In Russia, they seriously expect in the near future to compete with Elon Musk and his private space company Space X in the market for cheap space launches. Roskosmos and the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) are going to push out American competitors through the implementation of a domestic program to create an ultralight reusable rocket and space system. According to Boris Satovsky, who is the head of the FPI project group, the Foundation for Advanced Study, the preliminary design of the rocket unit to be returned to the ground is already ready. Tests of the first reusable Russian-made space rocket are scheduled for 2022.
Satovsky notes that it is planned to launch new returnable rockets from mobile complexes. The scheme of operation of the planned system involves the separation of the first stage of the launch vehicle at an altitude of about 59-66 kilometers and its subsequent return to the launch area with landing on an ordinary runway, RIA Novosti reports. In the basic design of the return unit, it is planned to use a large-span swiveling rectangular wing, as well as the classic tail assembly. According to the scientist, during the return flight to the launch site, it is planned to use serial turbojet engines that have undergone an appropriate modification. According to Boris Satovsky, such a system is designed to launch a payload weighing up to 600 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit. According to the preliminary calculations already made, the withdrawal price should be 1.5-2 times less than that of conventional launch vehicles of the same class. Moreover, each of the returned controlled units is designed for 50 flights without replacing the main engines.
Landing of the first stage of the Falcon-9 rocket
For the first time, it became known that Russia was going to resume work on the creation of a reusable launch vehicle back in January 2018. At the same time, RBC notes that our country will be able to make money on it no earlier than in ten years. On January 9, Aleksey Varochko, Director General of the Khrunichev Center, announced that the center, in cooperation with the Myasishchev Design Bureau and Roscosmos, had resumed work on the Angara-1.2 reusable launch vehicle project. It is planned that this launch vehicle will receive folding wings, which will unfold after the cargo is placed into orbit, after which it will be able to land at the airfield. At the same time, the option is being studied with the first stage of the rocket returned with the help of its own engines, as it is today implemented in the Falcon-9 rocket manufactured by the American company SpaceX, and the option with the landing of the first stage by parachute is also being considered.
Representatives of Roskosmos said then that the plans of the Khrunichev Center designers to develop a Russian reusable launch vehicle based on the existing scientific and technical reserve is a logical step in the development of the industry, stressing that there is such an experience in our country. Indeed, for the Khrunichev Center, this is already the third attempt to develop a reusable rocket. But this time, the Center decided to start designing a reusable stage for light-class missiles. It should be noted that back in the 2000s, the Khrunichev Center, which worked in cooperation with the NGO Molniya, was developing the Baikal reusable booster for the first stage of the Angara heavy rocket. Then it was planned that the first stage of the rocket, originally equipped with a rotary wing, after separation would return back to the airfield. The layout of "Baikal" was even demonstrated at the French air show in Le Bourget in 2001, but this promising project was never developed. Further work on the creation of a cruise unit for the Angara rocket was carried out in 2011-2013 as part of the MRKS project - a reusable rocket and space system. However, then, the scientific and technical council of "Roscosmos" came to the conclusion that the cost of launching a kilogram of cargo into Earth's orbit using IDGC would be higher than with a standard one-time flight of an ordinary rocket.
At the same time, experts call the success of the American company SpaceX Elon Musk the impetus for the resumption of work in this area. His company successfully exploits the Falcon-9 rocket's returnable first stage technology (the most expensive part). So in 2017, a private American company performed 17 launches of the Falcon-9 launch vehicle: in 13 cases, the first stage of the rocket was successfully landed using its own engine, in three more cases due to the peculiarities of the space mission (for example, the need to deliver a heavy satellite to the geostationary orbit of the Earth), the return of the first stage of the rocket back to Earth was not planned. In another case, the rocket landed in the ocean on a planned basis. Typically, the return first stage will land on an offshore platform or Cape Canaveral.
