Author Topic: Roskosmos will end use of Zenit rocket (Read 5908 times)

Avitoholl · « **on:** 02/01/2015 11:23 pm »

Roscosmos has just announced that Russia will stop use of the Ukraine build Zenit rocket in 2018. There will be 3 more Zenit launches (2 this year), and after that all satellites that were supposed to be launched on Zenit will go on Angara.

http://izvestia.ru/news/582498

Uzmash is heading toward bankruptcy (from $250M revenue in 2011, down to only $28M in 2014). The staff is currently on 2 months of non paid leave and most of them probably will never return to work. This war is the most devastating thing that have happened to Ukraine since WWII.

gospacex · « **Reply #1 on:** 02/02/2015 12:27 am »

Quote from: Avitoholl on 02/01/2015 11:23 pm

Roscosmos has just announced that Russia will stop use of the Ukraine build Zenit rocket in 2018. There will be 3 more Zenit launches (2 this year), and after that all satellites that were supposed to be launched on Zenit will go on Angara.

http://izvestia.ru/news/582498

Uzmash is heading toward bankruptcy (from $250M revenue in 2011, down to only $28M in 2014). The staff is currently on 2 months of non paid leave and most of them probably will never return to work. This war is the most devastating thing that have happened to Ukraine since WWII.

The most devastating thing for Ukraine is bad governance, which shows only weak signs of improving even now.

Yuzhmash is one of government-owned enterprises in Ukraine, and nearly all of them show this peculiar trait of being non-profitable or nearing bankruptcy, but whoever gets appointed to be a director of one, starts to drive an expensive car.

In other words, all or nearly all of profits generated by government-owned enterprises in Ukraine are stolen by corrupt bureaucracy. This, by the way, is a universal phenomenon and one of the reasons why socialism is far worse system than capitalism.

Avitoholl · « **Reply #2 on:** 02/02/2015 01:23 am »

The issue here is that in about 2 years Ukraine will no longer be a space fairing nation. This is not about socialism vs capitalism.

JH · « **Reply #3 on:** 02/02/2015 03:25 am »

Yeah, that veered wildly off topic. Also, I've got to say that in the short term at least a vastly larger and more powerful neighboring country invading them is probably the larger issue...

Quote from: Avitoholl on 02/02/2015 01:23 am

The issue here is that in about 2 years Ukraine will no longer be a space fairing nation.

I suppose it depends on what you classify as "a space fairing nation". Has Orbital announced that Uzmash will not be providing the tanks for the new Antares? Unless that is the case, Ukraine will still be contributing to a viable launch vehicle even after the discontinuation of Zenit. It's not as if Zenit rockets are even launched by Ukraine itself anyway, so by some definitions Ukraine has already left the club of space fairing nations.

Finally, if you're feeling truly optimistic, the Tsyklon-4 is still theoretically supposed to have its first launch this year.

Tomness · « **Reply #4 on:** 02/02/2015 05:04 am »

Why not just put 4 RD-191 on Zenit first, never got 5 core rocket

B. Hendrickx · « **Reply #5 on:** 02/02/2015 09:03 am »

Quote from: Avitoholl on 02/01/2015 11:23 pm

Roscosmos has just announced that Russia will stop use of the Ukraine build Zenit rocket in 2018. There will be 3 more Zenit launches (2 this year), and after that all satellites that were supposed to be launched on Zenit will go on Angara.

http://izvestia.ru/news/582498

Uzmash is heading toward bankruptcy (from $250M revenue in 2011, down to only $28M in 2014). The staff is currently on 2 months of non paid leave and most of them probably will never return to work. This war is the most devastating thing that have happened to Ukraine since WWII.

The article also says that the decision was made by the new Roskosmos management. In December Roskosmos officials had told Izvestiya that the agency was in favor of continued use of Zenit rockets. At that time the plan was to launch three Zenit rockets in 2016-2018 (two Elektro-L weather satellites and the Spektr-RG astrophysics observatory) and two in 2015.

The article says two Zenit rockets are ready and have been delivered to Russia. One wil launch Elektro-L nr. 2 in June and the other is supposed to launch Spektr-RG in 2017. A TsENKI official told Izvestiya there should be no problem with the Elektro launch this June, but the Spektr-RG launch by Zenit is in jeapordy because of the uncertainty over the fate of Yuzhmash (by 2017 Yuzhmash specialists may no longer be available to take part in launch preparations and no spare parts may be available for the rocket).

Another Zenit rocket has been assembled at Yuzhmash for the launch of the Ukrainian Lybid communications satellite, but Yuzhmash cannot afford to buy the Russian-built RD-171 engine and guidance and control systems for the rocket.

According to Izvesitya, officials at the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment say they have not been notified of any delays in the launch of Elektro-L weather satellites, "three of which were scheduled to be launched by Zenit".

Putting this all together, it looks like three Zenit launches are still on the manifest :
- June 2015 : Elektro-L nr. 2 (rocket ready and delivered)
- ? 2015 : Lybid (rocket still lacks engines and guidance&control systems)
- ? 2017 : Spektr-RG (rocket ready and delivered)

I should add that according to the launch manifests published on the Novosti kosmonavtiki website, the launch of Elektro-L nr. 3 and 4 (now scheduled for 2016 and 2018) was moved to Proton before the recent management change at Roskosmos.

Avitoholl · « **Reply #6 on:** 02/03/2015 01:59 pm »

Here we go ,..Dnepr program is also canceled.

http://rt.com/news/228779-roscosmos-halts-ukraine-project/

Avitoholl · « **Reply #7 on:** 02/05/2015 09:53 pm »

And now we have See Launch jumping the ship,..it is crazy how in just a few days we have seen such a total collapse.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Sea_Launch_Considers_Replacement_of_Ukrainian_Made_Zenit_3SL_Space_Rocket_999.html

NASA or the commercial space should go and hire some of the engineers at Yuzhmash. These guys have virtually zero chance for finding job in Ukraine.

fregate · « **Reply #8 on:** 02/06/2015 12:10 am »

2 Zenit rockets already on Russian territory, so according to board member of Roskosmos State Corporation Igor Burenkov it's up to Yuzhmash to make a decision to cooperate with Russians or not. All other payloads would be transferred to Proton-M LV. According to I.Burenkiv decision not to use Zenit was not a political one, rather it was a reaction on non-reliability of Ukrainian partners (after Yuzhmash announcement of halting production) Source: Moscow Radiostation Echo Moskvi.