 Energia perspective free render with multiple angles and human (1.76 m) for scale. | |
| Function | Human-rated multi-purposesuper heavy-lift launch vehicle |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | NPO "Energia" |
| Country of origin | Soviet Union |
| Cost per launch | US$764 million (1985)US$2.306 billion (2025)[1] |
| Size | |
| Height | 58.765 m (192.80 ft)[2] |
| Diameter | 17.65 m (57.9 ft)[2] |
| Mass | 2,400,000 kg (5,300,000 lb) |
| Stages | 2 |
| Capacity | |
| Payload toLEO | |
| Mass | 100,000 kg (220,000 lb)[3] |
| Payload toGSO | |
| Mass | 20,000 kg (44,000 lb)[3] |
| Payload toTLI | |
| Mass | 32,000 kg (71,000 lb)[3] |
| Launch history | |
| Status | Retired |
| Launch sites | Baikonur |
| Total launches | 2 |
| Success(es) | 2 |
| Failure | 0 |
| First flight | 15 May 1987 |
| Last flight | 15 November 1988 |
| Boosters –Zenit | |
| No. boosters | 4 |
| Height | 39.46 m (129.5 ft)[2] |
| Diameter | 3.92 m (12.9 ft)[2] |
| Powered by | 1RD-170 |
| Maximum thrust | 29,000 kN (6,500,000 lbf) sea level 32,000 kN (7,200,000 lbf) vacuum |
| Specific impulse | 309 s (3.03 km/s) at sea level 338 s (3.31 km/s) in vacuum |
| Burn time | 156 s |
| Propellant | RP-1/LOX |
| Core stage | |
| Height | 58.765 m (192.80 ft)[2] |
| Diameter | 7.75 m (25.4 ft)[2] |
| Powered by | 4RD-0120 |
| Maximum thrust | 5,800 kN (1,300,000 lbf) sea level 7,500 kN (1,700,000 lbf) vacuum |
| Specific impulse | 359 s (3.52 km/s) at sea level 454 s (4.45 km/s) in vacuum |
| Burn time | 480–500 s |
| Propellant | LH2/LOX |
Energia (Russian:Энергия,romanized: Energiya,lit. 'Energy';GRAU 11K25) was a 1980ssuper-heavy lift launch vehicle. It was designed byNPO Energia of theSoviet Union as part of theBuran program for a variety of payloads including theBuran spacecraft. Control system main developer enterprise was theKhartron NPO "Electropribor".[4][5] The Energia used fourstrap-on boosters each powered by a four-chamberRD-170 engine burningkerosene/LOX, and a central core stage with four single-chamberRD-0120 (11D122) engines fueled byliquid hydrogen/LOX.[6]
The launch vehicle had two functionally different operational variants: Energia-Polyus, the initial test configuration, in which thePolyus system was used as a final stage intended to put the payload into orbit, and Energia-Buran,[7] in which theBuran orbiter was the payload and the source of the orbit insertion impulse.
The launch vehicle had the capacity to place about 100tonnes inLow Earth orbit, up to 20 tonnes togeostationary orbit and up to 32 tonnes by translunar trajectory intolunar orbit.[3]
The launch vehicle made just two flights before being discontinued.[8][7] Since 2016, there have been attempts to revive the launch vehicle, reusing anupdated version of its booster engine in theSoyuz-5 rocket.
Work on the Energia/Buran system began in 1976 after the decision was made to cancel the unsuccessfulN1 rocket. The facilities and infrastructure built for the N1 were reused for Energia (notably the huge horizontal assembly building), just as NASA reused infrastructure designed for theSaturn V in theSpace Shuttle program. Energia also replaced the "Vulkan" concept, which was a design based on theProton and using the samehypergolic propellants, but much larger and more powerful. The "Vulkan" designation was later given to a variation of the Energia which has eight boosters and multiple stages.
The Energia was designed to launch the Soviet "Buran" reusable shuttle,[7] and for that reason was designed to carry its payload mounted on the side of the stack, rather than on the top, as is done with other launch vehicles. Design of the Energia-Buran system assumed that the booster could be used without the Buran orbiter, as a heavy-lift cargo launch vehicle; this configuration was originally given the name "Buran-T".[8] This configuration required the addition of an upper stage to perform the final orbital insertion.[8] The first launch of the Energia was in the configuration of a heavy launch vehicle, with the largePolyus military satellite as a payload, however Polyus failed to correctly perform the orbital insertion.
Due to the termination of theBuran program the Energia program was concluded after only two launches. The legacy of Energia/Buran project manifests itself in theRD-170 family of rocket engines, and theZenit launcher, with the first stage roughly the same as one of the Energia first-stage boosters.
