Rokot

Not to be confused with Rokot Airport.

Rokot (Russian: Рокот meaning Rumble or Boom), also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of 1,950 kilograms (4,300 lb) into a 200-kilometre (120 mi) Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It was based on the UR-100N (SS-19 Stiletto) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), supplied and operated by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The first launches started in the 1990s from Baikonur Cosmodrome out of a silo. Later commercial launches commenced from Plesetsk Cosmodrome using a launch ramp specially rebuilt from one for the Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. The cost of the launcher itself was about US$15 million in 1999;^[6][7] The contract with European Space Agency (ESA) for launching Swarm in September 2013 was worth €27.1 million (US$36 million).^[8]

Rockot (Rokot)

Rokot launch vehicle
Function	Orbital launch vehicle
Manufacturer	Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center
Country of origin	Soviet Union
Cost per launch	US$41.8 million
Size
Height	29 m (95 ft)
Diameter	2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Mass	107,000 kg (236,000 lb)
Stages	3
Capacity
Payload to Low Earth orbit
Mass	1,950 kg (4,300 lb)
Payload to Sun-synchronous orbit
Mass	1,200 kg (2,600 lb)
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	Baikonur 175/1 Plesetsk 133/3
Total launches	34
Success(es)	31
Failure(s)	2
Partial failure(s)	1
First flight	20 November 1990 26 December 1994 (orbital)
Last flight	26 December 2019
First stage
Diameter	2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Powered by	3 RD-0233 (15D95) 1 RD-0234 (15D96) [1][2]
Maximum thrust	2,080 kN (470,000 lbf) [3]
Specific impulse	310 seconds
Burn time	120 seconds
Propellant	N2O4 / UDMH
Second stage
Diameter	2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
Powered by	1 RD-0235 (15D113) 1 RD-0236 (15D114) [1][2]
Maximum thrust	255.76 kN (57,500 lbf) [4][5]
Specific impulse	310 seconds
Burn time	180 seconds
Propellant	N2O4 / UDMH
Third stage – Briz-KM
Powered by	1 S5.98M
Maximum thrust	19.6 kN (4,400 lbf)
Specific impulse	326 seconds
Burn time	3000 seconds
Propellant	N2O4 / UDMH

Specifications

Rokot's total mass was 107 tonnes, its length 29 metres and its maximum diameter 2.5 metres. The liquid-fueled launch vehicle comprised three stages. The lower two were based on the Soviet UR-100N ICBM; the first stage used an RD-0233 / RD-0234 engine complex, while the second stage used an RD-0235. The third stage was a Briz-KM (Russian: Бриз-КМ meaning Breeze-KM), which has a mass of about 6 tonnes when fuelled, and is capable of flying for 7 hours and reigniting its engine six times during flight, allowing different satellites to be placed into different orbits. All stages used Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) (unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine) as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide (N₂O₄) as oxidiser. The Strela is a similar rocket, also based on the SS-19.^[6]

History

Preparing the Rokot launch vehicle for launch. Plesetsk cosmodrome

The first suborbital test launch succeeded on 20 November 1990 from Baikonur Cosmodrome. On 26 December 1994, Rokot brought its first satellite into Earth orbit. In 1995, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center formed a company with German DaimlerBenz Aerospace to market Rokot launches for commercial use. Later, the company was renamed to Eurockot Launch Services. Eurockot bought 45 Rokots from the Russian strategic missile forces to build its inventory. In 2000, Eurokot was partly bought by the German company Astrium GmbH, a shareholder of Arianespace. Astrium then held 51% of Eurockot's shares, while Khrunichev held 49%.^[6]

Although there are several silos in Baikonur capable of launching Rokots, it was decided to build an open, non-siloed launch pad at Plesetsk Cosmodrome instead. This is because of concerns that the amount of noise generated during a silo-based launch would damage satellites. In the new pad, Rokot was wheeled up to the structure in a vertical position, and then embraced by its launch tower. The payload was lifted by a crane and placed on top of the bottom two stages. The procedure was in contrast to other Russian launchers, which had traditionally been assembled horizontally and then transferred to the launch site via railways. The first launch from Plesetsk took place on 16 May 2000.^[6]

After six entirely successful launches, a launch failure occurred on 8 October 2005, leading to the loss of the European Space Agency's CryoSat spacecraft. The launch vehicle's second stage main engine did not shut down properly, leading to a catastrophic failure and the automatic termination of the launch mission by the onboard computer. As a result, the payload was lost. Following the failed CryoSat launch, all Rokot launches were suspended until the cause of the failure was identified. The root cause was unambiguously identified; it was a failure in programming of the Briz-KM (which was contracted to the company JSC "Khartron"). The failure of this high-profile mission led to major reforms in Khrunichev: the director of the company Alexander Medvedev was dismissed, new launch procedures were introduced, the lines of management were straightened out to catch errors and the new Khrunichev chief, Viktor Nesterov, was required to report directly to the head of the Russian Space Agency, Anatoli Perminov.^[6] Corrective measures for Rokot's return-to-flight were implemented for the South Korean KOMPSAT-2 Earth observation satellite launch which took place successfully on 28 July 2006. The Korean side reportedly praised the level of service they received, encouraging the Rokot team to rebuild its order book.^[6]

Another launch failure occurred in February 2011, when a Briz-KM malfunction^[9] resulted in the Geo-IK-2 No.11 (Kosmos-2470) satellite being placed into a lower orbit than planned.

