Ukrainian shard
Today, much and often is said about the economic collapse in Ukraine, and somehow the rocket and space industry of this state is lost in this gigantic stream of necessary and unnecessary information. It is from this country that I will begin my story. This is done for a number of reasons. First, it is easy to see Ukrainian space as a fragment of the once mighty space industry of the USSR. His problems are in many ways similar to Russian ones, but they are much more acute and therefore, not so camouflaged, and when dealing with Ukrainian issues, you begin to understand your own better. Secondly, it must be said right away that the Angara project was largely conceived for Russia's gaining military space sovereignty. It is not difficult to guess which country the Russian rocket and space industry is most tied to. And you must agree that the security of our state should not depend on the Ukrainian political situation. Now, even the most favorable political and economic situation in Ukraine is not able to save its space industry, it is doomed. This is a purely production and technical question. The launch of the Angara included a countdown timer for the destruction of the Ukrainian Space. So, we omit political and economic moments beyond the scope of our article and proceed closely to the "debriefing" of Ukrainian missiles.
Indeed, at first glance, the state of affairs in Ukrainian rocketry looks simply gorgeous. Judge for yourself, Ukraine is one of the five leading countries in the world in terms of achievements in the space sector. The country's potential, represented by the Southern Machine-Building Plant, makes it possible to provide up to 10% of the world's start-up services annually. The space industry of Ukraine has a complete scientific and technical complex for the creation of launch vehicles (launch vehicles) and spacecraft. This allows the country to carry out space launches of its own satellites on its launch vehicles. An example is the launches of national Earth remote sensing satellites (ERS) "Sich-1M" in 2004 and "Sich-2" in 2011, which were carried out using carrier rockets manufactured in Ukraine (LV "Cyclone-3" and LV "Dnepr"). The program for the manufacture and launch of the first telecommunications satellite Lybid is being actively pursued, and the launch itself is planned to be carried out on, again, the Ukrainian Zenit launch vehicle. Today Ukraine is a participant in such large-scale projects:
- "Sea Launch" (USA, Russia, Norway, Ukraine);
- "Dnepr" (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan);
- "Vega" (EU, Ukraine);
- "Ground Launch" (Russia, Ukraine, USA);
- "Cyclone-4" (Brazil, Ukraine).
The picture is just idealistic! Now let's deal with this canvas more thoroughly. Let's start with the lines of three Ukrainian launch vehicles: Zenit, Cyclone and Dnepr. All these rockets are the brainchild of the Soviet space industry, fragments of the once super-powerful military space industry of the Soviet Union. At the time of its collapse, the aforementioned devices were produced and serviced by specialists from the Dnepropetrovsk Southern Machine-Building Plant. It is not surprising that the leaders of the "independent" Ukrkosmos decided to develop commercial projects based on these missiles.
Let's start the story with the most successful one - the Zenit launch vehicle. This rocket is the pride of Yuzhmash and the Soviet space industry. Zenith was designed and built within the framework of the program for the construction of super-heavy launch vehicles Energia and Vulkan. These colossi, with a certain arrangement of rocket modules, could take up to 200 tons of payload into the Earth's reference orbit, including the well-known Buran reusable spacecraft. The first stage of Zenit (up to 8 units) was exactly the module for these giants, but Zenit itself, as an autonomous and universal launch vehicle, is capable of launching cargo and manned spacecraft weighing up to 15 t. It has established itself above all praise and can give odds to any carrier in the niche of middle-class missiles, and this is why: Zenit holds the lead in terms of the ratio of the payload mass to the mass of the rocket, which you will agree, is important for commercial launches, however, American a rocket from the Folken series is trying to challenge this, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory, however, we will return to the Folken.
On this rocket is the world's most powerful liquid-jet engine RD-170 (171) ever created, even the engine for the "lunar" rocket von Braun (the largest and most powerful in the world) "Saturn-5", did not reach this engine.
Finally, all stages of the Zenith rocket engines operate on safe and environmentally friendly fuel - kerosene.
And now, unfortunately, the tale ends for our Ukrainian colleagues. As you know, Ukraine participates in the Sea Launch project, where the above-mentioned rocket is delivered by sea to the floating cosmodrome located at the equator. The idea behind an equatorial launch is very simple. From the point of view of celestial mechanics, launching rockets from the equator is optimal because there you can use the Earth's rotation speed as efficiently as possible. To this can be added a gain in logistics, as you know, sea transport is the cheapest. It is not surprising that the Norwegian shipbuilding company Aker Kvaerner, which is related to space as a Papuan to an iceberg, grabbed as much as 20% of the consortium's shares, the rest of the shares were distributed as follows: a subsidiary of Boeing Corporation, BCSC, received 40%, RSC Energia "- 25%, PO" Yuzhmash "- 10%, KB" Yuzhnoye "- 5% of shares.
