Energia (Энергия)

Energia mated with Buran shuttle (model).
Function	Manned heavy-lift multi-purpose carrier rocket
Manufacturer	NPO "Energia"
Country of origin	Soviet Union
Size
Mass	2,400,000 kg (5,291,408 lb)
Stages	1
Capacity
Payload to LEO	100,000 kg (220,462 lb)[1] (200,000 kg (Vulkan))
Payload to GSO	20,000 kg (44,093 lb) (proposed; never flown)[1]
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	Baikonur
Total launches	2
Successes	1
Partial failures	1
Maiden flight	15 May 1987
Last flight	15 November 1988
Boosters (Stage 0) - Zenit
No boosters	4
Engines	1 RD-171
Thrust	29,000-32,000 kN[2]
Specific impulse	309-338 sec
Fuel	RP-1/LOX
Core Stage
Engines	4 RD-0120
Thrust	5,800-7,500 kN[2]
Specific impulse	359-454 sec
Burn time	480-500 sec
Fuel	LH2/LOX

Energia (Russian: Энергия, Energiya, "Energy") was a Soviet rocket that was designed by NPO Energia to serve as a heavy-lift expendable launch system as well as a booster for the Buran spacecraft. Control system main developer enterprise was the NPO "Electropribor".^[3][4] The Energia used four strap-on boosters powered by a four-chamber RD-170 engine burning with kerosene/LOX, and a central core stage with 4 one-chamber RD-0120 (11D122) engines fueled with liquid hydrogen/LOX.^[5]

The launch system had two functionally different operational variants: Energia-Polyus, the initial test configuration, in which the Polyus system was used as a final stage to put the payload into orbit, and Energia-Buran,^[6] in which the Buran spacecraft was the payload and the source of the orbit insertion impulse.

The rocket had the capacity to place about 100 metric tons in Low Earth orbit, up to 20 t to the geostationary orbit and up to 32 t to the lunar mission trajectory.^[1]

History [link]

Development [link]

Work on the Energia/Buran system began in 1976 after the decision was made to cancel the unsuccessful N1 rocket. The cancelled N1 rocket-based Manned Lunar Launch Facilities and Infrastructure were used for Energia (notably the huge horizontal assembly building), just as NASA reused infrastructure designed for the Saturn V in the Space Shuttle program. Energia also replaced the "Vulkan" concept, which was a design based on the Proton rocket and using the same hypergolic fuels, but much larger and more powerful. The "Vulkan" designation was later given to a variation of the Energia which has eight boosters and multiple stages.

Polyus satellite on Energia launch vehicle

The Energia was designed to launch the Russian "Buran" reusable shuttle,^[6] and for that reason was designed to carry its payload mounted on the side of the stack, rather than on the top, as is done with other launch vehicles. After design of the Energia-Buran system, it was also proposed that the booster could be used without the Buran as a heavy-lift cargo launch vehicle; this configuration was originally given the name "Buran-T".^[7] This configuration required the addition of an upper stage to reach orbit.^[7] In fact, the first launch of the Energia was in the configuration of a heavy launch vehicle, with a large military satellite as a payload.

Due to the termination of the Buran program the Energia program was concluded after only two launches, and further the payload on the first launch didn't perform the final boost properly. The legacy of Energia/Buran project manifests itself most visibly in form of the RD-170 family of rocket engines, and the Zenit launcher, with the first stage roughly the same as one of the Energia first stage boosters.

First launch (Energia-Polyus) [link]

The Energia was first test-launched on 15 May 1987, with the Polyus spacecraft as the payload. A FGB ("Functional Cargo Block") engine section originally built as a cancelled Mir module was incorporated into the upper stage used to inject the payload into orbit, similarly to modern geostationary satellites providing apogee impulse themselves, since the planned "Buran-T" upper stage had not yet progressed beyond the planning stage.^[7] The intended orbit was altitude 280 km (170 mi), inclination 64.6°.^[8]

The Soviets had originally announced that the launch as a successful sub-orbital test of the new Energia booster with a dummy payload, but some time later it was revealed that the flight had, in fact, been intended to orbit the Polyus, a UKSS military payload. The two stages of the Energia launcher functioned as designed, but the Polyus payload failed to reach orbit. Due to a software error in its attitude control system, the burn of the Polyus' orbital insertion motor failed to insert the payload into orbit. Instead, the payload reentered the atmosphere over the Pacific ocean.

Second launch (Energia-Buran) [link]

The second flight, and the first one where payload successfully reached orbit, was launched on 15 November 1988. This mission launched the unmanned Soviet Shuttle vehicle, Buran. At apogee, the Buran spacecraft made a 66.7 m/s burn to reach a final orbit of 251 km x 263 km.^[6][9] Both the Energia and Buran programs were designed to maintain strategic parity with the United States.