The Rokot version with a Ukrainian control system stopped flying after 2019, due to Ukraine's ban on technology exports to Russia.^[10] Rokot had its final flight on 26 December 2019.^[11] A fully Russian-made Rokot light carrier rocket, named Rokot-M, may begin operations as soon as 2024.^[12] The Rokot-M launch vehicle is intended for the Russian defense department.^[13]

Launch history

Rokot

Flight No.	Date / time (UTC)	Rocket, Configuration	Launch site	Payload	Payload mass	Orbit	Customer	Launch outcome
1	20 November 1990 04:00	Rokot/Briz-K	Baikonur, Site 131/29	Experimental Payload				Success
	Suborbital test flight
2	20 December 1991 21:31	Rokot/Briz-K	Baikonur, Site 175/58	Experimental Payload				Success
	Suborbital test flight
3	26 December 1994 03:01	Rokot/Briz-K	Baikonur, Site 175/58	Radio-ROSTO				Success
	First orbital mission. Amateur radio satellite
N/A	22 December 1999	Rokot/Briz-K	Plesetsk, Site 133/3	RSVN-40				Precluded (failure pre-flight)
	No launch, launch vehicle irreparably damaged during preparation. Experimental payload.
4	16 May 2000 08:27	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk, Site 133/3	SimSat-1 and 2				Success
	Iridium-mock-ups
5	17 March 2002 09:21	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk, Site 133/3	GRACE-1 and 2				Success
	NASA research satellite
6	20 June 2002 09:33	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk, Site 133/3	Iridium-97 and 98				Success
	Communication satellites
7	30 June 2003 14:15	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk, Site 133/3	MIMOSA DTUsat MOST Cute-I QuakeSat AAU CubeSat CanX-1 CubeSat Xi-IV Monitor-E mockup				Success
	NLS satellites and Monitor-E-Mockup
8	30 October 2003 13:43	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	SERVIS-1				Success
	Japanese test satellite
9	26 August 2005 18:34	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Monitor-E1				Success
	Earth observation satellite
10	8 October 2005 15:02	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	CryoSat				Failure
	Earth observation satellite. Launch terminated after 2nd stage main engine was not shut down correctly, resulting in an explosion, causing the vehicle to exceed its flight envelope limit and thereby causing the automatic termination of the launch and the re-entry of the combined Rokot 2nd stage/3rd stage/CryoSat spacecraft stack
11	28 July 2006 07:05	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	KOMPSAT-2				Success
	Earth observation satellite
12	23 May 2008 15:20	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2437 Kosmos 2438 Kosmos 2439 (3X Strela-3) Yubileiny[14]				Success
	Communications and amateur radio satellites
13	17 March 2009 14:21	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	GOCE[15]				Success
	ESA Earth observation satellite
14	6 July 2009 01:26	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2451 Kosmos 2452 Kosmos 2453 (3X Strela-3)				Success
	Communications satellites
15	2 November 2009 01:50	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	SMOS PROBA-2[16]				Success
	SMOS: ESA Earth-observation satellite; PROBA-2: Sun-observation satellite testing a new spacecraft platform
16	2 June 2010 01:59	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	SERVIS-2				Success
	Japanese test satellite
17	8 September 2010 03:30	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Gonets-M-2 Kosmos 2467 Kosmos 2468 (2X Strela-3)				Success
	Communications satellites
18	1 February 2011 14:00	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Geo-IK-2 No.11				Failure
	Geodesy satellite. Upper stage malfunction,[9] reached lower orbit than planned.
19	28 July 2012 01:35	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Gonets-M-3 Gonets-M-4 Kosmos 2481 (Strela-3) MiR				Success[17]
	Communications and amateur radio satellites
20	15 January 2013 16:25	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2482 Kosmos 2483 Kosmos 2484 (3X Strela-3M)				Partial failure[18]
	Communications satellites. Briz-KM failed around the time of spacecraft separation, resulting in the loss of one satellite
21	11 September 2013 23:23	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Gonets-M-5 Gonets-M-6 Gonets-M-7				Success[19]
	Communications satellites
22	22 November 2013 12:02	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Swarm A/B/C				Success[20]
	Magnetosphere research satellites; Briz-km failed deorbit burn
23	25 December 2013 00:31	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2488 Kosmos 2489 Kosmos 2490 (3X Strela-3M) Kosmos 2491				Success[21][22]
	Communications satellites
24	23 May 2014 05:27	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2496 Kosmos 2497 Kosmos 2498 (3X Strela-3M) Kosmos 2499				Success[21]
	Communications satellites
25	3 July 2014 12:43	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Gonets-M-8 Gonets-M-9 Gonets-M-10				Success[21]
	Communications satellites
26	31 March 2015 13:47	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Gonets-M-11 Gonets-M-12 Gonets-M-13 Kosmos 2504				Success[23]
	Communications satellites
27	23 September 2015 22:00	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2507 Kosmos 2508 Kosmos 2509 (3X Strela-3M)				Success[24]
	Communications satellites
28	16 February 2016 17:57	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Sentinel-3A				Success[25]
	ESA earth observation satellite
29	4 June 2016 14:00	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2517 (Geo-IK-2 No.12)				Success[26]
	Geodesy satellite
30	13 October 2017 09:27	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Sentinel-5 Precursor				Success[27]
	Earth observation satellite
31	25 April 2018 17:57	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Sentinel-3B				Success[27]
	Earth observation satellite
32	30 November 2018 02:27	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2530 Kosmos 2531 Kosmos 2532 (3X Strela-3M)				Success[28]
	Communications satellites. After launch, NORAD tracked another object (besides the Briz-KM upper stage) which could possibly be a fourth satellite.[29]
33	30 August 2019 14:00	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Kosmos 2540 (Geo-IK-2 No.13)				Success[30]
	Geodesy satellite
34	26 December 2019 23:11	Rokot/Briz-KM	Plesetsk Site 133/3	Gonets-M-14 Gonets-M-15 Gonets-M-16 BLITS-M				Success[31]
	Final flight of Rokot; Communications and geodesy satellites;

