Space Launch
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Chapter 20 REST-OF-WORLD (ROW) SPACE LAUNCH Missiles and space have a long and related history. All the early space boosters, both U.S. and Russian, were developed from ballistic missile programs. Today, many other nations are using their missile and rocket technology to develop a space launch capabil- ity. COMMONWEALTH AND INDEPENDENT STATES (CIS) Tyuratam (TT)/Baikonur Cosmodrome RUSSIAN / UKRAINE / KAZAKH In the 1950s, the Soviet Union an- SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEMS nounced that space launch operations were being conducted from the Baikonur Space Launch Facilities Cosmodrome. Some concluded that this facility was near the city of Baikonur, The breakup of the former Soviet Un- Kazakhstan. In truth, the launch facilities ion (FSU) into independent states has are 400 Km to the southwest, near the fragmented and divided the Russian railhead at Tyuratam (45.9ºN, 63.3ºE). space support infrastructure. This has re- The Soviets built the city of Leninsk sulted in planning and scheduling diffi- near the facility to provide apartments, culties for Russia, the main inheritor of schools and administrative support to the the remains of the former Soviet space tens of thousands of workers at the program. Ukraine has the most extensive launch facility. Sputnik, the first man- space capability after Russia but with no made satellite, was launched from TT in space launch facility, followed by Ka- October 1957. This site has been the lo- zakhstan with a major space launch facil- cation of all manned and geostationary ity but little industrial base. Other newly orbit Soviet and CIS launches as well as independent countries have some limited most lunar, planetary launches. Addi- manufacturing capability related to the tionally, it is the only facility that space industry. Russia’s spaceports are supports launches of the Proton (SL-12 now located in two different countries. and SL-13), the Zenit (SL-16) and the The program’s oldest and biggest space- Energia (SL-17). The climate is hot in port, and the only site currently able to do the summer and suffers violent snow- manned launches is Baikonur Cos- storms and -40ºC temperatures in the modrome or Tyuratam in Kazakhstan. winter. A unique feature of the Rus- Within Russia, there are three spaceports. sian/CIS space program is its ability There are two from the former Soviet to launch in extremely harsh climates. space program: Plesetsk Cosmodrome Since the demise of the Soviet Union, and Kapustin Yar Space and Missile Test Kazakhstan has claimed ownership of Facility, and the new Russian spaceport the facility. However, most of the in Siberia, Svobodny Cosmodrome. The skilled workers and the military forces Russian's have also developed and mar- protecting the site are Rus- keted a space booster based on a Subma- sian. To use the facilities at Tyruatam, rine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) Russia must pay rent to Kazakhstan. which has launched a satellite into orbit from the Barents Sea. Counting this un- Kapustin Yar (KY) dersea space launch platform, Russia can use five different launch locations. AU Space Primer 7/23/2003 20 - 1 Kapustin Yar Space and Missile Test for coordination with other countries is Center (48.4ºN, 45.8ºE) is located on the minimal. There are launch pads for the banks of the Volga River, about 120 Km SL-4, SL-6, SL-8, SL-14 and the SL-19 east of Volgograd and less than 48 Km space launch vehicles. Additionally, west of Kazakhstan. In 1947, this site launches of the SL-3 and SL-11 could was selected as the location for the de- also be conducted, if necessary. The ex- velopment of the Soviet rocket and space treme northern latitude of PK has pro- program. Numerous German V-2 rocket vided the Russians with valuable experi- launches were made from here during ence in cold weather launch operations. testing and development. The first So- viet-built rocket systems, the R-1 and R- Svobodny Cosmodrome 2, were launched from here in 1948 and 1949. In the past, this facility was the When the breakup of the Soviet Union site of numerous sounding rockets and left Russia’s largest spaceport of Tyuratum small orbital payload launches using the in Kazakhstan, experts concluded that SL-8/Kosmos. There were no space Russia needed another spaceport. launches from Kapustin Yar from 1987 Svobodny Cosmodrome (51.2oN, until April 1999 when a commercial 128.0oE) was selected in 1993 to fill this launch was performed for a German sat- role. It is the site of a former ICBM base ellite. Kapustin Yar’s proximity to Ka- along the Trans-Siberian railway. Plans zakhstan now precludes eastward call for Svobodny to incrementally come launches without prior