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Conference 7.286::space

Title:	Space Exploration
Notice:	Shuttle launch schedules, see Note 6
Moderator:	PRAGMA::GRIFFIN

Created:	Mon Feb 17 1986
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	974
Total number of notes:	18843

417.0. "Soviet Launch Vehicle Statistics" by AUTHOR::KLAES (Kind of a Zen thing, huh?) Tue Mar 22 1988 20:14

From: mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Soviet Launch Vehicles
Date: 22 Mar 88 16:13:29 GMT
Organization: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  
    Soviet Launch Vehicles - New Data
 
    The March 18, 1988 issue of Aviation Week reports the first ever
Soviet statistics on their family of launch vehicles. Analysis of
these data indicates the existence of a previously unsuspected
booster, and screws up a lot of the standard assumptions about which
booster launched what. 
 
    The Soviet figures cover the period Jan 1,1970 to Jan 1, 1988
(except for the Soyuz booster where the period is 1972-1988 - maybe it
failed a lot in 1971!). They give total successful launches to orbit
and total failures to reach orbit, as follows: (RN= Raketa Nosityel',
= Carrier Rocket) 
 
Vehicle		Successes	Failures

RN Kosmos	317		14
RN Molniya	179		10
RN Tsyklon	61		2
RN Proton(4-st)	106		9
RN Vostok	88		1
RN Soyuz	554		12     (1972-1988 only)
  
    The figures for the 4-stage version of the Proton and the Mk II
version of the Tsyklon agree exactly with Western tabulations. (The
3-stage Proton and the Mk I Tsyklon are not being offered for
commercial use). The Mk II Kosmos has 322 launches assigned to it in
the period, so 5 must belong to some other booster. I suggest this may
include the 4 Kapustin Yar suborbital spaceplane tests. The Mk I
Kosmos was retired in 1977 and had 69 orbital launches in the period -
it is not discussed by the Soviets. The Molniya has had 180 orbital
launches in the period not 179 - maybe one of the low orbit failures
such as Kosmos-837 is counted as a failure to reach orbit. The real
problem comes with Vostok and Soyuz. 

    The new encyclopedia Kosmonavtika SSSR by V. Glushko published a
couple years ago confused the issue by attributing some types of
Meteor weather satellite to both Vostok and Soyuz boosters in
different parts of the book. We can only reconcile the Vostok numbers
if all the Meteor type satellites, including the sun-synchronous
launches, went on Vostoks. A further 11 launches previously attributed
to Soyuz must also be Vostoks; most probably the last 11
second-generation spy satellites of the Kosmos-22 and Kosmos-120
series. This leaves 647 launches still attributed by Western totals to
the Soyuz in the 1972-1988 period - according to the new Soviet
figures, 93 of these must actually be using a different booster which
is not any of the ones discussed above. Up to Jan 1,1988 I count 92
launches of the advanced 4th and 5th generation spy satellites
(Kosmos-758,Kosmos-1246,Kosmos-1426 types) and civilian missions based
on the same long-duration vehicle (Kosmos-1543 and Kosmos-1882
series), and I'm prepared to believe that a K-758 type mission has
been misidentified as a K-317 3rd generation mission. Since US
intelligence has not reported the existence of this new booster
(although the Pentagon document Soviet Military Power has accurately
reported other new vehicles) I suggest that a *Mk II version of the
Soyuz booster* has been introduced which is sufficiently different
(and has a sufficiently higher failure rate) that the Soviets have not
included it in their totals. 
  
