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    Russian Launch Vehicles and their Spacecraft: Thoughts & News

    Mike E
    Mike E


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    Post  Mike E Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:01 am

    kvs wrote:
    Mike E wrote:Defense Ministry denies damage to Fregat booster at Plesetsk space site

    MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. The Fregat booster received no damage as a result of an incident during its transportation at the Plesetsk space site, Air And Space Force spokesman, Colonel Aleksey Zolotukhin, said on Wednesday, adding that the booster was in order and preparations for the launch of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket were proceeding on time.
    “The reports of an alleged fall of the container with the Fregat booster from a railway carriage at the Plesetsk space site have nothing to do with the reality,” Zolotukhin said.
    Specialists have already checked Fregat for its integrity and the existence of latent defects.
    “The Fregat booster is in full working order,” he said, adding that the booster was ready for fuelling and assembly with other parts of the Soyuz rocket.

    Brain dead media hysterics.  The rail car that was carrying it did not flip over.

    If you pay attention to coverage of news pertaining to Russia over the years you see the pattern of
    spin and distortion applied to every aspect.   The above incident is transformed into some major
    disaster and a government coverup.  

    If people are going to wait for news that Russia is a normal country from the media, they will be
    waiting into the infinite future.
    Hmm, if it didn't flip, what happened?
    kvs
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    Post  kvs Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:34 am

    Mike E wrote:
    kvs wrote:
    Mike E wrote:Defense Ministry denies damage to Fregat booster at Plesetsk space site

    MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. The Fregat booster received no damage as a result of an incident during its transportation at the Plesetsk space site, Air And Space Force spokesman, Colonel Aleksey Zolotukhin, said on Wednesday, adding that the booster was in order and preparations for the launch of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket were proceeding on time.
    “The reports of an alleged fall of the container with the Fregat booster from a railway carriage at the Plesetsk space site have nothing to do with the reality,” Zolotukhin said.
    Specialists have already checked Fregat for its integrity and the existence of latent defects.
    “The Fregat booster is in full working order,” he said, adding that the booster was ready for fuelling and assembly with other parts of the Soyuz rocket.

    Brain dead media hysterics.  The rail car that was carrying it did not flip over.

    If you pay attention to coverage of news pertaining to Russia over the years you see the pattern of
    spin and distortion applied to every aspect.   The above incident is transformed into some major
    disaster and a government coverup.  

    If people are going to wait for news that Russia is a normal country from the media, they will be
    waiting into the infinite future.
    Hmm, if it didn't flip, what happened?

    One of the wheels assemblies broke. The speed of these trains is deliberately glacial (in the case of the Angara it is 5 km per hour) so there was
    only a partial derailment.
    Mike E
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    Post  Mike E Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:42 am

    Uncertain future for Dnepr rocket program

    The joint Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr rocket program may be the latest victim of the crisis in Ukraine. The program launches commercial spacecraft into orbit with the help of  converted SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), but on Oct. 9, a high-ranking source in Russia’s rocket industry said that Russia's economic, political and military interests are incompatible with the continuation of launches within the Dnepr Program. 
    The Dnepr Program began at the end of the 1990s, when the need to dispose of ICBMs converged with a desire to launch commercial satellites into near-earth orbit. Until recently, Ukrainian enterprises carried out technical service of the launching complexes. However, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has ordered the end of all military cooperation between Ukraine and Russia, and it is unclear to what extent the ban will affect the Dnepr program, which is not military, but is based on military technology. Sergei Boita, general director of Ukraine’s Yuzhnoye Design Bureau said that for the moment the project can continue, with modifications, "There is a taboo on servicing military ballistic missiles… We are now working in peaceful space, with difficulty, but working," Boita said, according to Russian media. He estimated the annual losses for Yuzhnoye as a result of the changes at around $200 million. Russia’s space agency is not particularly concerned about the loss of its Ukrainian partners. Russian industry experts say that Russian firms have also been taking part in the routine maintenance of the ICBMs and that the state-owned Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau can create new conversion launchers. "We have already examined the resources needed and the documentation," said Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency Sergei Ponomarev. "Our enterprise is also a developer and if there is a refusal, we annul the contracts with Ukraine and transfer all the work to the Russian side."
    Commercial launches already planned will go ahead as scheduled. At the end of October 2014, the Dnepr is supposed to launch into orbit five Japanese microsatellites and in June 2015, two American next- generation Iridium NEXT spacecraft. The charge for each launch is around $30-35-million, but the division of the revenue among the various parties is a secret. The political situation may provide a good excuse for Russia to look for more environmentally friendly alternatives to the Dnepr. The Dnepr, along with the Cosmos, Cyclone and Rokot rockets, use toxic fuel components. The Russian Ministry of Defense has made it clear that in the future, it intends to use only ecologically clean rockets to launch light satellites. These new rockets will be built on the basis of the Soyuz-2.1b, developed by the Progress Space-Missile Center in Samarskoye, and the Angara-1.2, developed by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center. 