approval of that on line as a spaceport. At first, the exist- government. ing facilities of the former ICBM base will be used to launch Rokot and Plesetsk (PK) Cosmodrome START-series vehicles. In later stages, launch facilities will be built to support Plesetsk Cosmodrome (63.8ºN, 40.7ºE) the heavy Angara launch vehicle. is about 640 Km northeast of St. Peters- Svobodny became Russia’s fourth space- burg. PK is situated in a heavily wooded port with the launch of a START-1 on 4 area close to the Arctic Circle. It is near March 1997. A second START-1 was the town of Plesetsk on the railway line launched in December 1997 and a third from Moscow to Archangelsk. Although in late 2000. used for civilian communications, meteoro- logical and international launches; most Barents Sea Launch Area launches from PK have military roles. The site may be considered as the Rus- With the development of a space sian equivalent of Vandenberg AFB. Or- booster from an SLBM, the Russian's bital inclinations attained from PK range have demonstrated the potential ability to from 63º to 83º. Historically, it is the launch a small satellite from almost any- port of debarkation for over 1,300 where in the world. All Russian tests and launches, or more than one third of all its first commercial satellite from a sub- orbital or planetary missions from all marine have all taken place from near launch sites world-wide. It typically is Russian home waters in the Barents Sea used to deliver most (if not all) Russian located north of the Kola Peninsula, the polar orbiting sensor payloads and many homeport of Russia's ballistic missile Molniya orbit payloads. The high inclina- submarine fleet. This first underwater tion of the Molniya communications satel- launch of a satellite placed a German lites is a natural result of an eastward university built scientific satellite into a launch from PK. Because the launch site polar, low earth orbit. is on Russian soil and the flight profile Russian Space Launch Vehicles does not pass over any other countries during the boost phase, the requirement AU Space Primer 7/23/2003 20 - 2 The FSU developed an impressive ar- The original version, the A vehicle (or ray of SLVs, mostly derived from Inter- SL-1/2) is classified as a one and one- continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). half stage vehicle. It consists of a central On more than one occasion, Russia has core with four strap-on boosters. The demonstrated the ability to conduct mul- Russians classified this as a two-stage tiple launches within a short period of assembly, but since the engines of the time. The SLV names such as Proton strap-ons and the central sustainer ignite used in this chapter are Russian. The simultaneously at lift off, this parallel "SL-#" designation is assigned by DOD. staging arrangement is generally regarded The letter-number designation, such as as a one and one-half-stage vehicle. This “A-1”, was developed by Dr. Charles vehicle launched the first three Sputnik Sheldon, U.S. Congressional Research satellites in 1957 and 1958. The third Service, to differentiate between launch and largest Sputnik had a mass of 1327 vehicle families and their variants. This Kg and was delivered to a 122 by 1016 system is no longer used but is still found nm orbit. All three A launches were con- in some publications. Since the break-up ducted from TT. of the Soviet Union, many FSU countries To satisfy the need to launch bigger and companies have been marketing for- payloads, the Vostok (A-1/SL-3) (Fig. mer Soviet booster for international and 20-2) was introduced in 1959. commercial space lift. This trend has With an SS-6 first stage, the Vostok lead to the increased use of the Russian has a second stage attached by a trellis- names for these boosters in press releases like structure. The initial version of the and news reports. Table 20-1 at the end A-1 vehicle was used to launch the Luna of this SLV section is a matrix providing moon payload. The payload fairing was a list of all three types of names. Soyuz Series (A-Class, Soyuz, Molniya) The Soyuz class of launch vehicles is based on the original Soviet ICBM, the SS-6 Sapwood (Fig. 20-1), which was first tested as a missile on 2 August 1957. Its first use as a space vehicle was only two months later, suggesting concurrent development as an ICBM and SLV. This ICBM has provided, in various forms, the initial stages of a whole family of SLVs Fig. 20-2. SL-3 Vostok including the operational Vostok, Soyuz and Molniya SLVs. then enlarged to launch the manned Vostok as well as the first-generation re- coverable Kosmos satellites. With a lar- ger and more sophisticated payload fair- ing used on the Vostok, the overall length of the booster increased to 38m from about 34m.