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Russian Launch and Mission Thread


tater

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They will start building the building for the National Space Center in the 4th quarter of this year on the territory of the Khrunichev's plant.

It will be a 267 m high, 47-storey rocket-shaped tower with a long lab & admin building aside, and a video screen in front of the congress hall for lives from the ISS.

The productivity of the construction works is increased by 47% due to optimized logistics.
In total it will cost 25 bln RUR (~330 mln USD).

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.interfax.ru/moscow/728426

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Ol' Zvezda is wearing out, I see. That transfer chamber must have seen more than its share of pressurization cycles by now.

A smoke test wouldn't help much with the leak of that size. Even with life support fans off, air can also be stirred by the cosmonauts moving around, and smoke would move towards a leak of this size really slowly.

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Roscosmos and a private company MTKS (Reusable Transport Space Systems) agreed to develop a new spaceship to deliver payloads to the ISS and back twice as cheap as SpX Dragon.

This is concluded for five years with automatic prolongation if neither party decides to exit.

The company was registered in May 2019, authorized capital 400 000 RUR (~5 000 USD), the CEO is Dmitry Kakhno.
According to SPARK, he's also the CEO of Energy-Logistics, a subsidiary of the Energy Corp. owned by Roscosmos.

The ship will be promoted for commercial delivery, and will include innovations and composite materials.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.rbc.ru/business/02/10/2020/5f73430a9a7947f665bf9af3

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Haha, I'll believe that when I see it. (Plus targeting falcon 9 and dragon isn't the right set of goalposts any more).

There's even a question whether ISS will still be operational in that time frame.

Edited by RCgothic
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:wub:

They will stick plastic bags around the leaking compartment to find the leakage.

They will stick them with (sick!) duct tape, in checkers pattern.

By watching the air bulge they will know where it's leaking.

They will leave some empty place under the bags to let the air have some room to gather. And they will mark the bags by marker to see, which place it covers.

***

The Progress, docked to the module, stays isolated until the finish of the operation.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.interfax.ru/world/730438

Spoiler

So, who was laughing here at the cigar(ette) - coffee - chewing gum - a pack of (inflatable balloons) method?
What do you say know, wise-faced scepticists?

 

Edited by kerbiloid
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Roscosmos and Rocket&Space Center Progress on Oct, 5, 2020 have signed the contract

They will develop a (preliminary design of) the reusable methalox rocket Amur to replace the Soyuz-2 family.

Spoiler

5785473.png5784135.png

 

Launch cost = 22 mln USD

Payload to LEO: 10.5 t reusable, 12.5 t single-use.

Launch mass 360 t.

Later its 1sy stage will be upgraded to use it in a 440 t rocket with 17 t of payload to LEO.
Also to use it as a lateral booster for a superheavy rocket.

Height = 55 m.
Diameter = 4.1 m.
Shroud diameter = 5.1 m.

Launch site - Vostochny.

Its reliability level will be unprecedental, 0.99 instead of usual 0.98.

The supercool liquid methane will be supercool and occupy same volume as usual fuel tanks, so those who say that it's too low-dense are wrong.

Both stages are methalox.
Stage 1: Reusable, but the grid fins and legs can be detached.
Stage 2: Expendable. The engine(s) allow(s) throttling.

2 000 details instead of 4 500 in Soyuz.

***

Stage 1

A single but splitted fuel tank for both propellant components.

5 engines x RD-0169A, nominal thrust 100 tf. The hot reserve option (if 1 engine fails, others get forced to compensate).

Reusability: Initially 10 flights, then 100 flights, so the central engine will survive 300 ignitions (launch, braking, landing).
But for development purpose they won't ignite it 300 times, but will use digital methods.

 

Stage 2

Same engine but with 4 chambers and nozzles, RD-0169B. (Or V?.. Anyway...  РД-0169В)
Nominal thrust 110 tf.

Will never be reusable, cuz wings suck.

***

Several landing sites for the 1st stage, from Vostochny to the sea.

After the landing, the 1st stage will be serviced in situ, the propellant remains will be pumped out.

Then they'll fold the legs and bring it back either by train, or by Mi-26.

The built-in sensors will allow its post-flight testing and servicing without disassembling.

***

Currently no sea launch (because the nearest sea is too stormy), but an emergency option of the 1st stage splashing and bringing back by ships is included by design.

***

Also the winged return option may be developed, too.

***

The launch site will be automated and not require Soviet-like capital buildings.
No war-time underground vaults and storages, only launch equipment.

Also a touristic infrastructure will be built, to allow the customers and tourists feel comfy and watch.

The launch after putting the rocket onto the launchpad will be fully automated, no human operations included.

***

Planned maiden flight in 2026, with commercial payload.

***

Rocket development cost 70 bln RUR (~0.9 bln USD).

Methalox engine: 2024.

On-ground infrastructure will be being built simultaneously with the rocket development.

The rocket will replace numerous modern rockets in wide range of payloads.

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://tass.ru/kosmos/9627165

Edited by kerbiloid
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3 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Its reliability level will be unprecedental

Unpresidential? Not great, the President won’t like this.

3 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Will never be reusable, cuz wings suck.

*Angry Buran noises*

4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

The supercool liquid methane will be supercool

That’s super cool. But where have I seen this before?..

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They tried to plug two possible holes with American plasticine, but no, it's not that easy.

(Of course, it doesn't. Try to plug the sink in a bathtub with plasticine without putting it inside a plastic bag. It unsticks, and the water passes.
They should follow my advice and use chewed gum instead. Try to scratch it from the floor when it's dried.)

The pressure has decreased from 727 downto 634 mm of mercury after 12 hours of the chamber isolation.

***

And now about the leakage detection.

The leakage was originally detected from the motion of dusticles recorded by the GoPro camera.

(That's about the by-me-suggested cigar(ette) smoking method. You didn't take it seriously? Take it!)

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=ru&sl=ru&tl=en&u=https://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/5f818dbf9a794792310200bc

P.S.

So, we can now be sure that simple old school methods are most effective.

It's a pity they didn't follow the advice to buy a pack of (inflatable balloons) and attach them semi-inflated everywhere.
They could have located the leaking module weeks ago.

Edited by kerbiloid
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