Soviet carrier rocket "Energy" superheavy class

"Energy" is a Soviet super-heavy carrier rocket. It was one of the three most powerful ever built missiles of the same class - the "Saturn V", as well as the ill-fated H-1 missile, which it had to replace. Another main purpose of the missile was the re-entry of the Soviet space shuttle into a satellite, which distinguished it from the American, taking off with the help of its own engines, powered by a large external fuel tank. Although in 1987-1988 "Energia" twice visited space, after that the launches were no longer carried out, despite the fact that in the Soviet Union it was to become the main means of delivering cargo to the orbit of the XXI century.

Lunar foothold

After Valentin Glushko led the TsKBEM (formerly OKB-1), having replaced the disgraced Vasily Mishin, he worked for 20 months to create a lunar base based on the modification of the Proton rocket designed by Vladimir Chelomey, which used self-igniting Glushko engines.

By early 1976, however, the USSR leadership decided to stop the lunar program and concentrate on the Soviet space shuttle, since the American shuttle was viewed as a military threat from the US. Although in the end, the Buran will be very similar to the competitor, Glushko made one significant change that allowed him to keep his lunar program.

Soviet shuttle

In the American Shuttle Space Shuttle, two solid-propellant rocket boosters for two minutes dispersed the ship to a height of 46 km. After their separation, the ship used the engines located in its aft part. In other words, the shuttle, at least in part, had its own missile system, and the large external fuel tank to which it was attached was not a missile. It was only intended to carry fuel for the main engines of the space shuttle.

Glushko also decided to build a "Buran" in general without any engines. It was a glider designed to return to Earth, which was put into orbit by engines that looked like the fuel tank of an American shuttle. In fact, it was the booster rocket "Energia". In other words, the chief designer of the Soviet Union hid in the space shuttle system a reusable module of the Saturn V class, which could potentially become the basis for his beloved lunar base.

The third generation

What is the booster rocket "Energia"? Its development began when Glushko headed the TsKBM (in fact, the name "Energy" was used in the name of the newly reorganized department of NGOs long before the missile was created) and brought with it a new design of a rocket aircraft (RLA). In the early 1970s, the Soviet Union had at least three missiles - modifications of H-1-R-7, "Cyclone" and "Proton." All of them were structurally different from each other, therefore the cost of their maintenance was relatively high. For the third generation of Soviet spacecraft, it was required to create light, medium, heavy and super-heavy carrier rockets consisting of one common set of components, and Glushko was suitable for this role.

The RLA series gave way to Zenit Yanghel Design Bureau, but this office did not have heavy launch vehicles, which made it possible to promote Energia. Glushko took his RLA-135 design, which consisted of a large main accelerating module and separated accelerators, and again offered it together with the modular version of Zenit as accelerators and the main new missile developed at his bureau. The proposal was accepted - this was how the launch vehicle "Energy" was born.

Korolev was right

But Glushko had to take another blow at his vanity. For many years the Soviet space program has been hampered for the reason that he did not agree with Sergei Korolev, who believed that for a large rocket liquid oxygen and hydrogen are the best types of fuel. Therefore, in the N-1 were engines built by a much less experienced designer Nikolai Kuznetsov, and Glushko focused on nitric acid and dimethylhydrazine.

Although this fuel had the advantages of density and storage availability, it was less energy intensive and more toxic, which was a big problem in the event of an accident. In addition, the Soviet leadership was interested in catching up with the United States - the USSR did not have large engines for liquid oxygen and hydrogen, while in the second and third stages of the "Saturn V" they were used, as in the main engine, "Space shuttle". Partly voluntarily, partly because of this political pressure, but Glushko had to give in his argument with Korolev, who had not been alive for eight years.

10 years of development

For the next ten years (it's long, but not too much: it took seven years to develop the Saturn V), the NGO Energia developed a massive main stage. The lateral accelerators were relatively lighter, smaller and used engines for liquid oxygen and kerosene, in the creation of which the USSR had a lot of experience, so that the entire rocket was ready for the first flight in October 1986.

Unfortunately, there was no payload for it. Although the development of "Energy" and there were some problems, the situation with the shuttle "Buran" was much worse - it was not even close to completion. Until then, the name "Energy" was used for a carrier rocket and a spacecraft. Here, the trick of Glushko was useful. The rocket did not have to wait until the other half was ready. In the last year of its creation, it was decided to launch without the "Buran".

"Pole" of the arms race

Between autumn of 1985 and the fall of 1986 a new payload "Polyus" was created. It was one of the functional cargo blocks of Vladimir Chelomey, redesigned from the module of the space station and closely connected with the module of the ISS "Dawn". "Polyus" was intended for a wide range of experiments, but its main task was to test a 1-MW carbon dioxide laser, a weapon developed in the USSR since 1983. In fact, everything was not as sinister as it seems, since the USSR criticized the United States for its strategic defense initiative, and Mikhail Gorbachev did not want to risk the fact that Americans can learn about the military confrontation. The Reykjavik summit ended in October 1986 and the countries were close to a radical reduction in nuclear weapons, and in December 1987 they were about to conclude a treaty on the reduction of medium-range missiles. The various components of the laser were intentionally not used, only the possibility to track targets remained, and even that Gorbachev forbade testing, visiting Baikonur a few days before the start. However, Gorbachev's visit led to the appearance of a formal name for the missile (in contrast to the alleged shuttle): the inscription "Energy" appeared on its corps shortly before the arrival of the Secretary-General.

