Russia has again returned to the idea of creating a super-heavy launch vehicle, with the help of which our country will be able to carry out flights to the Moon and Mars. However, at present there is still no clarity on the question of who exactly will be engaged in its creation. The fact that the Russian president approved the start of work on a super-heavy launch vehicle with a payload of up to 150 tons became known on September 2, 2014. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who also attended the meeting held at the Vostochny cosmodrome under construction, told the journalists about this decision.
Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on the development of a new Russian cosmodrome, which is under construction in the Amur Region. After the meeting, it became finally clear that in 10 years the Russian Federation plans to finally abandon the use of the Baikonur cosmodrome, located in Kazakhstan. The head of Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, noted that if today almost 60% of all Russian spacecraft launches are carried out from Baikonur, then by 2025 such launches will become isolated. Moreover, more than 50% of all spacecraft from our orbital constellation will be launched from the launch sites of the Vostochny cosmodrome.
For these plans to come true, it is planned to build three launch pads at the new Russian cosmodrome. The first of these will be used for the Soyuz-2 medium-class launch vehicles. It is reported that the first Soyuz-2 rocket with the Aist-2 and Lomonosov spacecraft on board will have to take off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the summer of 2015, and from 2018 manned launches will be carried out using the LV data from the new Russian cosmodrome … The second launch pad is planned to be used for launching into space the "Angara-5" LV, belonging to the heavy class. The first launch of the Angara-5 rocket, which will replace the Proton, is scheduled for December 2014.
Construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome
It was planned to start building a launch pad for launch vehicles of this class at the cosmodrome in 2016, but Oleg Ostapenko proposed to postpone the start of construction by more than a year in advance. He noted that the work can begin in 2014. This will allow not to waste time and potential of the builders, in addition, the necessary preparatory work at the facility has already been carried out. Back in December 2013, the necessary reconnaissance work was carried out and the locations of the objects of the new Russian space rocket complex "Angara" were determined. At present, the experimental transportation of the "Angara" launch vehicle cargo layout by rail from Moscow to Uglegorsk has already been completed. Also, design and survey work has already begun to ensure the construction of technical and launch complexes.
On September 2, the fate of the third launch pad and the launch vehicle, which should be launched from it, finally became clear. It will be used to launch super-heavy rockets. After the development of the entire family of new "Angara" launch vehicles of light, medium and heavy classes, Russia is planning to start work on the creation of an entirely new class of launch vehicles with a payload of 120-140 tons, noted Dmitry Rogozin.“At the turn of 2020, we must go to the creation of such missiles. This will confirm the dominant role of the Russian Federation in issues related to heavy launch vehicles, a return to the best that was created in the USSR,”said the Russian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the development of the defense industry.
Dmitry Rogozin assured that the plans for the construction of the launch pad for the "Angara" launch vehicle have not changed. However, due to a number of ideas proposed by Roskosmos, funds can already be pledged to create a launch pad for super-heavy rockets. In addition, the head of Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko noted on September 2 that the number of launch complexes for launching the heavy LV "Angara" could be reduced from 4 to 2. And the money saved in this way should be used to develop a new super-heavy launch vehicle.
Construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome
It should be noted that the idea of developing a super-heavy launch vehicle in Russia is not new and has been in the air for a long time. This topic has been actively discussed by the Russian rocket and space community since the closure of the Energia-Buran program in the early 1990s. The new post-Soviet Russia of those years simply had nowhere to fly on such rockets with a carrying capacity of 100 tons. However, 25 years after the first (and, as it turned out, the last) flight of the Buran spacecraft, the Russian government and Roskosmos again began to talk about the need to make flights beyond the limits of near-earth space. For these purposes, super-heavy rockets are needed. For example, the Saturn-5 launch vehicle designed by Wernher von Braun, when launched to the moon of the manned spacecraft Apollo 15, was calculated to launch 140 tons of payload into a low reference orbit, of which 47 tons were sent to the Moon.
Roskosmos has already determined the timing of the appearance of super-heavy missiles in Russia. According to Oleg Ostapenko, in order to move on, it is necessary to embark on an ambitious stage in the development of Russian cosmonautics, which will be associated with the exploration of deep space and high near-earth orbits. The development of a modern space rocket complex belonging to the super-heavy class will be fundamentally important and decisive in solving this problem. In 2014, it is planned to begin the implementation of the preliminary design and the competitive selection of the appearance of such a rocket. Work on the design of a launch vehicle of this class will begin in 2016.
