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Block D
Blok 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 rockets . By 2002 its modification Blok DM had a 97% success rate in 218 flights since 1974, and 43 successful missions in 1997–2002. The stage was developed in the 1960s as the fifth stage (' Д' is the fifth letter in the Cyrillic alphabet) for the powerful N1 rocket used in the Soviet crewed lunar programs. The stage first flew in March 1967 while testing the Zond spacecraft as a part of those programs. During crewed lunar flight Blok D would be used for mid-course corrections on the flight to the Moon, then to place the lunar orbiter and lander into a lunar orbit, and decelerate moon-lander out onto its landing trajectory. Blok D was also included as fourth stage of Proton-K and as such flew on uncrewed Soviet missions to Moon, Mars ( Mars 3) and Venus ...
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet Union, it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country by area, extending across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and sharing Geography of the Soviet Union#Borders and neighbors, borders with twelve countries, and the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country. An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of Republics of the Soviet Union, national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR. In practice, Government of the Soviet Union, its government and Economy of the Soviet Union, economy were Soviet-type economic planning, highly centralized. As a one-party state go ...
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Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmospheric pressure is a few thousandths of Earth's, atmospheric temperature ranges from and cosmic radiation is high. Mars retains some water, in the ground as well as thinly in the atmosphere, forming cirrus clouds, frost, larger polar regions of permafrost and ice caps (with seasonal snow), but no liquid surface water. Its surface gravity is roughly a third of Earth's or double that of the Moon. It is half as wide as Earth or twice the Moon, with a diameter of , and has a surface area the size of all the dry land of Earth. Fine dust is prevalent across the surface and the atmosphere, being picked up and spread at the low Martian gravity even by the weak wind of the tenuous atmosphere. The terrain of Mars roughly follows a north-south ...
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Buran (spacecraft)
''Buran'' (, , ; GRAU index serial number: 11F35 1K, construction number: 1.01) was the first spaceplane to be produced as part of the Soviet/Russian Buran programme, Buran program. The Buran orbiters were similar in design to the Space Shuttle, U.S. Space Shuttle. Buran completed one uncrewed spaceflight in 1988, and was destroyed in 2002 due to the collapse of its storage hangar. The Buran-class orbiters used the Expendable launch system, expendable Energia (rocket), Energia rocket, a class of super heavy-lift launch vehicle. Besides describing the first operational Soviet/Russian shuttle orbiter, "Buran" was also the designation for the entire Soviet/Russian spaceplane project and its flight articles, which were known as "Buran-class orbiters". Construction The construction of the Buran spacecraft began in 1980, and by 1984 the first full-scale orbiter was rolled out. Over 1,000 companies all over the Soviet Union were involved in construction and development. The Buran s ...
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RKK Energia
S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation "Energia" () is a Russian manufacturer of spacecraft and space station components. Its name is derived from the Russian word for energy and is also named for Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the first chief of its design bureau and the driving force behind early Soviet accomplishments in space exploration. Overview Energia is the largest company of the Russian space industry and one of its key players. It is responsible for all operations involving human spaceflight and is the lead developer of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, and the lead developer of the Russian end of the International Space Station (ISS). In the mid-2000s, the company employed 22,000–30,000 people. The enterprise has been awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution and Russian Federation President's Message of Thanks. In addition, 14 cosmonauts employed by the company have been awarded the title "Hero of the Russian Federation". Structure The co ...
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JSC Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant
Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant (stylized KrasMash) () is a Russian arms manufacturer and home appliance manufacturer based in Krasnoyarsk. It was established in 1932 and became a subsidiary of Roscosmos. The Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant was a leading producer of liquid propellant submarine-launched ballistic missiles in the USSR. It has also produced "Biryusa" refrigerators for many years and in the 1990s it converted to the production of a number of new civilian goods. The company also produced the torches for the 2014 Winter Olympics torch relay. History The plant was founded in July 13, 1932, when the ''Charter of the State Administration for the Construction and Temporary Operation of the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant'' was adopted by order of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry. At that time, the plant produced dredges, steam boilers and excavators for gold mines. During World War II, the plant was one of the manufacturers of guns of various syst ...
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Space Debris
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, space garbage, or cosmic debris) are defunct human-made objects in spaceprincipally in Earth orbitwhich no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft (nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch vehicle stages), mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in-Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-made objects left in orbit, space debris includes fragments from disintegration, erosion, or collisions; solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft; unburned particles from solid rocket motors; and even paint flecks. Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft. Space debris is typically a negative externality. It creates an external cost on others from the initial action to launch or use a spacecraft in near-Earth orbit, a cost that is typically not taken into account nor fully accoun ...