    Jonathan McDowell, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
417.1	Names change?	SKYLAB::FISHER	Burns Fisher 381-1466, ZKO3-4/W23	`Wed Mar 23 1988 15:07`	8
	Is anyone else surprised/confused at the names of the launch vehicles? I had always believed that "Kosmos", "Vostok", "Soyuz", "Molinya", etc were the names of payloads. Then suddenly a week or 2 ago I started seeing these names attributed to boosters as well. Were these names really considered to be boosters in the West for a long time, or is it new? Burns
417.2	RE 417.1	GAMERA::HUGHES		`Wed Mar 23 1988 18:10`	32
	You are right that they are now applying payload names to launch vehicles. This appears to done by the Glavkosmos organisation to give the launchers 'sexy names' (sure beats Space Transportation System). They have usually used the most well known payload name as the launch vehicle name, although I don't know where Tsyklone came from. In the case of Kosmos, it is meaningless as they call most everything Kosmos. The DoD uses a simple number scheme, e.g. SL-4 is the Soyuz launch vehicle, but it is based upon the time when the LV was first noticed by the DoD. Fairly meaningless. I prefer a scheme devised by the late Dr Sheldon for the Library of Congress, of the form X-n-x where X sginifies the first stage(s), usually derived from a weapon system n indicates the version or generation of the upper stage x indicates any added escape or manouvering stage In this system, the Soyuz is the A-2. The A indicates it is derived from the original Soviet heavy ICBM. The 2 indicates that the upper stage is the second type to be used on the A booster. The Salyut launcher is the D-1, the variant used to launch geosynch satellites is the D-1-e since it has a transfer stage to carry the bird from parking orbit. Some time ago, I put together a list that correlated the letter series, the DoD numbers and the Glavkosmos names. If there is interest, I can type it in (no promises as to when). gary
417.3	Energia and Proton specs	VERGA::KLAES	Quo vadimus?	`Wed Feb 23 1994 18:19`	49
	Article: 83340 From: dennisn@ecs.comm.mot.com (Dennis Newkirk) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.tech Subject: Energia/Proton Specs Date: Tue, 22 Feb 1994 16:25:24 GMT Organization: Motorola Sender: news@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com (Net News) From the International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Syeven Isakowitz, AIAA, 1991 ed. ISBN 1563470020, and Interavia 1992-3 Energia Gross weight core 905000 kg + 4 x 350000 kg Propellant core 820000 kg + 4 x 320000 kg RD-170 Isp 309-337 s (Interavia 308-336) RD-0120 Isp 354-452 s (Interavia 455) Proton 1st Gross 455600 kg Propellant 410200 kg Isp 285-316 s (Interavia 317) 2nd Gross 165500 kg Propellant 150000 kg Isp 316 s (Interavia 327) 3rd Gross 55600 kg Propellant 50000 kg Isp 316 s (Interavia 325) 4th (Block-D) Gross 17650-19950 kg Propellant 15000-17300 kg Isp 351.8 s (Interavia 352 using Sintin) Propellant difference on the Block-D must be due to the different propellants reportedly used. LOX/Kerosene or the hydrocarbon Sintin which I have yet to see explained. Dennis Newkirk (dennisn@ecs.comm.mot.com) Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector Schaumburg, IL
417.4	RE 417.3	VERGA::KLAES	Quo vadimus?	`Thu Feb 24 1994 20:06`	50
	Article: 83367 Newsgroups: sci.space From: (Sidney M. Earley) Subject: Re: Energia/Proton Specs Sender: news@den.mmc.com (News Admin) Organization: Martin Marietta Astronautics Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 20:32:49 GMT In article <1994Feb22.162524.2229@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com>, dennisn@ecs.comm.mot.com (Dennis Newkirk) wrote: > (previous data deleted...) > > 4th (Block-D) > Gross 17650-19950 kg > Propellant 15000-17300 kg > Isp 351.8 s (Interavia 352 using Sintin) > > Propellant difference on the Block-D must be due to the > different propellants reportedly used. LOX/Kerosene or > the hydrocarbon Sintin which I have yet to see explained. > > Dennis Newkirk (dennisn@ecs.comm.mot.com) > Motorola, Land Mobile Products Sector > Schaumburg, IL I'd like to pass on some Block DM upper stage (Proton Launch Vehicle) data provided to us by NPO Energia. Propellant Load 15050 kg Dry Mass w/ Equipment Bay 3350 kg Dry Mass w/o Equipment Bay 2600 kg (payload must provide GN&C) Engine Performance (LOX is the oxidizer) Fuel Thrust (lbs) Isp(sec) Synthin 19400 361 Naphtyl 18740 352 Fuel Characteristics Fuel Description Density @ 20 deg C (g/cc) Synthin Synthentic hydrocarbon 0.851 of the cyclopropane row Naphtyl Product of oil fractions 0.836 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sidney M. Earley \| Martin Marietta Astronautics Senior Systems Engineer \| P.O. Box 179 (303) 977-8815 \| Denver, CO 80201 ----------------------------------------------------------------------