For the implementation of this ambitious project, Roskosmos has requested 200 billion rubles from the budget. The money will go to the development of a super-heavy space rocket complex that can be launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome. This information is contained in the draft "Federal Space Program for 2016-2025" (FPC), the text of which was sent for approval to the government. The document says that in 2025 it is planned to complete the ground stage of experimental development of the super-heavy class space rocket complex, which will ensure the launch of a payload weighing at least 80 tons into low-earth orbit, and using the upper stage of manned spacecraft of a new generation with a mass not less than 20 tons, into circumlunar polar orbits.
RN Hangara light class
For the development of a super-heavy-class space rocket complex, Roskosmos is asking for funding in the amount of 151.6 billion rubles for the period from 2016 to 2025. In addition, the FPK project involves an increase in the energy capabilities of the rocket through the development of a new oxygen-hydrogen upper stage. The start of the experimental ground testing of the new upper stage is planned to begin in 2021. The cost of its creation and the beginning of testing was estimated by Roscosmos specialists at 60.5 billion rubles.
Naturally, the question arises: which companies will be engaged in the creation of a super-heavy rocket? Today there are at least two similar projects in the country. The first of them is the further development of the Angara family of launch vehicles, on which specialists of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center are working. Thus, the "Angara-5" launch vehicle, which is planned to be launched into space by the end of 2014, is to launch 25 tons of payload into low-earth orbit. However, the center stated that in the future the Angara-7 rocket will be able to double the mass of the payload to be withdrawn - up to 50 tons. Whether it will be possible to increase the mass of the withdrawn payload is not yet clear. The second project was presented back in 2009. It was presented by competitors of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center - RSC Energia, TsSKB-Progress (creator and manufacturer of Soyuz) and the Makeyev State Rocket Center.
This triumvirate of companies easily bypassed the Khrunichevites in the competition for the creation of a new heavy launch vehicle, which was once announced by Roscosmos. The companies promised to launch a new heavy launch vehicle Rus-M by 2015 with a carrying capacity of 50 tons, and in the future to bring this figure to 100 tons. But the apparatus weight possessed by the Khrunichev State Scientific and Practical Research Center turned out to be higher, and after Roscosmos was headed by Vladimir Popovkin, all work on the Rusi-M project was stopped, and Angara came to the fore again.
RN Energiya with the Buran ship
It is still difficult to say which path the new leadership of Roscosmos, headed by Oleg Ostapenko, will take the risk of. Especially considering the fact that all rocket and space centers are currently being transferred under the wing of the recently created United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC). Such a transition, perhaps, will facilitate the selection of the most realistic and effective projects for the development of a super-heavy launch vehicle. There is a possibility that the rocket will be fundamentally new, for example, equipped with high-power nuclear power plants, on which specialists from the Keldysh Center are working. According to RSC Energia specialists, a nuclear-powered launch vehicle will be able to reduce the cost of launching a payload into a circumlunar orbit by more than 2 times in comparison with existing liquid-propellant rocket engines (LPRE).
However, liquid-propellant rocket engines have not yet fully exhausted their capabilities. The use of fuel in them based on a mixture of not kerosene and oxygen, but oxygen and liquefied natural gas, according to calculations carried out by NPO Energomash specialists, will give an additional increase in power in the amount of 10%. So there are plenty of options. With a favorable development of events, the new Russian super-heavy launch vehicle will be able to take to the skies from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the next decade.
It is worth noting that at the meeting held on September 2, the discussion finally went about really large-scale tasks in space exploration. Now scientists have to decide not so much with the need to create a super-heavy launch vehicle (the issue has already been resolved), but with the distribution of work on its creation among the enterprises of the industry. It is necessary that the task set be within the reach of all organizations involved in the project. So that its complexity in the future does not become an excuse for delays in creation or possible accidents. That is why NPO Energomash, TsSKB Progress and RSC Energia should combine their efforts, using the existing groundwork for the Energia and Rus-M launch vehicles, and present a super-heavy rocket within 3-5 years. Such work, among other things, will make it possible to load the capacities of all these organizations, as well as a large number of other companies that participate in the process of scientific and industrial cooperation.
Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle launch
A super-heavy launch vehicle may be needed by Russia to solve large space missions. For example, the exploration of the Moon, flights to Mars, as well as the resumption of their own manned program instead of participating in an international project. Also, the rocket can be used in the interests of programs to ensure the security of the state, such as the launch into orbit of the heavy automatic spacecraft "Polyus" (Skif-DM). This satellite was once launched into orbit by the Energia super-heavy rocket.