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Ullage Motor
Ullage motors (also known as ullage engines or ullage rockets) are relatively small, independently fueled rocket engines that may be fired prior to main engine ignition, when the vehicle is in a zero-g situation. The resulting acceleration causes liquid in the rocket's main tanks to settle towards the aft end, ensuring uninterrupted flow to the fuel and oxidizer pumps. Description Cryogenic-liquid-fueled rockets keep their propellants in insulated tanks. These tanks are never completely filled to allow for expansion. In micro-gravity conditions the cryogenic liquids are without a free surface, and exist in a slushy state between solid, liquid, and gas. In this mixed state, ullage gases may be sucked into the engines, which is undesirable, as it displaces useful propellant, reduces efficiency, and may damage the engines. Small rocket engines, called "ullage motors", are sometimes used to settle the propellant before main engine ignition to allow the formation of a temporary free ...
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RD-58
The RD-58 (, GRAU index: 11D58) is a rocket engine, developed in the 1960s by OKB-1, now RKK Energia. The project was managed by Mikhail Melnikov, and it was based on the previous S1.5400 which was the first staged combustion engine in the world. The engine was initially created to power the Block D stage of the Soviet Union's abortive N1 rocket. Derivatives of this stage are now used as upper stages on some Proton and Zenit rockets. An alternative version of the RD-58 chamber, featuring a shorter nozzle, was used as the N1's roll-control engine. The RD-58 uses LOX as the oxidizer and RG-1 as fuel in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. It features a single gimbaled chamber, radial centrifugal pumps with auxiliary booster pumps, and an oxygen-rich preburner. Recent modifications include a lightweight carbon-composite nozzle extender developed by NPO Iskra. The Buran spacecraft used two of an evolution of the RD-58M, called 17D12, as its main orbital correction engi ...
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Kerosene
Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning "wax"; it was registered as a trademark by Nova Scotian, Nova Scotia geologist and inventor Abraham Pineo Gesner, Abraham Gesner in 1854 before evolving into a generic trademark. It is sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage. Kerosene is widely used to power jet engines of aircraft (jet fuel), as well as some rocket engines in a highly refined form called RP-1. It is also commonly used as a cooking and lighting fuel, and for fire toys such as Poi (performance art)#Fire poi, poi. In parts of Asia, kerosene is sometimes used as fuel for small outboard motors or even motorcycles. World total kerosene consumption for all purposes is equivalent to about 5,500,000 barrels per day as of July 2023. The term "kerosene" is comm ...
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Liquid Oxygen
Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical properties Liquid oxygen has a clear cyan color and is strongly paramagnetic: it can be suspended between the poles of a powerful horseshoe magnet. Liquid oxygen has a density of , slightly denser than liquid water, and is cryogenic with a freezing point of and a boiling point of at . Liquid oxygen has an expansion ratio of 1:861 and because of this, it is used in some commercial and military aircraft as a transportable source of breathing oxygen. Because of its cryogenic nature, liquid oxygen can cause the materials it touches to become extremely brittle. Liquid oxygen is also a very powerful oxidizing agent: organic materials will burn rapidly and energetically in liquid oxygen. Further, if soaked in liquid oxygen, some materials su ...
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Astra 1K
Astra 1K was a communications satellite manufactured by Alcatel Space for SES (company), SES. When it was launched on 25 November 2002, it was the largest civilian communications satellite ever launched, with a mass of . Intended to replace the Astra 1B satellite and provide backup for Astra 1A, 1A, Astra 1C, 1C and Astra 1D, 1D at the Astra 19.2°E orbital position, the Blok D, Blok DM3 upper stage of the Proton-K launch vehicle failed to function properly, leaving the satellite in an unusable parking orbit. Launch Astra 1K was to be a European (Luxembourg-based) geostationary communications satellite that was launched by a Proton-K launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 23:04:23 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC on 25 November 2002. However, the Blok D, Blok DM3 upper stage attached to the , 13 Watt, kW satellite (reported to be the most massive of civilian communications satellite, with its 52 Ku band, Ku-band and two Ka band, Ka-band transponders to cover 1,100 channels) ...
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Sea Launch
Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit-3SL rockets from a former mobile/floating oil drilling rig renamed ''Odyssey''. By 2014, it had assembled and launched thirty-two rockets, with an additional three failures and one partial failure. All commercial payloads were communications satellites intended for geostationary transfer orbit with such customers as EchoStar, DirecTV, XM Satellite Radio, PanAmSat, and Thuraya. The approach Sea Launch LLC used was to assemble the launcher on a purpose-built ship '' Sea Launch Commander'' in Nimitz Rd., Long Beach, California, USA. The assembled spacecraft was then positioned on top of the self-propelled ''Odyssey'' floating launch platform and moved to the equatorial Pacific Ocean f ...
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