Discontinuation [link]

Production of Energia rockets ended with the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Buran shuttle project. Ever since, there have been persistent rumors of the renewal of production, but given the current political realities, that is highly unlikely. While the Energia is no longer in production, the Zenit boosters are still in production and in use. The four strap-on liquid-fuel boosters, which burned kerosene and liquid oxygen, were the basis of the Zenit rocket which used the same engines. The engine is the RD-170, a powerful, modern, and efficient design. Its derivative, the RD-171, is still used on the Zenit rocket. A half-sized derivative of the engine, the RD-180, powers Lockheed Martin's Atlas V rocket. The quarter size derivative of the engine, the RD-191, has been used to launch Korean Naro-1 rocket and is to be used in the Russian Angara rocket.

Variants [link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011)

Three major variants were planned after the original configuration, each with vastly different payloads.

Energia M [link]

The Energia M was the smallest design configuration. The number of Zenit boosters was reduced from four to two, and instead of four RD-0120 engines in the core, it had only one. It was designed to replace the Proton rocket, but lost the 1993 competition to the Angara rocket.

[edit] Energia II (Uragan)

Energia II, named Uragan (Russian: Ураган, Hurricane), was a rocket planned to be fully reusable and would have been able to land on a conventional airfield. Unlike the Energia, which was planned to be semi-reusable (like that of the U.S. Space Shuttle), the Uragan design would have allowed the complete recovery of all Buran/Energia elements, like that of the original totally reusable Orbiter/Booster concept of the U.S. Shuttle. The Energia II core as proposed would be capable of re-entering and gliding to a landing, presumably using technology developed for the Buran.

Vulkan-Hercules [link]

The final unflown configuration was also the largest. With eight Zenit booster rockets and an Energia-M core as the upper stage, the "Vulkan" (which was the same name of another Soviet heavy lift rocket that was cancelled years earlier) or "Hercules" (which is the same name designated to the N-1 rockets) configuration could have launched up to 175 tonnes into orbit.

The development of rocket-carrier "Vulcan" and the refurbishment of the "Energia" launch pad for its launches was in progress in 1990-1993. But later on the work on this project was cancelled due to lack of funds and the collapse of Soviet Union.^[10]

See also [link]

• Comparison of orbital launchers families
• Comparison of orbital launch systems

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Energia (rocket)

• Encyclopedia Astronautica: Energia
• Official energia.ru page
• Detailed site about Energia
• K26 Energia page
• (Russian) A page about Energia rocket on a site about Buran spacecraft - English translation
• Energia - last Moon project. (rus) english translation

v t e RD-170 rocket engine family Main Article RD-170 Spaceflight portal Derivatives RD-171 · RD-180 · RD-191 · RD-151 Technologies Bipropellant · LOX · RP-1 · Staged combustion cycle Historic rockets Atlas III (RD-180) · Energia (RD-170) Current rockets Atlas V (RD-180) · Zenit (RD-171) · KSLV-1 (RD-151) Future rockets Angara (RD-191) · GX (RD-180)  · Rus-M (RD-180) Other LOX & RP-1 Engines XLR83 (Navaho missile booster)  · MA-series (Atlas) · H-1/RS-27 (Thor/Saturn I/Delta)  · F-1 (Saturn V) · Merlin (Falcon 9)

v t e Expendable launch systems Current Spaceflight portal Ariane 5 Atlas V Delta II IV Dnepr-1 GSLV H-IIA H-IIB Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos-3M Long March 1D 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B 3C 4B 4C Minotaur I IV Naro-1 Paektusan Pegasus Proton-M PSLV Rokot Safir Shavit Shtil' Start-1 Strela Soyuz U FG 2 Taurus Tsyklon-2 Unha Vega VLS-1 Volna Zenit 2 2M 3SL 3SLB 3F Planned Angara Antares Athena Ic IIc Ausroc IV Epsilon GSLV III Haas Long March 5 6 7 Minotaur V Naro-2 Rocket Lab RPS (420, 550) Simorgh SLS Southern Cross Soyuz-2-1v SPARK Tsyklon-4 VLM VLS-Alfa VLS-Beta Previous Ariane 1 2 3 4 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 III Diamant Energia Europa Falcon 1‡ Feng Bao 1 H-I H-II J-I Juno I Juno II Kosmos 1 2I 3 Lambda 4S Long March 1 2A 2E 3 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V) N1 N-I N-II Pilot Proton UR-500 K R-7 Luna Molniya M Polyot Soyuz L M U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M Saturn I IB V INT-21 Scout SLV Sparta Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon 3 Vanguard ‡ – Falcon 1 was designed for partial reuse. However, recovery failed on the first three flights and the remaining vehicles were flown expendably.