The Briz-K, Briz-KM and Briz-M (russian: Бриз-К, КM and M meaning ''Breeze-K, KM and M'') are Russian liquid-propellant rocket

orbit insertion Orbit insertion is the spaceflight operation of adjusting a spacecraft’s momentum, in particular to allow for entry into a stable orbit around a planet, moon, or other celestial body. This maneuver involves either deceleration from a speed ...

upper stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage is ...

s manufactured by

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (''Государственный космический научно-производственный центр (ГКНПЦ) имени М. В. Хру́ничева'' in Russian) is a ...

and used on the

Proton-M The Proton-M, (Протон-М) GRAU index 8K82M or , is an expendable Russian heavy-lift launch vehicle derived from the Soviet-developed Proton. It is built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 and 200 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ka ...

and

Angara A5 The Angara rocket family (Russian: Ангара) is a family of launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The launch vehicles are to put between and into low Earth orbit and ar ...

. The upper stages were also used on

Rokot Rokot (russian: Рокот meaning ''Rumble'' or ''Boom''), also transliterated Rockot, was a 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- ...

, one of Russia's smaller launchers, before its retirement in 2019.

Characteristics

Briz-K and Briz-KM

Briz-K,

GRAU index The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the ...

14S12, is a single-piece structure with a conical tank compartment and the engine located in a recess in the fuel tank. Briz-KM (

14S45) is an improved version of Briz-K. The Briz-K and Briz-KM were used as a third stage of the

launch vehicles.

Briz-M

Briz-M,

14S43, is designed for injecting large payloads into a low, medium-height or high geosynchronous orbit. Briz-M is a twin upper stage consisting of a core module (using Briz-KM as the baseline) and a jettisonable add-on toroidal tank surrounding the core. It is powered by a pump-fed gimballed main engine, the 14D30.Proton/Breeze-M
International Launch Services, retrieved on 23 March 2009 The main engine can be restarted 8 times in flight and allows precision placement of the spacecraft into orbit. Orbital lifetime of the Briz-M is limited by available onboard battery power and is currently 24 hours. The total time of the standard Proton/Briz-M mission to geosynchronous orbit profile from lift-off to spacecraft separation is approximately 9.3 hours. A Proton launch vehicle with a Briz-M upper stage can also inject payloads to Earth escape trajectories. One of system's design goals has been to keep overall dimensions as small as possible. Briz-M takes much less space on board the launch vehicle compared to its predecessor, the

Block D Blok D (russian: Блок Д meaning Block D) is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems, including the N1, Proton-K and Zenit. The stage (and its derivatives) has been included in more than 320 launched ...

upper stage, leaving freed volume for the cargo. A Proton with a Briz-M can place a 4,385 kg satellite, such as an

A2100AX The A2100 is a model of communications satellite spacecraft made by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. It is used as the foundation for telecommunications payloads in geosynchronous orbit, as well as GOES-R weather satellites and GPS Block IIIA satel ...

, into a target orbit with an apogee of 35,786 km, a perigee of 7,030 km, and an inclination of 17.3°. Maximum lift capability of the Briz-M stage is 5,645 kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit with a 1,500 m/s residual velocity to GSO. A tandem launch of multiple spacecraft is also supported, with the ability to inject the spacecraft into different orbits.

History

The maiden flight of Briz-M took place on 5 July 1999. The flight was a failure, due to the explosion of the carrier rocket's second stage. The flight had a communications satellite as a payload. Briz-M completed its first successful flight on 6the June 2000, when it delivered the

Gorizont Gorizont (russian: Горизонт, ''Horizon''), GRAU index 11F662, is a series of 35 Russian, previously Soviet, geosynchronous communications satellites launched between 1978 and 2000. The programme was started in order to develop a satelli ...

communications satellite into orbit. It is planned to use Briz-M with the A3 and A5 versions of the future

Angara rocket family The Angara rocket family (Russian: Ангара) is a family of launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The launch vehicles are to put between and into low Earth orbit and are ...

Launch chronology

Proton-M/Briz-M

Rokot/Briz-K/KM

Angara A5/Briz-M

References

* {{Upper stages Expendable space launch systems Rocket stages Space launch vehicles of Russia