    Mike E
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    Post  Mike E Tue Oct 21, 2014 7:38 am

    Good report on the Ekspress-2000 by RSW!!! http://www.russianspaceweb.com/ekspress-2000.html
    Mike E
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    Post  Mike E Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:22 pm

    Already posted on the other thread, but I'll post it here.

    Russia launches a twin for its largest comsat

    The liftoff of a Proton rocket with a Briz-M upper stage from Site 81 in Baikonur Cosmodrome took place as scheduled on Oct. 21, 2014, at 19:09:32 Moscow Time. The launch vehicle will be carrying the Ekspress-AM6 communications satellite for the Russian Satellite Communications Company, RSCC.
    According to the flight plan, the first, second and third stages of the Proton rocket will fire for a total of 580 seconds, sending the payload section, including the Briz-M upper stage and the satellite, into a suborbital ballistic trajectory. Then, the first engine firing of the Briz-M upper stage will insert the stack into an initial parking orbit with an altitude of around 180 kilometers and an inclination 51.5 degrees toward the Equator. The Briz-M then fires its engine again to reach an elliptical (egg-shaped) orbit with an altitude of 272 by 5,007 kilometers.
    The Briz fires for the third time to enter a 398 by 37,795-kilometer orbit then jettisons its external propellant tank. Upon reaching an apogee, it fires for the fourth time to enter the so-called super-synchronous orbit, which is above 36,000-kilometer altitude required for communications satellites in order to synchronize their movement with the rotation of the Earth and thus appear "hanging" at same point in the sky. The separation of the satellite from the upper stage is expected to take place around 9.5 hours after the liftoff.
    The 3,358-kilogram Ekspress-AM6 will need from three to four months to spiral down to its final geostationary orbit using four low-thrust but efficient electric engines powered by xenon gas. The same engines would be used for attitude control of the satellite during its 15-year-long operational lifetime and for eventual maneuvering to a burial orbit.

    Great to see the Proton back in business for good, it is once again ALIVE!
    kvs
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    Post  kvs Wed Oct 22, 2014 1:23 am

    The Briz-M stage has been the source of most of the Proton failures over the last 15 years as far as I can
    recall. There is always some assembly issue. By now they should have shot every diversant in the production
    facility. The Bulava was also failing because of bizarre assembly problems. Seems to me like Russia needs
    to solve compromised staff problems at its production facilities instead of actual technical faults.
    Mike E
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    Post  Mike E Wed Oct 22, 2014 1:42 am

    kvs wrote:The Briz-M stage has been the source of most of the Proton failures over the last 15 years as far as I can
    recall.  There is always some assembly issue.  By now they should have shot every diversant in the production
    facility.   The Bulava was also failing because of bizarre assembly problems.   Seems to me like Russia needs
    to solve compromised staff problems at its production facilities instead of actual technical faults.
    It has been... Thankfully, its long operation span has allowed constant improvements not only to its design, but production as well. You are correct though, most problems are something small that was the result of one person doing one thing wrong when building the rocket (or stage, in this case). That being said, every space program deals with this problem on a consistent basis.
    Mike E
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    Post  Mike E Wed Oct 22, 2014 3:59 am

    The Ekspress satellite has reached its calculated orbit successfully! http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/755702

    Interesting report on radiation of all topics... http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/755623
    Rmf
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    Post  Rmf Sun Nov 16, 2014 6:32 pm

    Mike E wrote:
    GarryB wrote:Will be cool in 20-30 years time when we can start planning to send a nuclear propelled rocket literally to the stars.

    A nuclear powered rocket that can operate for years mounted on a large space ship with some sort of magnetic scoop on the front several kms long that drags in loose hydrogen atoms in free space and of course any dust particles and suck them in the front of the ship to be heated and accelerated out the back like a big scramjet.

    Huge potential.

    Of course the problem is that 20 years after you launch it you develop a new propulsion technology that is ten times faster so you launch that and it beats the first spaceship you sent....  jocolor
    Yeah, it would be awesome if such a craft could pass Voyager 1 within my (our) lifespan. 

    That would weight a ton, and while it would drag in molecules (very few of them), it would add to cosmic drag. In general, there are too few particles in space for that to be feasible... 