Program error

The first launch of the Energia booster rocket took place on May 15, 1987. During the first few seconds of the flight, before the ship left the launch pad, he bent down noticeably, but then he corrected his position after launching the missile orientation control system. After that, "Energy" flew beautifully, accompanied by a single MiG, and quickly disappeared in the low clouds. Accelerators separated correctly (although for this and the next flight they were not equipped with parachutes that would allow their reuse), and then the main stage left the zone of visibility. After the burnout the carrier rocket separated from the "Pole" and, as planned, fell into the Pacific Ocean.

"Pole" weighed 80 tons, and to reach the orbit, he had to launch his own rocket engine. To do this, it was necessary to turn around 180 degrees, but because of a program error after start-up, the module continued to spin, and, instead of moving to a higher orbit, it fell lower. The cargo module also crashed in the Pacific Ocean.

Success?

Although launch and failed, the missile itself was a complete success. The work on the Buran continued, and the basically completed shuttle (ready to fly, but capable of generating power sufficient for only one day in orbit) was connected to a second missile to launch an unmanned mission on November 15, 1988. And again the launch vehicle Energia was launched flawlessly (with a change in the software that prevented a dangerous slope during the launch), and this time its payload did not fail either: the Buran landed on Baikonur in automatic mode, having made two turns Around the Earth, three hours and twenty five minutes later.

Thus, by the beginning of 1989, the Soviet Union had the most powerful missile, still unmatched by anyone. It could launch a shuttle with a payload similar to the load of American orbiting vehicles, and itself could bring 88 tons of cargo to low earth orbit or deliver 32 tons to the moon (compared to 118 tons and 45 tons from Saturn V and 92, 7 tons and 23.5 tons for H-1). It was planned to further increase this figure to 100 tons, and work was done to create a special cargo compartment instead of the adapted "Polyus". The reduced version of the rocket, named "Energia-M", with one engine and two accelerators, was also in the final stage of development, and was able to derive a payload weighing up to 34 tons.

Expensive pleasure

The collapse of the Soviet Union was the main reason for the project's failure. He had just started to get on his feet, but the need to protect the security interests of the superpower had disappeared, as did the money needed for large-scale scientific missions. Another problem was that Zenit accelerators were produced by a company located in independent Ukraine.

However, even before that, the launch vehicle Energia was not in high demand - if there is no need to fly to the Moon, then lifting 100 tons of cargo into orbit was unnecessary. The shuttles for which it was developed first had the same drawbacks as the American shuttles, but the rocket did not have the advantage of a monopoly position, as it was in the United States before the 1986 Challenger bombing.

Scream of despair

The despair of the NGO Energia can be traced to the missions that they proposed:

• Launching massive lasers into orbit to restore the ozone layer for several decades.
• The construction on the Moon of a base for extraction of helium-3, used in thermonuclear reactors, developed by an international consortium, which will be ready by 2050.
• Launching of spent nuclear fuel in "cemeteries" in the heliocentric orbit.

In the end, it came to the question of what the missile was capable of, which smaller, cheaper spaceships could not do-every launch of Energia cost $ 240 million, even with an overvalued ruble-dollar exchange rate in the late 1980s. If the launches were made only if necessary, the content of the missile manufacturing plant would be a luxury that neither the Soviet Union nor Russia could afford.

Pyrrhic victory

If we agree with the theory that the Soviet Union fell apart primarily because of financial difficulties, then it can also be reasonably said that "Energy-Buran" was one of the main reasons for this collapse. This project was an example of uncontrolled spending that destroyed the USSR, and a condition for its continued existence was abstinence from the realization of such projects.

On the other hand, it can reasonably be argued that Mikhail Gorbachev's reaction to the financial situation of the country caused the greatest damage to the superpower, and the USSR could hold out until today if the Politburo was headed by someone else after Konstantin Chernenko .

Potential Prospects

If we leave aside the fantastic ideas mentioned above, "Energy" could be used to put one or several large space station modules into orbit, which would then be completed with the modules output by the combination "Energia-Buran": at the end of 1991 the station " Mir-2 "was reconstructed for the use of 30-ton modules.

It was also possible to build a smaller shuttle that would not be located on the side, but in front of the rocket.

Glushko's stance that the Soviet space program, as it happened before, will pass through the era of change proved to be correct. Although it is more efficient to develop spacecraft and rocket vehicles for a specific mission, history shows that after their creation, new ways of using them also arise. Glushko died on January 10, 1989, less than two months after the second and last flight of Energia.

"Zenith" of glory

To date, Energy has no successors. "Zenith", used as its accelerator - the world's cheapest rocket-carriers (2500-3600 $ per kilogram). In 2010, the NGO Energia bought a stake in the Sea Launch consortium and is now responsible for launches from the ocean platform and from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The RD-170 engine developed for Zenit and Energia also proved to be one of the best rocket engines. Its modifications can boast the South Korean Naro-1, the Russian Angara booster rocket and the American Atlas V, which not only was used to carry out scientific tasks, such as the delivery of the rover Kuryoshiti and the launch of the probe New Horizons to Pluto , But also by the American military. This is the difference between 1988 and today.