The first stage, Block A was four strap-on boosters weighing in at 340 tons with fuel included. The boosters had a burn time of 156 seconds from takeoff. They used one RD-170 engine for each booster, four in total. Each booster was 40 meters (131.2 ft) tall and 3.9 meters (12.7 ft) wide. The stage used kerosene as fuel.[6]
The boosters' thrust was 7,906.100 kN in a vacuum.[9]
The second stage, Block Ts was the core/center stage of the rocket weighing in at about 50 tons with fuel included. The stage had a burn time of 470 seconds from takeoff. They had used 4 one-chamber RD-O120 engines. The stage was 59 meters (193.5 ft) tall and 7.75 meters (24.4 ft) wide. The center used liquid hydrogen as fuel instead of the kerosene used in the boosters.[6]
The core stage had 7,848.124 kN of thrust in a vacuum.[9]
The Energia was first test-launched on 15 May 1987, with thePolyus spacecraft as the payload. AnFGB ("functional cargo block") engine section originally built as a cancelledMir module was incorporated into the upper stage used to insert the payload into orbit, similarly to Buran and the US Space Shuttle performing the final orbital insertion, since the planned "Buran-T" upper stage had not yet progressed beyond the planning stage.[8] The intended orbit had 280 km (170 mi) altitude and 64.6° inclination.[10]
The Soviets had originally announced that the launch was a successful sub-orbital test of the new Energia booster with a dummy payload, but sometime later it was revealed that in fact the flight had been intended to bring the Polyus into orbit. The two stages of the Energia launcher functioned as designed, but due to a software error in its attitude control system, Polyus's orbital insertion motor failed to inject the payload into orbit. Instead, the Polyus reentered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.[11]
The second flight, and the first one where payload successfully reached orbit, was launched on 15 November 1988. This mission launched the uncrewed Soviet Shuttle vehicleBuran. At apogee, the Buran spacecraft made a 66.7 m/s burn to reach a final orbit of 251 km × 263 km.[7][12]
| Flight number (COSPAR ID) | Date (UTC) | Launch site | Serial no. | Payload | Orbit at payload separation | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 May 1987 17:30:00 | Baikonur CosmodromeSite 250 | 6SL[13] | Polyus | −15 × 155 km × 64.61°[14] | Spacecraft software error led to orbit insertion burn performed in incorrect attitude and payload re-entered atmosphere without entering orbit.[15] |
| 2 (1988-100A) | 15 November 1988 03:00:01 | Baikonur CosmodromeSite 110/37 | 1L[13] | Buran | −11.2 × 154.2 km × 51.64°[16] After burn: 251 x 263 km[12] | First and only flight ofBuran. The spacecraft orbited Earth twice before de-orbiting and landed at Baikonur at 06:24 UTC. |
Production of Energia rockets ended with the end of the Buran shuttle project in the late 1980s, and more certainly, with thefall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since that time, there have been persistent rumors of the renewal of production, but given the political realities, that is highly unlikely.[17]
While the Energia is no longer in production, the Zenit boosters were in use until 2017. The four strap-onliquid-fuel boosters, which burned kerosene and liquid oxygen, were the basis of the Zenit rocket which used the same engines. The engine is the four combustion chamberRD-170. Its derivative, theRD-171, was used on theZenit rocket. A half-sized derivative of the engine, the two-chamberRD-180, powersLockheed Martin'sAtlas V rocket, while the single-chamber derivative, theRD-191, has been used to launch the KoreanNaro-1 (as a reduced-thrust variant named theRD-151) and the RussianAngara rocket. The RD-181, based on the RD-191, was used on theAntares 200 series rocket.[18]
In August 2016,Roscosmos announced conceptual plans to develop asuper heavy-lift launch vehicle from existing Energia components (particularly the RD-171 engine for side boosters)[19] instead of pushing the less-powerfulAngara A5V project.[20] This would allow Russia to launch missions towards establishing apermanent Moon base with simpler logistics, launching just one or two 80–160-ton super-heavy rockets instead of four 40-ton Angara A5Vs implying quick-sequence launches and multiple in-orbit rendezvous.[21]Tests ofRD-171MV engine, an updated version of the engine used in Energia, were completed in September 2021 and may potentially be used in the successorSoyuz-5 rocket.[22]
Three major design variants were conceptualized after the original configuration, each with vastly different payloads.
The Energia-M was an early-1990s design configuration and the smallest of the three. The number ofboosters was reduced from four to two, the core stage was shortened and fitted with just oneRD-0120 engine. It was designed to replace the Proton rocket, but lost a 1993 competition to theAngara rocket.[23][24]
A non-functional prototype ("structural test vehicle") of the Energia M still exists in the Dynamic Test Stand facility atBaikonur Cosmodrome.[25]
Energia-2 was an evolution of the Energia studied in the 1980s. Unlike the Energia-Buran, which was planned to be semi-reusable (like the U.S.Space Shuttle), the GK-175 concept was to have allowed the recovery and reuse of all elements of the vehicle, similarly to the original, fully reusable Orbiter/Booster concept of the U.S. Shuttle.[26][27] The Energia-2 core as proposed would be capable of re-entering and gliding to a landing.[26]
The final never-built design concept was also the largest. With eight Zenit booster rockets and an Energia-M core as the upper stage, the Vulkan (which shared the name with another Soviet heavy lift rocket that was cancelled years earlier) configuration was initially projected to launch up to 200 metric tonnes into 200 km orbit with inclination 50.7°.[28]
The development of the Vulkan and the refurbishment of Universal Test Stand and Launch Pad at site 250 for its launches was in progress between 1990–1993 and abandoned soon after due to a lack of funds and the collapse of the Soviet Union.[29]
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The Energia rocket was created as a response to the Americans building the Space Shuttle and was heavily based off the already designed Space Shuttle. While the Shuttle was made as a cheaper alternative for spaceflight, the Russians were paranoid about its use as a military weapon and responded by designing and building Energia-Buran.[30]
The Space Shuttle could only bring a maximum 30 tonnes to LEO[31], but the Energia could bring a maximum 100 tonnes to LEO. This makes the Space Shuttle aheavy-lift launch vehicle and the Energia asuper-heavy lift launch vehicle.
The Space Shuttle program lasted 30 years, operating from 1981 to 2011. The Energia program began in 1976 and after its only two launches officially ended in 1993 and in total operated for 17 years.[6]
It's 1975 - the Soviets are becoming increasingly concerned that the new American Space Shuttle will be used as a space weapon.
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| Cancelled proposals | ||