Already in 2-3 years, the Russian aeronautical rocket complex for space purposes, being developed within the framework of the Air Launch project, can carry out the first tests. The latest version of the ARKK Air Launch was presented at the MAKS-2013 air show held in Zhukovsky near Moscow. The implementation of this project is carried out by the State Missile Center (GRTs) named after V. I. Makeev, who is developing it together with the private company Polet. The leading specialist of the SRC Sergey Egorov, in an interview with the Rosinformburo website, noted that in 2-3 years everyone will know about us. According to Yegorov, the Polet company is ready to provide its An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft for practical tests. At the initial stage of testing, using mock-ups, the release of cargo from the aircraft and the initial stages of launch will be practiced.
Sergei Egorov noted that interest in this innovative project has increased, including from the Russian Ministry of Defense, and in this regard, he expressed hope for achieving good results. The specialist believes that this project can be used to launch military satellites into space. Air Launch is a project that is a system capable of launching spacecraft into Earth's orbit using an environmentally friendly fuel rocket launched from a large A-124-100 transport aircraft.
"Ruslan" with a rocket on board, which is in a reusable container, in a given area at an altitude of about 10,000 meters makes a "slide". At this moment, the rocket is thrown out of the container with the help of a steam-gas generator, at a distance of 200-250 meters from the aircraft, its main engine is switched on and a controlled flight to a given orbit trajectory begins. Specialist GRTs them. Makeeva, emphasized a number of the main advantages of the complex with such a start method. First of all, this is the absence of the need to build expensive launch ground complexes, the use of various launch areas, the advance planning of exclusion zones for the fall of a detachable rocket stage, as well as the possibility of increasing the payload.
Currently, work on a similar project is being actively pursued in the United States. In America, several successful tests have already been carried out to drop bulky cargo from an aircraft using a parachute. At the same time, Sergei Yegorov considers the Russian way of leaving the plane with bulky cargo to be safer and more reliable. Representative of the GRTs them. Makeeva, believes that in our case, an unstressed and controlled release of the Polet missile (mass 102 tons, length more than 30 meters) with the necessary overloads is achieved. At the same time, the parachute method is less predictable and is suitable only for missiles with smaller weight and size characteristics.
In Russia, airborne space launch vehicles began to design as early as the mid-90s of the last century at the same time by several organizations. The farthest was to advance the development, which was initiated by the Chemical Automation Design Bureau and the Polet airline (both enterprises from Voronezh), which in May 1999 established the Air Launch corporation of the same name. The shareholders of this company soon became GNPRKTS TsSKB-Progress (Samara) and RSC Energia (Korolev, Moscow Region). However, these enterprises in the early 2000s left the corporation, and their place of the lead developer was taken by the SRC im. Makeeva (Miass, Chelyabinsk region).
The meaning of the project is to ensure the mobility of space launches, since when a rocket is removed from an aircraft, there is no need to build a cosmodrome. The main element of the complex from the very beginning of the project was to be a heavy transport aircraft An-124-100VS "Ruslan". In the center of Russia in Samara, on the basis of the Polet airfield, it was planned to organize some kind of a "cosmodrome".
In 2006, this project became international: at the intergovernmental level, an agreement was reached with Indonesia, which undertook to build on its island Biak all the necessary infrastructure for basing Ruslan aircraft and loading missiles on them. In September 2007, information appeared that the ambitious project had reached the home stretch. They were preparing to launch the first launch already in 2010, and a contract was signed with one of the Western European companies to launch 6 satellites. However, since then the Air Launch has been forgotten.
They remembered him again already in 2012, when the State Research and Development Center im. Makeev managed to enlist support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development, and the Federal Space Agency. At the same time, information appeared that the implementation of this project would require an investment of 25 billion rubles. At the same time, the construction of the "demonstrator" was estimated at 4 billion rubles, while the total costs in the development of the Air Launch system were estimated at 25 billion rubles (the creation of a demonstrator - up to 3 years, the implementation of the project - 5-6 years).
Air Launch System
The Russian Air Launch system using the Polet launch vehicle, which belongs to the light class (weight about 100 tons), is able to provide launches of light satellites to low (up to 2 thousand km.), Medium (10-20 thousand kilometers). km.), geostationary and geostationary orbits, as well as departure trajectories to the Moon and the planets of our solar system. The project provides for the launch of a carrier rocket with satellites on board from an altitude of 10-11 thousand meters from an air launch platform, which is planned to use a modification of the world's heaviest mass-produced transport aircraft An-124-100 Ruslan, which was created in 1983 by the Ukrainian state enterprise ANTK them. OK. Antonov.
Also a component of the system is the Polet light launch vehicle, which is created using the most advanced rocket technologies that were created in Russia as part of the work on the Soyuz manned launch vehicle program and have confirmed their high safety and reliability. In this case, the launch vehicle will operate on environmentally friendly rocket fuel (kerosene + liquid oxygen).
