November 1, the management of the State Research and Production Center named after V. I. Khrunicheva reported that the new heavy launch vehicle Angara A5, the world's first rocket made on a modular basis (formed as a designer), has undergone comprehensive diagnostics and is fully ready for launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
The light version of "Angara" - A1 (1 module, carrying capacity 1.5 tons) in June of this year was successfully tested, now a rocket consisting of 5 modules with a payload of 25.8 tons (orbit 200 km.) Will go to the launch pad. The next starts on the test cycle are planned to launch the A7 with a load of 35 tons and the A7.2B with 50 tons. Experts note: if the project is implemented within the approved timeframe, firstly, it will significantly reduce the cost, simplify and accelerate the entire space program of Roscosmos and the Ministry of Defense, and secondly, in the future it will be able to reshape the entire world rocket and space market, because it cannot will be equal in the cost of delivering a unit of cargo to any of the demanded orbits.
It was decided to find a replacement for the heavy-class carrier rockets of the Proton family immediately after the collapse of the USSR. Initially, the goal was one - to create a launch vehicle entirely from Russian components, without any cooperation, even with the closest allies in the CIS. At the same time, it was also supposed to start only from Russian territory - the Plesetsk cosmodrome. Nikolai Moiseyev, a member of the military-industrial commission under the government of the Russian Federation, noted: “The goal that was set for the developers, for the domestic rocket and space industry, sounded like this: to provide Russia's independent access to space. That is, with the help of this new rocket, "Angara", it is necessary to ensure the withdrawal of spacecraft, which we could previously launch from Baikonur, from our domestic Plesetsk cosmodrome. This task was set by the country's leadership. This does not mean that we are abandoning the further use of the Baikonur cosmodrome, it is still in demand, it is still used for civilian purposes. But I must say that by now there are no servicemen left in Baikonur, it has completely passed under civilian jurisdiction."
Based on the decision of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Military Space Forces of August 3, 1992 on the issue of "Launch vehicles: the state and prospects of their modernization and development" and the decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 15, 1992, a competition was announced for the design and creation of a space-rocket complex (space rocket complex) heavy class. The competition was attended by RSC Energia im. Academician S. P. Korolev, GKNPTs them. MV Khrunichev and SRC “KB im. Academician VP Makeev”, which presented several options for launch vehicles for consideration by a specially formed Interdepartmental Expert Commission. In August 1994, the competition was won by the option proposed by the S. MV Khrunichev, who was appointed the lead developer of the complex.
Further development of the project actually froze due to the chronic underfunding of the industry in the 90s. Active work was resumed only in 2001, when the first Russian space program was born, provided with real financial resources. However, the new design team proposed to expand the task - to design not just a completely domestic rocket and a launch complex for it, as it sounded in the assignment, but also to seriously improve its tactical and technical characteristics, i.e. to make a media that will win tough competition in the booming global market. Although initially "Angara" was intended exclusively for military needs. To do this, it was necessary, first of all, to solve two fundamental problems: to make the design of the rocket lighter and to reduce the volume of investments - both starting and operational.
The designers took a simple path - by unifying the technology. They proposed to manufacture a rocket that is universal in terms of the carrying capacity class in the form of a designer, which can be quickly assembled depending on the tasks at hand, transported without the use of expensive energy-intensive systems and mounted on the launch site in a matter of minutes. At the same time, there should be only one launch complex, which usually consumes up to 40% of investments, for all categories of missiles of the family. Although for each class of missiles in the world, a separately designed launch pad is used. And this already saves about 30% of the total budget for development and production and about 24% - on operating costs. “In fact, in this project, due to the creation of two basic modules, we get the whole range of light, medium and heavy missiles - Angara-1, Angara-3 and Angara-5. Always for light, medium or heavy missiles - sometimes there is one launcher for the light and medium class, but so that the entire range of loads and the whole range of projects of the light, medium and heavy class are launched from one launcher - this is not the case. This makes the project cheaper in the sense that there is no need to build three separate launching tables,”said Moiseev.
In addition, composite materials science, which is rapidly developing in the country, came in handy - about 36% of the rocket's parts were made of third-generation composite materials, which reduced the total share of the entire system by 12.3%. This success, in turn, made it possible to think about environmental friendliness - the rocket was made working on clean fuel - kerosene, the oxidizing agent of which is oxygen. Previously, all heavy missiles flew only on toxic heptyl. According to this indicator, Russia is only a catching-up party - today there are already "clean" space rockets in the world - the European Ariane-5 and the American Falcon-9, but they are clearly lagging behind Angara in terms of launch cost and total investment capacity. In addition, none of them is capable of lifting such a mass of cargo into space. The latest version of Falcon 9 v1.1 puts 13, 1 tons into low reference orbit (LEO), 4, 8 tons into geo-transfer orbit (GPO). European Ariane-5 of the latest modification - maximum 6, 3 on GPO. "Angara-5" already in December of this year will lift 25, 8 tons per 200 km (6, 6 at GPO), after adding 2 more universal rocket modules (URM) to the "constructor" in the spring of 2015 it will deliver 35 tons (12, 5 at the GPO, the rocket is already being assembled) and will set a world record, and in 2016 the Ministry of Defense will launch it with 50 tons (19 tons at the GPO).
In terms of investments, Angara also outperformed all its competitors. The American company has already spent more than $ 5.2 billion on the Falcon-9 program, the total project amount reaches $ 7.5 billion, the European Space Agency's budget for Ariane has exceeded € 3.2 billion, and the total investment is planned at € 5.8 billion. The Angara cost the Russian budget 96 billion rubles. even at the old rate it is $ 3.2 billion. The minimum price for a kilogram of payload for "Falcon" is 4 thousand dollars per kilogram for LEO and 9, 5 thousand for GPO. Other space projects should not even be considered, because the European rocket loses to the American one by 12%, which the head of SpaceX is publicly proud of, and the Chinese "heavy" rocket RN CZ-11 exists so far only in words. The cost of delivery of 1 kg with "Angara" is only 2, 4 thousand dollars to LEO and 4, 6 thousand to GPO. Experts believe that at least in a ten-year period - from 2018, when the new launch vehicle will be launched into series, and until 2027 it will be the absolute leader in the space truck market with a low cost of service that is beyond the reach of competitors.
What is even more valuable is that the designer "Angara" on basic technologies provides for its use in a manned version, which can be called breakthroughs in world cosmonautics. Manned ships have always been designed as separate projects according to completely different standards, incompatible with trucks. Roskosmos plans to begin the practical implementation of rocket launches with a team of cosmonauts in 2018, compared with Soyuz, which have been performing this function over the past decades, the cost of delivering and returning people to the ISS will become 25-30% cheaper, which is about $ 10 million for each " walker ". In 2019, Angara is to fly to the Moon, and in 2022 - to Mars. True, these are not yet approved plans, but technical prospects that are already included in the project. “As of today, it was being prepared for Plesetsk like a truck, but now instructions have been given and the question is being worked out that the task of a manned launch will also be solved on Vostochny. Because there is everything for this. There are procedures related to the need for flight qualifications, the responsibility is significantly higher, therefore there are procedures by which a rocket receives flight qualifications for manned launches. And the first thing - it should be run in the cargo version"