    No potential... Though regular nuclear propulsion does have a lot of it...

    Yep! But who said that is a bad thing?
    future is in space vehicles with as less propellant as possible, and moon launches using maglev track to speed them up using also earth as a slingshot.
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    Post  Viktor Tue Nov 25, 2014 10:33 pm

    Nice thumbsup

    2014Russia will build a lunar station in a modular
    Rmf
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    Post  Rmf Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:18 pm

    just a quick translate -
    they will build and put a modular space station in moon orbit ,about 25tonns weight.

    so no station on the moon yet, but 1 step closer to more permanent basing.

    russian moon shot will be of a  moon landing -and more important -> staying.
    reducing risks and having intermedial bases in between.

    space station around earth - space station around the moon ,could they use a umbilical thether for transport?
    Mike E
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    Post  Mike E Thu Nov 27, 2014 1:20 am

    Moon missions are going to be interesting long term... A decent bit of the Moon's orbit (itself) is outside of the magnetosphere, which makes the station vulnerable to long-term radiation.
    Mike E
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    Post  Mike E Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:57 am

    Well it's been a while...

    Tests are in action regarding the huge new SKA sats which is exciting... A 48 meter antenna in space? 

    http://www.russianspaceweb.com/ska.html
    Rmf
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    Post  Rmf Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:10 am

    problem with radars is they have to be close to earth for scanning and big antenna creates drag.
    also power consumption means big solar panels and that creates additional drag quickly decaying orbit.
    they used nuclear powerred batteries before...
    but there is some changes now with rotating panels which offer least ressistance postition although less power.
    also antenas are mesh type which is less draggy but still effective.
    also with ion propulsion metods now station keeping is easier and longer.
    russia need many new radar satelites, resurs was great to awake establishment to its potential.
    Big_Gazza
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    Post  Big_Gazza Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:10 pm

    Rmf wrote:problem with radars is they have to be close to earth for scanning and big antenna creates drag.
    also power consumption means big solar panels and that creates additional drag quickly decaying orbit.
    they used nuclear powerred batteries before...
    but there is some changes now with rotating panels which offer least ressistance postition although less power.
    also antenas are mesh type which is less draggy but still effective.
    also with  ion propulsion metods now station keeping is easier and longer.
    russia need many new radar satelites, resurs was great to awake establishment to its potential.

    Agreed, 100%.  My dream is for Russia to develop a network of long-lived high-resolution radar surveillance satellites that can provide continuous and overlapping 24/7/365 coverage of the worlds oceans to allow every USN asset to be tracked realtime and firing solutions continuously available to anti-ship ballistic missiles and air/ground/sea launched cruise and AShMs.  Track the yankee b@$tard$ wherever they may be, and let them know that Russia can shove a hypersonic missile down their engine intakes at the simple push of a button.

    I'm sure there are also many altruistic and wholesome applications of the technology (ie search and rescue) but securing the nation (and the world) against the endless geopolitical agression of our Western aristocracy is the highest priority.

    PS: Actually my dream also to USE the capability when the yankee b@$tard$ provide a justification.  I long to turn on the TV and see the teary ashen faces of US corporate newsreaders when the images of USN carriers are shown, capsized and on fire, with their screws turning lazily in the air as they head inexorably to the bottom.  That would truly be a Moet Chandon moment...
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    Post  Rmf Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:11 am

    russia had the radars like legenda constellation for pure military purpose to cover great oceans , and locate usa carriers either by elint passive means or active radar satelites with small nuclear batterries and reactors.
    but radar satelites can be very usefull for many civilian aplications depending on their wavelenght used.
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    Post  collegeboy16 Sun Feb 08, 2015 4:36 am

    Big_Gazza wrote:

    Agreed, 100%.  My dream is for Russia to develop a network of long-lived high-resolution radar surveillance satellites that can provide continuous and overlapping 24/7/365 coverage of the worlds oceans to allow every USN asset to be tracked realtime and firing solutions continuously available to anti-ship ballistic missiles and air/ground/sea launched cruise and AShMs.  Track the yankee b@$tard$ wherever they may be, and let them know that Russia can shove a hypersonic missile down their engine intakes at the simple push of a button.

    I'm sure there are also many altruistic and wholesome applications of the technology (ie search and rescue) but securing the nation (and the world) against the endless geopolitical agression of our Western aristocracy is the highest priority.

