Zenit-3SL is a one - time launch vehicle (LV) used for launches in the Sea Launch project. Its first flight took place in 1999, [1] it was launched 36 times, while three launches crashed and one launch was partially recognized as successful. This is one of the modifications of the Zenit launch vehicle family, which was under construction by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau . RSC Energia produces the DM-SL upper stage (3rd stage), and the head fairing is manufactured by Boeing . [2] Launches are conducted from the Odyssey ocean platform . The platform is anchored at the equator in the Pacific Ocean , at a point with coordinates 154 ° W. d. , about 370 km east of Christmas Island .
| Zenit-3SL | |
|---|---|
 Sketch PH Zenit-3SL | |
| General information | |
| A country |  Ukraine |
| Family | Zenith |
| Manufacturer | South (Zenith), RKK Energy (RB), Boeing (Mon Block) |
| Main characteristics | |
| Number of steps | 2 + RB |
| Length (with GP) | 59.6 m |
| Diameter | 3.9 m |
| Starting weight | 462,200 kg |
| Cast weight | 6 160 kg (GPO) |
| Launch history | |
| condition | Not produced |
| Launch locations | Sea launch |
| Number of starts | 36 |
| • successful | 32 |
| • unsuccessful | 3 |
| • partially unsuccessful | one |
| First start | March 28, 1999 |
| Last run | May 26, 2014 |
| First stage | |
| Sustainer engine | RD-171 (11D520) |
| Thrust | 8 180 kN |
| Specific impulse | 337 s |
| Working hours | 150 s |
| Fuel | Kerosene RG-1 |
| Oxidizing agent | Liquid oxygen |
| Second stage | |
| Sustainer engine | Marching: RD-120 (11D123) |
| Steering engine | RD-8 |
| Thrust | 912 kN 79.5 kN (steering) |
| Specific impulse | 349 s |
| Working hours | 315 s |
| Fuel | Kerosene RG-1 |
| Oxidizing agent | Liquid oxygen |
| Third stage (Block DM-SL) | |
| Sustainer engine | RD-58M |
| Thrust | 352 s (650 s) |
| Fuel | Kerosene RG-1 |
| Oxidizing agent | Liquid oxygen |
Instead of the Proton-K LV, which was supposed to be used in the project, in the late 1980s, the Zenit-3SL LV under the name Zenit-3 was launched. At the same time, the Zenit-2 launch vehicle with the upper stage as the third stage was taken. This proposal was frozen after the collapse of the USSR . The problem was that despite the fact that Russia inherited the space program, Zenit rocket launcher was made in Ukraine . In 1994, the Boeing company began to participate in this program. The design of the launch vehicle was subsequently changed, and a modified version of the DM boost module was installed as a replacement for the D.
Launchers for the Sea Launch project are assembled in California and delivered to the Sea Launch Commander assembly and command ship for further transportation to the Odyssey launch platform . As soon as the rocket is installed on the platform at the spaceport, a three-day countdown begins. The countdown is fully automated [4] , and personnel are evacuated from the launch platform to the assembly-command ship before launch.
Zenit-3SL launches primarily communication satellites into geo-transition orbits . Only one launch was made to try to bring the payload into orbit other than the geo-transition. This was an attempt to launch the ICO F-1 , which they planned to place in the middle Earth orbit, but the rocket could not reach it.
Content
Complete list of launches
Design
First Stage
Designed by GKB Yuzhnoye and produced by Yuzhmash software . The main structure is made of aluminum and includes solid profiled reinforcement elements. This stage is equipped with an RD-171M engine developed by the leading rocket and space design bureau of Russia, NPO Energomash . During the lift contact, the RD-171M engine develops a thrust of 740,000 kgf and is one of the most powerful engines in the world. Four combustion chambers are equipped with a vertically mounted turbopump unit, which receives a hot oxidizing mixture from two gas generators.
Second Stage
Designed by GKB Yuzhnoye and manufactured at Yuzhmash Production Association. The second stage runs on the RD-120 engine with liquid oxygen and kerosene, producing thrust in a vacuum of 93,100 kgf.