Rokot-M

Flight No.	Date / time (UTC)	Rocket, Configuration	Launch site	Payload	Payload mass	Orbit	Customer	Launch outcome
1	NET December 2024 [32]	Rokot-M/Briz-KM2	Plesetsk Site 133/3	No Payload (Test Flight)				TBD
	First test flight of Rokot-M/Briz-KM2

See also

• Comparison of orbital launchers families

References

1. "RD-0233, RD-0234, RD-0235, RD-0236, RD-0237. Intercontinental ballistic missiles RS-18". KBKhA. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
2. "Rockot Launch Vehicle". Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
3. "RD-0234". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 24 August 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
4. "RD-0235". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 24 August 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
5. "RD-0236". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 5 May 2002. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
6. Harvey, Brian (2007). "Launchers and engines". The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program (1st ed.). Germany: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-71354-0.
7. "Rokot". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 22 May 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
8. Stephen Clark (12 September 2013). "Rockot launch clears way for long-delayed ESA mission". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
9. Военный спутник, запущенный на "Рокоте", скорее всего, утрачен (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 1 February 2011. Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
10. "Последний запуск ракет "Рокот" с украинской системой управления состоится до 2020 года" [Last Rokot launcher with Ukrainian control system will fly before 2020] (in Russian). Interfax. 23 August 2018. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
11. William Graham (26 December 2019). "Rokot conducts final launch – carries three Gonets-M satellites to orbit". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
12. "Russia's Rokot-M carrier rocket to be launched in 2024 — Khrunichev Center". TASS. 3 May 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
13. "Запуск ракеты "Рокот" без украинских деталей запланировали на 2022 год" [First launch of Rokot without Ukrainian parts is planned for 2022] (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
14. "Russia launches relay craft, commemorative satellite". Spaceflight Now.
15. "ESA launches Earth Explorer mission GOCE". ESA. 17 March 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
16. Eurockot Launch Service Provider Archived 2009-01-26 at the Wayback Machine
17. Pavel, Podvig (28 July 2012). "Successful launch of Strela-3 and Gonets-M communication satellites". Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
18. Marcia Smith (6 August 2013). "Russia's Rokot Launch Vehicle Also Readying for Return to Flight". spacepolicyonline.com. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
19. Bergin, Chris (12 September 2013). "Russian Rokot launch vehicle lofts three Gonets-M satellites". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
20. Amos, Jonathan (22 November 2013). "Esa's satellite Swarm launch to map Earth's magnetism". BBC News.
21. McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
22. Bergin, Chris (25 December 2013). "Russian Rokot lofts three Rodnik satellites". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
23. Bergin, Chris (31 March 2015). "Russian Rokot lofts another Gonets-M trio". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
24. "Russia's Rokot launches with three Rodnik satellites". 23 September 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
25. "Third Sentinel satellite launched for Copernicus". ESA. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
26. Graham, William; Bergin, Chris (4 June 2016). "Russian Rokot launches Geo-IK-2 – annoys environmentalists". NASASpaceflight.com.
27. Sentinel-5p launches on Russia's Rokot launch system
28. ["Rockot launches Russian military satellites – Spaceflight Now". spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved 2 December 2018.]
29. "Russian military launches a fresh satellite cluster". www.russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
30. "Russia's Rokot vehicle successfully launches Geo-IK-2 satellite". NASASpaceFlight.com. 30 August 2019. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
31. Graham, William (26 December 2019). "Rokot conducts final launch – carries three Gonets-M satellites to orbit". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
32. Moskvich, Yekaterina (4 May 2022). "Russia's Rokot-M carrier rocket to be launched in 2024 — Khrunichev Center". TASS. Retrieved 30 March 2024.

External links

• Website of Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, Launch Service Provider
• Rockot history on RussianSpaceWeb.com