Rokot ( meaning Rumble or Boom), also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of into a 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; The contract with European Space Agency (ESA) for launching Swarm in September 2013 was worth €27.1 million (US$36 million).
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 ( 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) as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) as oxidiser. The Strela is a similar rocket, also based on the SS-19.
History
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%.
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.
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. 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.
Another launch failure occurred in February 2011, when a Briz-KM malfunction 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. Rokot had its final flight on 26 December 2019. A fully Russian-made Rokot light carrier rocket, named Rokot-M, was expected to begin operations in 2024. The Rokot-M launch vehicle is intended for the Ministry of Defense of Russia.
Launch history Rokot Flight No. Date / time (UTC) Rocket, Configuration Launch site Payload Payload mass Orbit Customer Launch outcome 1 20 November 199004:00 Rokot/Briz-K Baikonur, Site 131/29 Experimental Payload Suborbital test flight 2 20 December 199121:31 Rokot/Briz-K Baikonur, Site 175/58 Experimental Payload Suborbital test flight 3 26 December 199403:01 Rokot/Briz-K Baikonur, Site 175/58 Radio-ROSTO First orbital mission. Amateur radio satellite N/A 22 December 1999 Rokot/Briz-K Plesetsk, Site 133/3 RSVN-40 (failure pre-flight) No launch, launch vehicle irreparably damaged during preparation. Experimental payload. 4 16 May 200008:27 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk, Site 133/3 SimSat-1 and 2 Iridium-mock-ups 5 17 March 200209:21 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk, Site 133/3 GRACE-1 and 2 NASA research satellite 6 20 June 200209:33 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk, Site 133/3 Iridium-97 and 98 Communication satellites 7 30 June 200314:15 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk, Site 133/3 MIMOSADTUsatMOSTCute-IQuakeSatAAU CubeSatCanX-1CubeSat Xi-IVMonitor-E mockup NLS satellites and Monitor-E-Mockup8 30 October 200313:43 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 SERVIS-1 Japanese test satellite9 26 August 200518:34 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Monitor-E1 Earth observation satellite10 8 October 200515:02 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 CryoSat 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 stack11 28 July 200607:05 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 KOMPSAT-2 Earth observation satellite12 23 May 200815:20 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2437Kosmos 2438Kosmos 2439(3X Strela-3)Yubileiny Communications and amateur radio satellites13 17 March 200914:21 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 GOCE ESA Earth observation satellite14 6 July 200901:26 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2451Kosmos 2452Kosmos 2453(3X Strela-3) Communications satellites15 2 November 200901:50 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 SMOS PROBA-2Eurockot Launch Service Provider SMOS: ESA Earth-observation satellite; PROBA-2: Sun-observation satellite testing a new spacecraft platform16 2 June 201001:59 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 SERVIS-2 Japanese test satellite17 8 September 201003:30 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Gonets-M-2Kosmos 2467Kosmos 2468(2X Strela-3) Communications satellites18 1 February 201114:00 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Geo-IK-2 No.11 Geodesy satellite. Upper stage malfunction, reached lower orbit than planned.19 28 July 201201:35 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Gonets-M-3Gonets-M-4Kosmos 2481 (Strela-3)MiR Communications and amateur radio satellites20 15 January 201316:25 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2482Kosmos 2483Kosmos 2484(3X Strela-3M) Communications satellites. Briz-KM failed around the time of spacecraft separation, resulting in the loss of one satellite21 11 September 201323:23 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Gonets-M-5Gonets-M-6Gonets-M-7 Communications satellites22 22 November 201312:02 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Swarm A/B/C Magnetosphere research satellites; Briz-km failed deorbit burn23 25 December 201300:31 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2488Kosmos 2489Kosmos 2490(3X Strela-3M) Kosmos 2491 Communications satellites24 23 May 201405:27 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2496Kosmos 2497Kosmos 2498(3X Strela-3M) Kosmos 2499 Communications satellites25 3 July 201412:43 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Gonets-M-8Gonets-M-9Gonets-M-10 Communications satellites26 31 March 201513:47 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Gonets-M-11Gonets-M-12Gonets-M-13Kosmos 2504 Communications satellites27 23 September 201522:00 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2507Kosmos 2508Kosmos 2509(3X Strela-3M) Communications satellites28 16 February 201617:57 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Sentinel-3A ESA earth observation satellite29 4 June 201614:00 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2517 (Geo-IK-2 No.12) Geodesy satellite30 13 October 201709:27 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Sentinel-5 Precursor Sentinel-5p launches on Russia's Rokot launch systemEarth observation satellite31 25 April 201817:57 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Sentinel-3B Earth observation satellite32 30 November 201802:27 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3Kosmos 2530Kosmos 2531Kosmos 2532(3X Strela-3M) []Communications satellites. After launch, NORAD tracked another object (besides the Briz-KM upper stage) which could possibly be a fourth satellite.33 30 August 201914:00 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Kosmos 2540 (Geo-IK-2 No.13) Geodesy satellite34 26 December 201923:11 Rokot/Briz-KM Plesetsk Site 133/3 Gonets-M-14Gonets-M-15Gonets-M-16BLITS-M 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 outcome1 December 2024 Rokot-M/Briz-KM2 Plesetsk Site 133/3 No Payload (Test Flight) TBDFirst test flight of Rokot-M/Briz-KM2
See also Dnepr (rocket) Comparison of orbital launchers families
References
External links
Website of Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, Launch Service Provider Rockot history on RussianSpaceWeb.com