Acceleration Block
The DM-SL upper stage is designed and manufactured by RSC Energia. Able to provide up to four inclusions within one mission. Booster engines 11D58M runs on liquid oxygen and kerosene. Two DUS03 engines provide stabilization of the DM-SL upper stage along three axes during passive flight.
Payload Block
Designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Space Campaign. It consists of an adapter, a separation system, a payload design, a transition skirt, a fairing, avionics and an instrument compartment.
Management System
The Zenit-3SL missile control system was developed and is being produced at the Scientific and Production Association of Automation and Instrument Engineering (Moscow). [five]
Reliability
36 missiles were launched successfully, three unsuccessfully, and one - the launch of the payload occurred in an incorrect but correctable orbit. The third missile launch under the Sea Launch program with the ICO F-1 communications satellite was carried out on March 12 at 6:49 am Pacific time. The start was made from the equator, from the point with coordinates 154 degrees west longitude. An abnormal situation appeared before the separation of the second stage of the rocket. The ICO spacecraft did not enter the calculated orbit. A telemetry analysis showed that a software error led to a premature cutoff of the second stage, as a result, the ICO satellite F-1 could not reach the specified orbit. [6] [7]
On June 29, 2004, during the launch of Apstar 5, the acceleration unit shut down 54 seconds earlier due to a wiring failure, [8] leaving the satellite in a lower orbit than planned. The spacecraft raised itself to the correct orbit with the help of onboard shunting engines, due to the fuel designed to maintain its presence in the correct orbit .
On January 30, 2007, Zenit-3SL exploded on the launch pad after an engine failure caused by debris in a turbopump . At the same time, there was an NSS-8 communications satellite for SES New Skies [9] . Because of this accident, there was a big break in launches during the repair of the launch platform.
On February 1, 2013, during the launch of the Intelsat-27 spacecraft, the Zenit-3SL LV prematurely turned off the engine, as a result of which the rocket deviated from the take-off path and fell into the Pacific Ocean shortly after launch. [ten]
Production Status
Since 2015, the production of Zenit missiles has been suspended [11] . However, at Yuzhmash they announced their readiness to ship the first Zenit-3SL missiles for the Sea Launch in the second half of 2017, if funding begins in October 2016 [12] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Wade, Mark Zenit . Encyclopedia Astronautica. Date of treatment April 14, 2009.
- ↑ The Rocket - Zenit ‑ 3SL . Sea Launch. Date of treatment April 14, 2009. Archived April 4, 2009.
- ↑ Zenit 3SL (inaccessible link) . Orbital Report News Agency. Date of treatment April 14, 2009. Archived October 29, 2006.
- ↑ Zenit-3SL . Launch Vehicles . National Space Agency of Ukraine. Date of treatment April 14, 2009. Archived September 27, 2007.
- ↑ Successful launches of Zenit-3SL and Proton-M launch vehicles
- ↑ Kyle, Ed 2000 Launch Stats . Space Launch Report (October 30, 2006). Date of treatment April 14, 2009.
- ↑ Sea Launch - Launches - ICO F-1 . sea-launch.info (March 23, 2000).
- ↑ Kyle, Ed 2004 Launch Stats . Space Launch Report (October 30, 2006). Date of treatment April 14, 2009.
- ↑ Kyle, Ed 2007 Launch Stats . Space Launch Report (December 26, 2007). Date of treatment April 14, 2009.
- ↑ Rocket carrying US satellite plunges into the Pacific Ocean 40 seconds after launch . Daily Mail (February 1, 2013). Date of treatment February 1, 2013.
- ↑ Yuzhmash froze in anticipation of a state defense order. Documents clarifying the situation at the enterprise were published and immediately deleted on the company's website // Vesti-Pridneprovye
- ↑ Launches from Sea Launch will be more expensive, but faster than SpaceX , TASS (October 7, 2016).
Links
- Booster "Zenith-3SL" (inaccessible link) . Design Bureau "South". Archived on May 16, 2018.