The returned first stage is necessary for Russia primarily in terms of economic indicators. The calculations show that using reusable rockets can reduce the cost of space launches. According to Alexander Zheleznyakov, a member of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, a reduction in the launch price will allow Russia to "take a piece of the pie" for itself from the commercial space launch market, or at least not fly out of this market. Therefore, the decision to develop a reusable launch vehicle in Russia is absolutely justified, while the Khrunichev Center already has developments in this area, stressed Alexander Zheleznyakov.
In April 2018, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Dmitry Rogozin spoke about the fact that domestic reusable missiles should land like an airplane. “We are not able, like Elon Musk, to return the Russian rocket - they start from the Canaveral cosmodrome and drive the sea platform to the point where the first stage of the rocket should land. The steering wheels are at the top, and she sits on the engine,”said a senior Russian official. “Where should we plant it, in Yakutia? This is physically impossible due to the existing geographic features. If we expect to switch to the use of return stages, then it should go from a vertical flight to a horizontal one and, on the engine and wings, which will have to open, return to the nearest airfield, like an airplane, and here the project is being combined with aviation,”noted Dmitry Rogozin. Most likely, the personal opinion of this person, who, after the completion of the formation of a new cabinet of ministers, was appointed head of Roscosmos, will now be even more important for the project of creating a Russian reusable rocket.
In fact, working on a reusable rocket, Russia may be catching up with the Soviet reusable space shuttle Buran and its more modern and simple reincarnation - the reusable rocket booster Baikal, which appeared at several exhibitions in the early 2000s. These returned ships, like the famous American shuttles, were the fruit of the painstaking work of representatives of the space industry and the aviation industry. Having become full-fledged returnable spacecraft, which was due to their enormous cost.
At the same time, for a long time, returnable launch vehicles were not developed on Earth, since it was believed that it was economically inexpedient. And there was no such expediency due to the lack of a large cargo flow into space. In the 21st century, everything is changing, this cargo traffic has appeared and may grow sharply over time, Andrei Ionin, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, noted in an interview with Svobodnaya Pressa. According to Ionin, the appearance of large volumes of cargo traffic will be directly related to the deployment of an Internet distribution system in space. We are talking about the OneWeb project and Musk's similar project - Starlink. The constellation of satellites planned for deployment is estimated at one thousand units. Given that at present all of humanity uses only about 1, 3 thousand operating satellites. That is, the implementation of only such projects can lead to a doubling of the space constellation.
Andrei Ionin believes that such projects with the deployment of the global space Internet will certainly be implemented, since without such a system, the implementation of numerous “digital economy” projects on Earth is not possible. According to him, the time has come, these systems will indeed be created and will provide the necessary cargo traffic, which is why Elon Musk took up the development of reusable missiles, having succeeded in this business. Here you can draw a fairly indicative analogy with smartphones that have conquered the world. If Stephen Jobs had presented his first iPhone not in 2007, but two years earlier, most likely few people would have needed it, since at that time there were simply no 3G networks that could provide a good level of communication in the internet. Technology is not needed by itself in isolation from everything, but only when it is in demand. In this regard, it can be noted that the time of reusable missiles has really come.
The fact that the time has come for such launch vehicles is evidenced by the fact that the first private space company, S7 Space, appeared in the Russian Federation, which once bought out the Sea Launch project. They are working on replacing the old and rather expensive Zenith rocket and as requirements for Roscosmos for the new rocket they have designated the first stage to be returned, notes Andrei Ionin.
In an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper, the general director of the first private space company in our country, Sergei Sopov, said that S7 Space has far-reaching plans, including not only the reactivation of the Sea Launch project, but also much more ambitious tasks. The company also expects to carry out ground launches, build and launch its own plant for the production of rocket engines in order to create a reusable modification of the promising domestic carrier rocket Soyuz-5, and also proposes that the Russian government, after 2024, not to sink its ISS segment by leasing it and creating the first orbital spaceport.
Obviously, more and more space launches will be required over time, and reusable rockets will be able to help with their implementation. Elon Musk has already solved this problem, paving the way. Now it is the turn of Russia and our companies and research centers to join the competition in this, of course, an important field of cosmonautics.