On June 22, 2009, the company filed for bankruptcy. "The reorganization, in accordance with Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, gives us the opportunity to continue our activities and focus on the development of plans for our further development" - assured the company to its shareholders. Indeed, on April 1, 2010, the consortium's board of directors decided to give the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia the main role in the Sea Launch project. And at the end of July of the same year, by a court decision, Energia Overseas Limited, a subsidiary of Energia Corporation, received 95% of shares in the Sea Launch consortium, Boeing - 3% and Aker Solutions - 2%. And yet, the board of directors announced the start of development of a project to move the home port and ground infrastructure from Los Angeles to Sovetskaya Gavan.
One gets the impression that our Ukrainian friends have simply been forgotten. But the point here is not the "forgetfulness" of the companions who swallowed the "Ukrainian lads". The situation has developed this way for reasons beyond the control of the Ukrainian side. The fact is that Ukraine, technically, productively, and even more so financially, cannot influence this project, and here is why.
As mentioned above, launch vehicles are produced at Yuzhmash, but about 70% of components are supplied by Russian enterprises, and these are the most important components. Suffice it to name such a "detail" as the already mentioned main engine of the first stage RD-171, engines of the second and third stages, the upper stage and much more. What could Yuzhmash oppose to all this? Is that the world's largest workshop, specially built for the assembly of these missiles, their diameter (3, 9 m) is too large for devices of this class. It was interesting to observe the bewildered physiognomy of Kolomoisky, who visited this workshop. He reminded Kisa Vorobyaninov, wandering around the Railway Workers' Club. Here it is, the treasure, but how to carry it away, or at least snatch a piece, this "worthy" child of Zion could not figure out.
Another problem came to light. The fact is that the maritime logistics of this project was clearly overestimated, because the sea still had to be reached. Imagine: first, land traffic, then loading the product in the Black Sea port, then the Bosphorus, Dardanelles, the Suez Canal, or even bypassing Africa. Instead of one loading and unloading - two. Ideally, the plant should be located somewhere on the ocean coast. So Yuzhmash could not influence the consortium's policy in any way, just as their assembly plant, located somewhere in the Philippines, and even not in a convenient place, cannot dictate its terms to the Sony concern. The "marketing" scheme of Ukrainian rocket designers is painfully primitive, fulfilled the order, received money and … "almost 70% wear and tear of fixed assets", as the general director of the plant workers V. A. Shchegol complained in an interview. And you yourself understand that no "Kolomoisky" are going to renew their production assets. The cynical method of the greedy German peasants immediately comes to mind. When a horse fell ill, the peasant would stop feeding it. It is pointless, the transfer of fodder, will still go to slaughter, and it will still work a little for the owner, but a miracle happened - the unfortunate animal, treated by hunger, recovered. The German pastoralist transferred this experience to people. As a result, the well-known method of treatment according to Schroth emerged (the name of the peasant is “innovator”). So the production and machine tool park of Yuzhmash resembles this hungry, sick horse, with only one difference, it has NO chance of avoiding the slaughterhouse.
It is also necessary to take into account the fact that the assembly of these missiles brings the lion's share of income for the Dnipropetrovsk rocket designers, for example, in 2012 it was 81.3%. Returning to Sea Launch, it is worth noting that the consortium took into account the experience of the not entirely successful marine logistics of the project and prudently decided to play it safe. The Land Launch Mirror Project was launched using the infrastructure of the former Soviet Union. The missiles were transported by rail directly to Baikonur without any intermediate reloads. Krasnoyarsk plant "Krasmash" manufactured a third stage upper stage, adapted to the "Baikonur latitude", and the project started working. At present, 6 launches have already been made, all of them successful. As for Sea Launch, as of May 31, 2014, 36 launches were made - 32 successful, 1 partially successful, 3 unsuccessful.
I would like to say a little about the less successful Ukrainian project - "Cyclone-4". The implementation of this joint project with Brazil began in 2003. The first launch from the Brazilian cosmodrome Alcantara was to take place no later than November 30, 2006. In the future, the launch was repeatedly postponed, the year 2007 was designated, then the launch was postponed to 2012. The total cost of the Project was estimated at $ 488 million. According to various estimates, the Ukrainian side invested in it $ 100-150 million, and in August 2011 the Ukrainian government gave guarantees to attract a $ 260 million loan for the final implementation of the project. A new launch date was announced - November 15, 2013, and in April of the same year, the "deadline" for the launch was announced, which is scheduled for November-December 2014.
Comments are inappropriate here. I will only say that we will definitely return to Ukrainian space, in particular, we will consider the Dnepr and Cyclone missiles, and we will be especially interested in their military prototypes.
Looking ahead, I will say that later it will become clear to us why these missiles are doomed.
