“… What seemed unrealizable for centuries, what was just a daring dream yesterday, today becomes a real task, and tomorrow - a fulfillment.
There are no barriers to human thought!"
S. P. Korolev
Continuing the topic of how to get into orbit (or space) in a non-trivial way, voiced in the articles:
Underwater launch systems: how to get from under water into orbit or into space?
Underwater launch systems: how to get from under water into orbit or into space? / EndSubmarine launch systems: how to get from under the water into orbit? The ending
The idea of launching a BR or LV from a sea platform or a ship (aircraft carrier) into space is, of course, not "Russian" know-how. The first were, most likely, the Americans. V2 rocket launch from USS Midway Aircraft Carrier (1947)
This is understandable: a large stock of expropriated FAU-2 (Vergeltungswaffe-2) and a large number of aircraft carriers.
Advantage: There are also disadvantages.
Other significant American projects:
Aerojet's Sea Dragon is a 1962 project to create a fully reusable, two-stage, sea-launched launch vehicle. One of the structures created by Robert Truax was a rocket launched from a free-floating position in the ocean.
Truaxe's main idea was to create a cheap heavy carrier, now called the "big stupid carrier".
Before the dragon, Robert experimented with the Sea Bee and the Sea Horse.
Of the "latest" proposals from the United States, this is, perhaps, the Aquarius launch vehicle (Aquarius), developed by Space Systems / Loral, Aerojet, Microcosm in the 2000s. Purpose: the cost of launching a payload (for supplying the ISS) to LEO 1000 kg (2200 lb) no more than $ 1,000,000.00. One-time launch vehicle.
Low-cost launch and orbital depots: the Aquarius system.
The preface is over, back to Selena
Very little information and good quality photos. More will probably come out about ships and about launch vehicles.
It will be about one of the options for using the fleet of the Space Research Service of the Marine Expeditionary Department of the USSR Academy of Sciences (SKI OMER of the USSR Academy of Sciences)
"Marine space fleet", ships of the "Star Flotilla", floating measuring points, space service ships. What is this fleet? What kind of ships? [1]
Questions and answers here.[1]
Ships with significant names "Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin", "Academician Sergei Korolev", "Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky" and others were once subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, although they went "under the roof" of the Academy of Sciences: [3]
In addition to communicating with manned spacecraft, they performed other tasks, including ensuring flight tests of rocket and space technology products
After the collapse of the USSR, three large ships - "Gagarin", "Korolev" and "Komarov" - were sold for scrap. Around the same time, the Ministry of Defense handed over the remaining four Selena-class spacecraft to the NPO of Measuring Technology of the Russian Space Agency.
"Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky" and "Cosmonaut Viktor Patsaev" were equipped with TM measurement and communication equipment, and two ships - "Cosmonaut Vladislav Volkov" and "Cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev" - without scientific equipment, since the former owners managed to remove the special equipment and part of the equipment.
In the second half of the 1990s, "Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky" was being prepared for use in the Sea Launch project as a measuring complex ship. According to the initial scheme, it was supposed to receive telemetry from the rocket in the most critical areas: separation of stages, separation of the upper stage, launching an object into orbit.
Until October 1998everything was going according to plan. The additional equipment of the vessel was carried out for Russian money, taking into account the fact that the Americans would sign a contract. Indeed, they even set aside some finance up front. But at the last moment, they unexpectedly changed their mind and offered to abandon its services, equipping the rocket with an American satellite relay unit and using its TDRS satellite to transmit telemetry.
Perhaps this is also the right decision from the point of view of a business decision: a day of operation of a telemetry vessel cost only $ 10,000.
However, the Americans' savings did not take into account that the launch of the Zenit LV from the Sea Launch platform has a number of features:
- for the first time a land-based launch vehicle starts from an ocean platform;
- for the first time, refueling and storage of propellant components will be carried out in the ocean on the platform from which the launch vehicle starts;
- for the first time, the volume of telemetry accepted for normal operation on the test vehicle will be reduced for transmission via the TDRS radio link;
- for the first time on the tested complex in the first launch, an experimental telemetry measurement system based on the TDRS application will be used.
The savings offered by the Americans do not compare with the potential losses. Telemetry information is vital for commercial launches. Its absence "hits the pocket": in case of an unsuccessful start, insurers do not pay compensation until they unambiguously determine the culprit of the accident. [2]
Russian partners advocated the use of Selena at least in the first launches. The negotiations ended in nothing. In March 1998, the Zenit LV launched a spacecraft from the platform without the involvement of the Selena-M telemetry vessel. To prevent the ships from disappearing, their crew, whenever possible, took the ships out to sea, performing many tasks, including working with the Mir station.
A possible way out of the impasse was outlined, as always, “at the junction of two elements” - the sea and space, the ship and the rocket
The project of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Scientific and Production Association of Measuring Techniques" (NPO IT) was very simple and inexpensive. In the docks of Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg, there were two of the three remaining in Russia (in Soviet times there were 11) ships of the Selena-M series intended for space communications - Cosmonaut Viktor Patsaev and Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky.
NPO IT specialists proposed to re-equip one of them for launching launch vehicles such as "Start" and "Start-1". The second ship, during the launch, was supposed to provide telemetric tracking of the process of launching spacecraft into orbit. The ships could be based anywhere from the Baltic to the Canary Islands - whatever is more convenient for the customer.
The difference is only in the speed of reaching the starting point (closer to the equator): in the first case it is two or three weeks, in the second - up to 10 days.
More benefits:
Starting from the equator, in the area of which a floating cosmodrome can easily be located, makes it possible to increase the mass of the satellite to be launched into orbit, and the lower the orbit, the greater the difference in mass: for example, 535 kg can be sent from Plesetsk to a height of two hundred kilometers, and from the equator - 742.