At the first stage of the rocket, modified liquid-propellant rocket engines NK-43 (NK-33-1) are used, which were created as part of the work on the lunar rocket N-1 and worked out to a reliability of 0, 998. The second stage of the Polet rocket is planned to use the third stage of the serially produced Soyuz-2 rocket with the improved RD-0124 rocket engine.
At the initial stage of operation of the Polet missiles, in order to minimize costs and reduce the time for its development, the propulsion system of the first stage of the rocket can be adopted by a similar installation at the first stage of the light carrier rocket Soyuz-1 developed by TsSKB-Progress: with already existing main engine NK-33A and steering 4-chamber engine RD 0110R.
To deliver space satellites to orbits of different heights and departure trajectories, the launch vehicle can be equipped with an upper stage, which is an improved modification of the upper stage L of the Molniya launch vehicle, with 11D58MF oxygen-kerosene rocket engines (5 tf thrust) installed on it …Work on this engine is currently being carried out at RSC Energia im. S. P. Koroleva.
The use of already existing Russian missile technologies in the High-Altitude Launch project can have a positive effect on the timing and cost of developing the system, providing it with the best economic and technical characteristics. The Vostochny cosmodrome under construction may become the best option for placing the system under construction on the territory of our country. The proximity of the Pacific Ocean provides the best conditions for choosing the optimal routes in the active phase of the flight of the Polet launch vehicle.
System functioning diagram
After the Polet launch vehicle and the space upper stage are delivered to the Russian Vostochny cosmodrome or to the spaceport on the Indonesian island, the launch vehicle and satellite are integrated. The installation of a satellite on a rocket can be carried out in a technical complex specially built at the spaceport or directly in the carrier aircraft itself. After the completion of the assembly process of the launch complex and all the necessary checks, refueling of the carrier aircraft, space upper stage and rocket, the aircraft takes off to the calculated launch zone.
The flight scheme of this system provides for the launch of satellites into the earth's orbit with almost any inclination. This is achieved due to the fact that the aircraft can launch a rocket at a distance of 4-4.5 thousand km. from the spaceport. In this case, the launch zone of the rocket when planning each specific flight will be selected based on the condition of ensuring the specified inclination of the space satellite orbit, the location of the flight path and the areas of fall of the detachable elements of the rocket in the marginal waters of the World Ocean. Also, when choosing a launch route, the need for Ruslan to land after launching a carrier rocket at one of the nearest airfields, which is able to receive aircraft of this class, will be taken into account.
To create the most comfortable initial flight conditions, the carrier aircraft performs an aerobatics figure called a "slide" with an exit to a parabolic trajectory in the design launch zone of the rocket, which allows for a flight mode that is close to zero gravity for 6-10 seconds. At this moment, the normal overload on the Polet missile will not exceed 0, 1-0, 3 units. This solution allows 2-2.5 times to increase the missile's airborne mass in comparison with the usual airborne landing in the horizontal flight mode, and therefore to increase its carrying capacity.
At the moment when the carrier aircraft in the "Hill" mode reaches the maximum angle of inclination of the trajectory to the local horizon (pitching angle of about 20 °), the rocket is ejected from the aircraft using a special launch container using a pneumatic ejection system equipped with a powder pressure accumulator. The exit of the Polet missile from the Ruslan takes about 3 seconds, the longitudinal overload at this moment does not exceed 1.5 units. After the procedure for landing the rocket and the subsequent implementation of the flight sections of its first and second stages, as well as the space upper stage, the space satellite is separated and entered into a given orbit.
It is worth noting that the technology of airborne landing of heavy cargoes, significantly exceeding the weight of cargoes that are dropped in a conventional horizontal flight, was implemented back in the USSR in 1987-1990 as part of the Energia-Buran program. This technology was tested as part of the rescue of reusable rocket units of the first stage of the Energia rocket and provided for the landing of heavy loads in aircraft flight modes close to zero gravity.
Energy opportunities
The use of the Polet launch vehicle makes it possible to launch satellites weighing up to 4.5 tons into orbit when they are put into low equatorial orbits, up to 3.5 tons - into low polar orbits, up to 0.85 tons - into the orbits of the GLONASS navigation systems or "Galileo", up to 0.8 tons - into geostationary orbits. If geostationary satellites are equipped with an apogee propulsion system, which ensures the transfer of a satellite from a geostationary transfer orbit to a geostationary one, the Polet light rocket can ensure the launch of satellites weighing up to 1 ton into a geostationary orbit. On departure trajectories to other planets of the solar system, as well as to the moon, it can deliver spacecraft weighing 1-1, 2 tons. Such capabilities in terms of carrying capacity of the Air Launch are provided by launching from a height of about 10-11 thousand meters.