    PS: Actually my dream also to USE the capability when the yankee b@$tard$ provide a justification.  I long to turn on the TV and see the teary ashen faces of US corporate newsreaders when the images of USN carriers are shown, capsized and on fire, with their screws turning lazily in the air as they head inexorably to the bottom.  That would truly be a Moet Chandon moment...

    damn, violent much? just tell them the coords and bearing of their carrier groups- i doubt any admiral worth his salt would be willing to martyr all his men.
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    Post  KomissarBojanchev Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:39 pm

    Russian space planes MAKS and Kliper. In the 90s and early 2000s boths of these potentially incredibly useful projects got shelved due to lack of funding. Why isn't there any talk about reviving them. Is angara going to be the only initiative? If so then russia is behind all private space companies.And  don't tell me about russian engines on US rockets. as proof that there is nothing to improve.   IMO it is of paramount importance that these 2 programs get restarted ASAP before 2020 so russia can remain a leading space power.
    George1
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    Post  George1 Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:48 pm

    KomissarBojanchev wrote:In the 90s and early 2000s boths of these potentially incredibly useful projects got shelved due to lack of funding. Why isn't there any talk about reviving them. Is angara going to be the only initiative? If so then russia is behind all private space companies.And  don't tell me about russian engines on US rockets. as proof that there is nothing to improve.   IMO it is of paramount importance that these 2 programs get restarted ASAP before 2020 so russia can remain a leading space power.

    MAKS was a military unmanned spacecraft like US Boeing X-37. Kliper was supposed to be the successor of Soyuz manned spacecraft but it was cancelled. PPTS will be the replacement
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    Post  George1 Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:14 pm

    Proton, Russia's Legendary Space Launch Vehicle

    Russian Launch Vehicles and their Spacecraft: Thoughts & News - Page 5 1017168236
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    Post  kvs Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:18 pm

    That graphic is sub-par. Sputnik seems to be staffed by the same lamers as English RIAN. The nacelles are rendered wrong and
    the total number of launches is 401 and not 377. Total failures are 46. The 11.5% failure rate is mostly due to the f*cking Briz-M
    upper stage and I would put these failures in a separate category. There was also one clear case of sabotage. This is the recent
    spectacular failure in 2013 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeS8GvLh1Jo). This and the ridiculous Briz-M failure rate are probably
    the same sort of "failure" by dirty tricks.

    They plan to use the Briz-M garbage on the Angara. Expect the same problems if they have not cleaned house.

    Russian Launch Vehicles and their Spacecraft: Thoughts & News - Page 5 8821297_orig
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    Post  Big_Gazza Sun Mar 22, 2015 10:22 pm

    Agree with kvs, and I'll add that most of those failures happened early in the Protons development. Over the last 35 years, proton has been very reliable, with most of the failures in this period being related to upper-stage (eg Briz) or payload problems, with the occasional human-factor thrown in.

    Briz has had its share of problems, but they rarely seem to be caused by design issues - more like poor workmanship or outright malfeasance. Any Russian launch to geostationary orbit is always going to be more contorted than an ESA launch (from equatorial French Guiana) or NASA (from Florida) due to the latitude of Baikonur and the requirement of Briz to make more engine firings to change orbital inclination and deliver the payload. Briz has to work hard to acheive mission success and there is very little room for error or performance shortcomings (like a premature burn shutdown).

    Hopefully Krunichev have thrown enough resources in to fix the labour problems, and the FSB has managed to weed out those bastards who have been taking payments to throw a spanner in the works. Saboteurs are the lowest form of life and should be shot...
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    Post  George1 Mon Mar 23, 2015 6:08 pm

    First launch of upgraded Soyuz spacecraft may take place March 16, 2016

    The manufacturer plans to increase the solar cells’ power capacity and equip the spacecraft with new close-up, docking and attitude control engines

    MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The first upgraded version of Russia’s Soyuz-MS spacecraft may be launched to the International Space Station in a year from now, a source in the space rocket industry has told TASS.

    "According to early estimates, the first launch of upgraded Soyuz may take place on March 18, 2016," the source said.

    TASS has no official confirmation of these plans.

    According to earlier reports the first launch of an upgraded Soyuz with a crew of Russia’s cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka and NASA’s Jeffrey Williams on board was scheduled for May 30, 2016. Syrgey Ryzhkov and Andrey Borisenko, of Russia, and Robert Kimbrough, of the United States, are the standby crew.

    The Soyuz spacecraft’s manufacturer, space rocket corporation Energiya plans to increase the solar cells’ power capacity, and equip the spacecraft with new close-up, docking and attitude control engines, which will make it possible to approach and dock to the ISS even in case of one of the engines’ failure, and to guarantee normal re-entry and descent with two defunct engines.