TN VED EAEU: 10% duty and 18% VAT percent.
I don't understand this nonsense at all. Well, for sure, in the government we have only hucksters, moreover, of a minor type.
Capitalism.
PS. in the USA, by the way, there is no VAT, I don’t know the duty, but it’s hardly more than 5-7%. This is how we lived and how we live, and we tell fairy tales about trampolines.
The mobile complex, which independently arrives at the customer's port, loads the spacecraft on board together with the escort group and under its own power goes to the Offshore launch point is exempted from such a tax and all taxes. Is that port dues.
Comfortable conditions on board (single and double cabins) make it possible to accommodate representatives of customers, even the most demanding ones (such as the "Russian" Ilona Mask-Misha Prokhorov).
There are, of course, downsides
The main one: the sea launch was losing (at that time), and it is losing now (Space x again) in price to the terrestrial spaceports. The sea launch is more expensive by about $ 2-4 million ($ 12-14 million versus $ 10 million from the launch site). The extra satellite kilograms launched from the equator partially paid for the "difference". Launch-class launch vehicles are solid-propellant and do not require refueling on site, which simplifies launch and maintenance commands.
The carriers (conversion version RT-2PM / 15Zh58 (SS-25 SICKLE)) are compact in size and have an acceptable weight, which made it possible to place two missiles on the ship at once.
The degree of automation of prelaunch preparation is very high (under 100%).
The total cost of the "light" sea launch project (in 2005 prices): $ 20-25 million (almost the price of one space tour), which includes a complete re-equipment of the spacecraft, the launch of two ships to sea and their operation. According to the designers, up to 10 launches can be carried out per year.
There is also a security problem: the ship is the land site of the cosmodrome. The designers used the "mortar" launch principle laid down in the ICBM:
For complete safety, the option of remote launch without the presence of a crew was also provided: a legacy of a combat ICBM.
The sea launch complex named "Selena" includes a transportable rocket and space complex with a solid-propellant launch vehicle of the "Start" family, a transport-launch vessel of the "Selena-M" project, a complex of measurement systems for the rocket launch process and a ground technical base for the preparation and assembly of the RSC. in the home port.
The current measuring points are completely different. There will be a lot of space on ships of this class. The trouble is that there are practically no ships left. Mobile measuring points (MIPs) have been developed and exist. Since not every country allows them to be imported into its territory, they are made in a mobile version on a gyro-stabilized platform and can be placed on almost any ship.
In August 2015, a sea-based MIP (MIP MB) manufactured by NPOIT was tested in the Sea of Japan video on board the icebreaker “Admiral Makarov.
The infrastructure of the complex is largely ready. The reliability of the RKK was confirmed during the operation of the initial missiles and launches of carriers from Svobodny and Plesetsk.
All launches of Topol ICBMs (RS-12M Topol, RT-2PM / 15Zh58 missile - SS-25 SICKLE) and Start-1, 2 LV
There were two modifications of the Launches carriers:
four-stage "Start-1" and five-stage "Start".
The latter had only one launch from Plesetsk - emergency - on March 28, 1995 (the EKA-2 overall and weight model and the satellites Gurwin Techsat 1A and UNAMSat A were not put into orbit. Start-1 from Plesetsk had only one launch - March 25, 1993 - with the launch of the satellite (or, according to other sources, the overall weight model) EKA-1 into an off-design orbit.
The remaining five launches of Start-1 were carried out from the Svobodny cosmodrome:
March 4, 1997 (Zeya satellite), December 24, 1997 (EarlyBird), December 5, 2000 (EROS A), February 20, 2001 (Odin) and April 25, 2006 (EROS B).
Already in those days, and now even more so, there is a boom of interest in LEO satellite communication systems based on small spacecraft and ultra-small spacecraft.
In 2016, the world's first satellite, made by students of an American elementary school, was launched into space:
In November 2016, SpaceX made another sensation by submitting a request to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to launch 4,425 satellites. If you read the document carefully, it says "4425 satellites (plus up to two spare satellites for each orbital plane)", that is, on 83 orbital planes, the satellite constellation should be maximum 4591 satellites.
The devices are launched on large media in "batches" and wait for their turn when the "big brothers" are ready. But the lifespan of such dwarfs is very limited. Launches are needed to maintain the orbital constellation. It is likely that small launch vehicles based on conversion sea or land ICBMs will be especially effective here.
Launch of NROL-55 spysat:
In our country, the Topol and Topol-M ICBMs are being removed and will continue to be removed from combat duty to be replaced by Yarsy.
….
"Cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky" (project 1929 ("Selena-2"), No. IMO: 6910245) in 2005 was sold for scrap. Under the name "Cosmos" it came to Alang (India) in March 2006, where it was disassembled.
He outlived his older friend by 10 years:
What we have, we do not store; lost, cry
/ Michelson's Big Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (1825 - 1908)
Instead of an afterword, I quote Vladimir Proshchenko:
Do you need a "Marine Space Fleet"? What is in return?
A little boy played in the field, dug a hole in the field with a shovel.
The satellite is gone! No signals from GLONASS Ca!
Laughed for a long time in the directorate of NA SA!
[2]
Telemetry launched by LV and SC again:
A rocket flew - fell into a swamp … and who is to blame for Rogozin
And why did she fall and on what basis did Rogozin decide to appoint the switchmen? There is no telemetry! And the most important thing: "What to do?" And "How to fix it?" It's called "I'm PR."
In memory of the cosmonaut Georgy Dobrovolsky film: died together with other crew members of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft during their return to Earth due to depressurization of the descent vehicle / Roskosmos TV studio.
-> Original sources, links and borrowed photos / videos
[1]V. Proschenko Report to the Korolev readings, January 2016 Section 10. "Cosmonautics and culture"
