Russian Launch Vehicles and their Spacecraft: Thoughts & News

lancelot wrote:It could never be the exact same as Zenit as that was made by Yuzhmash in Ukraine.

Of course, but working from the same blueprints is much easier than a design from scratch.

I have not heard of Soyuz-5 at Vostochny. I guess when the shit starts to smell in Kazakhstan, then there will be a scramble to build launch facilities there.

Amur-LNG launch complex to be built as single structure — Roscosmos official

Specialists of the Ground Space Infrastructure Facilities Operation Center (TsENKI) are planning to borrow the experience of the floating Sea Launch cosmodrome

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. Specialists of the Ground Space Infrastructure Facilities Operation Center (TsENKI, part of Roscosmos) are planning to place the entire launch infrastructure for a future reusable methane-powered rocket Amur-LNG within a one-piece launch platform, thus building up from the experience of the floating Sea Launch cosmodrome, Nikolay Nestechuk, TsENKI CEO, has told TASS in an interview.

"As far as the launch complex is concerned, we have adopted the concept of using the so-called launch platform, borrowing the experience of the well-known Sea Launch, where all the technological equipment and in fact the entire launch complex constituted a single structure," Nestechuk said.

He noted that such a solution would reduce the time and cost of work, as well as ensure the safety and reliability of the launch infrastructure.

Roscosmos and RSC Progress signed a contract in October 2020 to develop a preliminary design of a space rocket complex for Russia’s first reusable methane-powered rocket Amur. The rocket having a reusable first stage will be launched from the Vostochny spaceport in the Amur Region. On March 10, 2023, Roscosmos announced that it would keep working on the reusable methane-powered Amur-LNG launch vehicle. It hopes to be through with finalizing the technical design by the end of this year.

About Sea Launch

The Sea Launch spaceport consists of the Odyssey launch floating platform and a command ship. The program operated until 2014, with 32 Zenit rocket launches performed from the platform based off the US coast. In 2014, Sea Launch activities were suspended, and in September 2016, the S7 group of companies became the owner of the rocket and space complex.

In the spring of 2020, the command ship and platform crossed the Pacific to be moored at the Slavyansk Ship Repair Plant dock in Russia’s Primorye Region. In late September 2021, Dmitry Rogozin, the then head of Roscosmos, said that the future of the Sea Launch floating cosmodrome should be determined soon.


https://tass.com/science/1766555

The reason for spreading out launch infrastructure is to minimize launch failure damage. Rockets detonating on the launch pad was not
unknown in the past. So any such unified structure must have sufficient levels of resistance to catastrophic failure, including falling back
to the ground of a failed launch where the large amount of fuel is a very potent bomb.

I am tired of listening to these "economics" arguments. They are total BS. The cost for building a launch complex cannot be slashed
by clumping some of the structures together. This is like all the moronic quality compromises over a few cents in consumer products.
The cost of making the product is not on a dial from zero to whatever. There is a minimum cost and if you are going to make this product,
then making it right is intrinsically affordable for the consumer. It does not increase the cost by several times. It is only market-tards
who think that they can recover billions from half cent savings. But these worms are always steering development projects and result in
more large costs down the road to deal with their "optimization" BS.

Start-1M converted rocket slated for launch in 2026 — Russian Deputy PM

https://tass.com/science/1774381

They have a long lasting tradition to use demobilized missiles as carrier rockets, so ...

Yup, and as tech has miniaturized it allows even micro and nano sats to be legit useful. Also in an event of war you would want quick ability go try and repair intel and comms satellites.

The first launch of the Russian reusable rocket "Amur-LNG" is planned for 2030

Moscow. 12th of April. INTERFAX.RU - The first launch of the promising launch vehicle with a reusable first stage "Amur-LNG" is planned for 2030, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov said on Friday.

“This project is being implemented using new organizational approaches and technological principles, which will significantly reduce the cost of the product, and is also designed for the given cost of the launch service,” he noted.

In April 2023, the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said that the creation of the Amur-LNG methane launch vehicle would be completed by 2028-2029. Completion of the technical design of the Amur-LNG complex is planned for the end of 2024.

On January 23, Borisov announced that Amur-LNG could become the basis of a super-heavy launch vehicle.

The Amur-LNG space rocket complex is being created at the Vostochny cosmodrome; it should be designed taking into account the possibility of controlled descent of the first stage of the rocket and its subsequent reusable use for launching spacecraft. It was reported that the returnable first stage of the rocket could be used up to 50 times.

On March 10, 2023, Roscosmos announced the signing of a state contract for the technical design of the Amur-LNG reusable rocket. According to the state corporation, the possibility of using the rocket for astronaut flights will also be considered.

On May 22, 2021, Roscosmos executive director for advanced programs and science Alexander Bloshenko said that the cost of launching the reusable methane rocket Amur-LNG, according to preliminary estimates, will be $22 million. According to him, in the reusable version of the Amur-LNG "will be capable of delivering no less than 10.5 tons of payload into the reference orbit, and no less than 13.6 tons in a one-time mission.

Amur-LNG should replace the current family of Soyuz-2 launch vehicles.

source

musk says bring it on

Good to see space competition again

Eric Berger is just another western hater retard. Borisov is perfectly justified in "bragging" about design plans. That is what planning is all about.

Westerners are so full of shit it comes out of their eye sockets and ears.

TMA1 wrote:Good to see space competition again

..except if Russia does develop cheap reliable access to orbit then the corrupt globalist scum who rule the Collective West will intensify the sanctions on Russian commercial launches and ensure that no payload with any Western components can be launched from a Russian (or Chinese) launcher. China had a burgeoning launch industry in the 90s, making big inroads into commercial launch market and taking market share from Western launch providers, only to have it executed by the Americans via sanctions to neutralise the competion.

This is why I always believed that Russia pursuing a commercial launch industry was a waste of time.  If they succeeded and threatened to take any significant market share, the usual cast of scum and villany would simply change the rules to screw them over. Now because of the hysteria over Ukraine and the collapsing hegemony, such tactics have become basic policy.

Russia needs to focus on a launch industry that meets their national economic and security needs, plus a capability to build useful birds and offer such to friends and allies, 100% independent from the cnt regimes.  It doesn't need to be the best or flashiest, it just needs to be reliable and cost effective and scalable to meet growth in demand.

Big_Gazza wrote:

the corrupt globalist scum who rule the Collective West will intensify the sanctions on Russian commercial launches and ensure that no payload with any Western components can be launched from a Russian (or Chinese) launcher.

And result in the pindos having only the worst options for launching things into space.