Cosmonautics has always been the "trump card" of our country, an occasion for the pride of its citizens. Since the time of the
first satellite and the first man in space, we are accustomed to the dynamic development of this industry, which is one of the most significant geopolitical arguments.
Unfortunately, the devastation in the 90s significantly threw the industry back, but lately everything is starting to straighten out. Proof of this is the resumed flights of the Proton-M heavy rocket, which is capable of putting record volumes of cargo into orbit.
History of creation
By 1960, which was almost officially considered the time of the unprecedented take-off of the Soviet cosmonautics, the need for the state in a very powerful launch vehicle that could launch even more cargo into orbit became completely clear. Of course, the “first fiddle” in lobbying for such plans was played not even by the official astronautics, but by the military, who needed a powerful “truck” to transport heavy military cargo into space.
Both sides of the Cold War in those years showed an unprecedented interest in plans to launch heavy-duty hydrogen bombs into geostationary orbit . Fortunately, the military of the USSR and the USA did not reach the practical implementation of such suicidal steps, but the Proton-M rocket was ready by then.
Let us return to the immediate history of creation. OKB-52 was entrusted with the task of developing, headed by V.N. Chelomey. In order for this bureau to cope with the unimaginable amount of work that was to be completed in a relatively short time, it was necessary to include more than a dozen aviation design bureaus from all over the country.
Already in 1962, the first prototype was created. The missile was called "UR-200." From 1962 to 1964, nine test launches of new equipment were carried out immediately.
New prototype
All of them were successful, but in 1961, even before the start of test flights, Chelomei himself insisted on the development of a new prototype. According to calculations, it should have become five (!) Times heavier than the original version!
Initially, the creators wanted to follow the path of "least resistance" by combining two UR-200 missiles and adding another booster stage to the resulting structure. However, preliminary calculations have clearly shown that the reliability of such a design will obviously leave much to be desired.
As a result, it was decided to create a new UR-500 missile, but to simplify the calculations, the scientists settled on a compromise: taking the sequential arrangement of steps, they used the same for the UR-200 as the upper part. Of course, the original project was significantly redesigned.
Engines
Developers had to tinker with engines. The fact is that as a result of long disputes, they chose a multiblock version of the layout of the first stage. Such a scheme made it possible to fit into the technological spans of bridges and tunnels during transportation of rocket stages, but imposed some restrictions on the fuel used.
Classical oxygen-kerosene steam was almost impossible, since it would be necessary to significantly increase the size, and therefore poisonous asymmetric dimethylhydrazine with nitrogen tetraxide was chosen as the oxidizing agent.
On this basis, there was a conflict with Korolev, who demanded kerosene. Until 1965, large-scale tests of the new power plant were conducted under conditions as close to reality as possible.
Further story
As often happened in the domestic cosmonautics of those years, politics dominated everything. By 1965, when the project was almost completely ready, the enterprise was tormented by inspections by order of L.I. Brezhnev. He had undisguised distrust of the legacy of his predecessor.
Therefore, the development of "UR-200" was finally stopped. Fortunately, the 500th model was defended. In mid-1965, the Proton satellite was successfully launched into orbit. It was possible to receive a signal from it only a few hours after being put into orbit, so for a long time the launch was considered unsuccessful.
In the first press publications, the missile was mistakenly named after a satellite. And it soon took root, and therefore, from 1965, Proton-M appeared in our cosmonautics. More precisely, instead of the "M" index, the rocket had the prefix "K".
It began to be called modernized only in 2001, when the cargo was first thrown into orbit with the help of it.
Main characteristics
The characteristics of this miracle of Soviet-Russian rocket science are indeed impressive. The layout of the rocket is three-stage. The mass itself of “Proton A E M” is 702 tons! The rocket allows putting six tons of payload into geo-transition orbit at once.
The first step has a diameter of more than six meters, the third - more than four. Given that highly toxic components are used as fuel, the strictest compliance with all pre-flight preparation standards of both the rocket itself and the launch pad for it is required.
At the same time, the launch cost is less than $ 100 million. By the way, for the American Delta IV Heavy rocket, which is one of the main competitors of our Proton-M device, this figure is ... 265 million dollars. Three times higher!
Sad statistics
Alas, the word “crash” is not just in the title of the article. Not only the dimensions and quantity of the displayed cargo made this carrier famous. The fact is that the Proton-M rocket is known for the number of its unsuccessful launches. This tradition dates back to its predecessor.
Judge for yourself. Of the first four launches that took place from 1965 to 1966, one was already unsuccessful due to the accident of the second upper stage. However, it would be strange to expect the opposite, since tests of a fundamentally new technology of this kind are always associated with a high probability of failure.
In general, a total of about 47 cases were recorded when the launch of Proton-M failed. Given that there were about 400 starts, we get about 89% of successful starts.
The most famous disasters
The accidents of this launch vehicle would hardly have caused such a wide public outcry (all the more so because emergency situations happened to Proton all the time), but it’s only with its launches that the development of the Russian global positioning system, GLONASS, is associated.
So the $ 100 million that the launch costs is simply insignificant in comparison with the damage that the state suffers in the event of the loss of at least one such satellite. This was especially pronounced in 2010, when immediately three GLONASS satellites did not go into orbit, but to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
The damage then amounted to about 3 billion rubles, not counting the price of the rocket itself. As a result of this accident (which occurred due to errors when refueling the steps), dozens of high-ranking "space" officials lost their posts.
In 2011, again, due to problems with the rocket engines, it was not possible to put the unique Express AM4 satellite into the correct accelerating orbit. It was he who was associated with the complete transition to digital television broadcasting in our country. The whole world tried to save the device: telemetry stations across the planet were involved, but it was not possible to prevent the satellite from burning out.
The cost of damage is estimated at least 10 billion rubles.
In 2012, a virtually similar story occurred with two communication satellites. Again, due to malfunctions in the fuel system of the rocket, the devices were put into the wrong orbit. It was not possible to establish a connection with them, the equipment was declared lost. The cost of damage is about the same 10 billion.
In mid-2013, the GLONASS epic continued. Again, three long-suffering satellites (!) Exploded with a rocket. The investigation was thorough. This time, the angular velocity sensors turned out to be guilty , which, during assembly, were installed with a rotation of 180 degrees from the normal position. Because of this, the booster went in a completely wrong orbit.
Finally, in May of this year, the Express satellite again went to the bottom, plans for an early transition to digital broadcasting were again buried.
Conclusions and Prospects
As a result of all the above cases, many bosses lost their service. The government has allocated approximately 2 billion rubles to better prepare for the launch of missiles of this type. As a result, the cost of launching one "Proton" (taking into account all the losses) was equal to that for the American Atlas-5 rocket.
Despite this, Proton-M LV remains one of the most important pillars of commercial launches. Even with accidents, the cost of launching into a geostationary orbit remains the lowest in the world, and therefore Roscosmos does not experience shortages in potential partners and clients.
New rocket
However, experts have long been saying that Proton-M will soon fly off. The fact is that intensive development of the Angara is currently underway. This new block missile is not only cheaper than its predecessor, but also much easier to manufacture. The Angara uses kerosene-oxygen engines. It can be launched from the Plesetsk and Vostochny cosmodromes without paying astronomical amounts to the Kazakhs for renting Baikonur.
Despite such bright prospects, the Proton-M launch vehicle will probably be used for a long time, as the development of new technology is delayed.