    The spacecraft will be equipped with advanced communication and direction-finding systems. The spacecraft motion control and navigation systems will undergo the greatest changes. The new version will be equipped with GLONASS sensors. During the parachute descent phase and after the descent module’s touchdown the GLONASS/GPS coordinates will be transmitted to mission control via the satellite search and rescue system Cospas-Sarsat.
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    Post  Rmf Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:37 pm

    Big_Gazza wrote:Agree with kvs, and I'll add that most of those failures happened early in the Protons development.  Over the last 35 years, proton has been very reliable, with most of the failures in this period being related to upper-stage (eg Briz) or payload problems, with the occasional human-factor thrown in.

    Briz has had its share of problems, but they rarely seem to be caused by design issues - more like poor workmanship or outright malfeasance.  Any Russian launch to geostationary orbit is always going to be more contorted than an ESA launch (from equatorial French Guiana) or NASA (from Florida) due to the latitude of Baikonur and the requirement of Briz to make more engine firings to change orbital inclination and deliver the payload.  Briz has to work hard to acheive mission success and there is very little room for error or performance shortcomings (like a premature burn shutdown).  

    Hopefully Krunichev have thrown enough resources in to fix the labour problems, and the FSB has managed to weed out those bastards who have been taking payments to throw a spanner in the works.  Saboteurs are the lowest form of life and should be shot...

    what we have to remember is that , briz -m is/was a pure military project , designed as satelite killler , it was ment to fly solo on its own using advanced computer and precision multi- exaust (vernier) engine which can fire many times , with multiple droppable small tanks and many fireings to change its orbit and hunt enemy satelites.

    it was not ment to cary and piggyback a payload (which can be as heavy as briz) on top of itself , that ment many modification to briz ,to remove military instruments anti satelite net and discs ,so it became more civilian briz-m or -km.
    it replaced third stage block D , and offered more payload especially to GSO , mulitple payloads ,  and incertion of satelites into almost any orbit.

    it has many tanks small ball like oxygen tanks are dropped one by one after exausted by engine fireing ,central fuel tank and donought fuel tank which is dropped ,many fuel lines and connections ,and center of gravity is constantly changing, developing briz-m was no easy task.
    even today many pople dont know briz-m is controled from military command and final satelite insertion is done with them in charge.
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    Big_Gazza


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    Russian Launch Vehicles and their Spacecraft: Thoughts & News - Page 5 Empty Re: Russian Launch Vehicles and their Spacecraft: Thoughts & News

    Post  Big_Gazza Tue Mar 24, 2015 1:22 am

    Rmf wrote:
    Big_Gazza wrote:Agree with kvs, and I'll add that most of those failures happened early in the Protons development.  Over the last 35 years, proton has been very reliable, with most of the failures in this period being related to upper-stage (eg Briz) or payload problems, with the occasional human-factor thrown in.

    Briz has had its share of problems, but they rarely seem to be caused by design issues - more like poor workmanship or outright malfeasance.  Any Russian launch to geostationary orbit is always going to be more contorted than an ESA launch (from equatorial French Guiana) or NASA (from Florida) due to the latitude of Baikonur and the requirement of Briz to make more engine firings to change orbital inclination and deliver the payload.  Briz has to work hard to acheive mission success and there is very little room for error or performance shortcomings (like a premature burn shutdown).  

    Hopefully Krunichev have thrown enough resources in to fix the labour problems, and the FSB has managed to weed out those bastards who have been taking payments to throw a spanner in the works.  Saboteurs are the lowest form of life and should be shot...

    what we have to remember is that , briz -m is/was a pure military project , designed as satelite killler , it was ment to fly solo on its own using advanced computer and precision multi- exaust (vernier) engine which can fire many times , with multiple droppable small tanks and many fireings to change its orbit and hunt enemy satelites.

    it was not ment to cary and piggyback a payload (which can be as heavy as briz) on top of itself , that ment many modification to briz ,to remove military instruments anti satelite net and discs ,so it became more civilian briz-m or -km.
    it replaced third stage block D , and offered more payload especially to GSO , mulitple payloads ,  and incertion of satelites into almost any orbit.

    it has many tanks small ball like oxygen tanks are dropped one by one after exausted by engine fireing ,central fuel tank and donought fuel tank which is dropped ,many fuel lines and connections ,and center of gravity is constantly changing, developing briz-m was no easy task.
    even today many pople dont know briz-m is controled from military command and final satelite insertion is done with them in charge.

    Interesting.... didn't know most of that, so thanks for the info Smile

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