Rokot

by Jean-Jacques Serra
The primary activity of Chelomei's OKB-52 was navy missiles production. In 1959 the firm started producing more important missiles such as the solid propulsion UR-96 ABM and the UR-100 (SS-11 Sego) ICBM with stockable liquid propellant. 1030 copies of this light ICBM (50 tons) of 3rd generation were deployed in the 60ies and 70ies.


Origin: Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) of fourth generation

After designing the RU-200 ICBM and the UR-500 Proton space launcher Chelomei's OKB (now NPO Saliout) developped a new ICBM know as UR-100N or RS-18 (or SS-19 Stilleto) between 1964 and 1975. 360 copies of the 4th generation ICBM were manufactured in the 70ies and 80ies.

Few characteristics on this missile are known apart that it has two stages with storable liquid propellants. It uses four steerable engines (RD-0233/0234) in stage 1 and a single-chamber main engine with a four-chamber steering engine (RD-0235/0236) in stage 2. All these engines are from Kosberg (KB Khimautomatiki). The UR-100N is about 27 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter, with a gross takeoff mass of 90 tons.


The rokot launcher

The launcher is a SS-19 missile to which a Briz 3rd stage has been added. Briz weighs 6.4 tons and is 3.4 m long for 2.2 m diameter. Its in-flight refirable motor uses stockable propellant (NTO-UDMH). The launcher can orbit 1.85 tons of payload in LEO.

The K version refers to the launcher with the Briz-K top stage (14S12) and the KM version refers to the Briz-KM top stage (14S45). The KS version matches the launcher with Briz-KS.

It is marketed by Eurockot Launch Services GmbH (Khrunichev and DASA) since 1997. A launch should cost approx $10 million. The first launches should take place in Plesetsk before being transfered at Svobodny in the Russian far East. In 2007, the Svobodny launch site will be closed down.

Rokot is to be abandonned in 2017.

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External resources

http://www.eurockot.com/

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Rokot launches

#	Launch id	Payload	Launch date	Site	Version	Status (orbit in perigee x apogee x inc. x period)
1	n/a	n/a	20 Dec 1990	T	K	no 3rd stage, suborbital
2	n/a	n/a	20 Dec 1991	T	K	suborbital
3	94085	RS 15	26 Dec 1994 at 03:00 UT	T	K	The spent third stage exploded a few hours after launch
4	n/a		24 Dec 1999	P	K	Vehicle damaged before launch
5	00026	Simsat 1 (543/558 km x 86.3°) Simsat 2 (520/544 km x 86.4°) dummy satellites, 660 kg total	16 May 2000 at 08:28 UT	P	KM	Briz upper stage 536 x 550 km x 86.4°
6	02012	Grace 1 Grace 2	17 Mar 2002 at 09:21 UT	P	KM	499 x 507 km x 89°
7	02031	Iridium 97 Iridium 98	20 Jun 2002 at 09:33 UT	P	KM	650 km x 86.6°
9	03031	A: Monitor E mockup (attached to the Briz upper stage) B: Mimosa C: DTUSat D: Most E: Cute 1 F: Quakesat G: AAUsat 1 H: CanX 1 J: Cubesat XI-IV	30 Jun 2003 at 15:15 UT	P	KS	first launch with Briz KS upper stage
10	03050	Servis 1	30 Oct 2003 at 13:43 UT	P
11	05032	Monitor E	26 Aug 2005 at 18:34 UT	P
12	n/a	Cryosat	8 Oct 2005 at 15:02 UT	P	KM	Failure: 2nd and 3rd stage did not separate because Briz's flight control program did not issue the required command
13	06031	Kompsat 2	28 Jul 2006 at 07:05 UT	P
14	08025	A: Yubileiny B: Cosmos 2437 C: Cosmos 2438 D: Cosmos 2439	23 May 2008 at 15:20 UT	P
15	09013	Goce	17 Mar 2009 at 14:21 UT	P
16	09036	A: Cosmos 2451 B: Cosmos 2452 C: Cosmos 2453	6 Jul 2009 at 01:26 UT	P
17	09059	A: Smos B: Proba 2	02 Nov 2009 at 01:50 UT	P
18	10023	Servis 2	02 Jun 2010 at 01:59 UT	P
19	10043	A: Cosmos 2467 B: Gonets M 2 C: Cosmos 2468	08 Sep 2010 at 03:30 UT	P
20	11005	Geo-IK 2	01 Feb 2011 at 14:00 UT	P		Failure: Briz-KM second burn failed to occur
21	12041	A: Cosmos 2481 B: Gonets M 3 C: Yubileiny 2 D: Gonets M 4	28 Jul 2012 at 01:35 UT	P
22	13001	A: Cosmos 2482 B: Cosmos 2483 C: Cosmos 2484	15 Jan 2013 at 16:25 UT	P		Partial launch failure, separation issues
23	13048	A: Gonets M 5 B: Gonets M 6 C: Gonets M 7	11 Sep 2013 at 23:23 UT	P
24	13067	A: Swarm 1 B: Swarm 2 C: Swarm 3	22 Nov 2013 at 12:02 UT	P
25	13076	A: Cosmos 2488 B: Cosmos 2489 C: Cosmos 2490 E: Cosmos 2491	25 Dec 2013 at 00:31 UT	P
26	14028	A: Cosmos 2496 B: Cosmos 2497 C: Cosmos 2498 E: Cosmos 2499	23 May 2014 at 05:27 UT	P
27	14036	A: Gonets M 8 B: Gonets M 9 C: Gonets M 10	3 Jul 2014 at 12:43 UT	P
28	15020	A: Gonets M 11 B: Gonets M 12 C: Gonets M 13 D: Cosmos 2504	31 Mar 2015 at 13:48 UT	P
29	15050	A: Cosmos 2507 B: Cosmos 2508 C: Cosmos 2509	23 Sep 2015 at 22:00 UT	P
30	16011	Sentinel 3A	16 Feb 2016 at 17:57 UT	P
31	16034	Cosmos 2517	4 Jun 2016 at 14:00 UT	P
32	17064	Sentinel 5P	13 Oct 2017 at 09:27 UT	P
33	18039	Sentinel 3B	25 Apr 2018 at 17:57 UT	P
34	18097	A: Cosmos 2530 B: Cosmos 2531 C: Cosmos 2532	30 Nov 2018 at 02:27 UT	P
35	19057	Cosmos 2540	30 Aug 2019 at 14:00 UT	P
36	19096	A: Gonets M 14 B: Gonets M 15 C: Gonets M 16	26 Dec 2019 at 23:11 UT	P		Last Rokot

Notes: Launches from T/Tyuratam and P/Plesetsk.

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