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "RD-0236". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
- ^ a b c d e f Harvey, Brian (2007). "Launchers and engines". The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program (1st ed.). Germany: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-71354-0.
- ^ "Rokot". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 22 May 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Stephen Clark (12 September 2013). "Rockot launch clears way for long-delayed ESA mission". SpaceFlightNow.com. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ^ a b Военный спутник, запущенный на "Рокоте", скорее всего, утрачен (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 1 February 2011. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Russia launches relay craft, commemorative satellite". Spaceflight Now.
- ^ "ESA launches Earth Explorer mission GOCE". ESA. 17 March 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
- ^ Eurockot Launch Service Provider Archived 2009-01-26 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Russia's Rokot launches with three Rodnik satellites". Retrieved 23 September 2015.
- ^ "Third Sentinel satellite launched for Copernicus". ESA. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
- ^ Graham, William; Bergin, Chris (4 June 2016). "Russian Rokot launches Geo-IK-2 – annoys environmentalists". NASASpaceflight.com.
- ^ Sentinel-5p launches on Russia’s Rokot launch system
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Website of Eurockot, Launch Service Provider
- Rockot history on RussianSpaceWeb.com