Tsyklon
Overview, Supporting Facilities and Launch Vehicles of the Soviet Space Program *
1976-1980
* Prepared by the late Charles S. Sheldon II and Geoffrey E. Perry M.B.E. Dr. Sheldon was the Senior Specialist in Space and Transportation Technology, Mr. Perry is a Senior Teacher at Kettering Boys School, England, and the leader of the Kettering Group of amateur satellite observers.
THE MILITARY SPACE LAUNCH VEHICLE ("F")
The cumbersome SS-6 Sapwood ICBM represented a beginning for the Soviet intercontinental missile stockpile, but its use of cryogenics and awkward shape for potential silo use must have indicated fairly early that despite its continuing usefulness for space, it was not especially good for missile purposes, unless these were first strike. In a 1967 article m Red Star, General Tolubko stated that these surface launches of the (Sapwood) took a long time to prepare and that later version rockets were smaller and placed in silos. (48) As Soviet missile capabilities improved, they conducted more and more tests at the principal test site of Tyuratam which extended to the Kamchatka target areas, and then beyond to the mid-Pacific. These flights were often protested by the Japanese when target area closures were announced by the Russians. Photographs released by the U.S. Government of Soviet missile tracking ships in mid-Pacific and even of splashes of reentry bodies suggested that the United States was monitoring Soviet tests in the same way that Soviet ships monitor U.S missile tests. The Russians have always described these Pacific tests as further tests of carrier rockets, often signaling through variation in the language that new models were coming into the test program, rather than just continuation of earlier series. The observations made of the flights suggest they have definitely been tests of military missiles, not space carrier rockets as such. Every so often in the past, Soviet military leaders made specific reference to the high accuracy with which these tests delivered the "penultimate" stage of the carrier rockets to the assigned area.
As table 16 summarizes, the Western powers have assigned SS designators up through the SS-23 so far with four more unassigned, and there are NATO code names for most but not all of these, depending on whether they have been available on display or pictured in clear photographs. Of the longer range missiles, the SS-4, SS-5, and SS-6 have already been discussed in the context of their adaptation to space flight. At one time the SS-7 Saddler made up a large part of the Soviet missile inventory, but it was never put into a Moscow parade, and so far as can be judged was not adapted for space use. It was apparently a fairly modest capacity ICBM, which may have been the missile once shown in a rather blurred film clip from a Soviet movie and pictured on the cover of Missiles and Rockets magazine in the United States. The SS-8 Sasin was paraded in Moscow for a number of years, as the first Soviet ICBM ever given such public exposure. It seems never to have played a very prominent part in the inventory, but did become operational. According to U.S. Department of Defense testimony before Congress, the SS-11 replaced the SS-7 as the principal part of the Soviet ICBM inventory. Despite its extensive use, it has not been paraded in Moscow, and it does not seem to have come into space use. Having been hidden so carefully, it lacked any publicly known NATO code name until quite recently, but is now called Sego. It was also of relatively modest capacity.
Three other ICBM class missiles have been paraded in Moscow. These are the SS-9, SS-10, and SS-13. Taking them in reverse order, the SS-13 Savage is the technological equivalent of a Minuteman. But the Russians seem not to have favored solid propellant missiles for long range missile or space launch use. Some observers have said this is because their chemistry has not kept up with the same state of the art attained in the United States. In general, the Russians have moved from the early cryogenic systems to storable liquid propellants.
Figure 17 shows the SS-9 and SS-10 along with a concept of SS-11. The SS-10 Scrag was first paraded in May 1965 and has not been seen since 1971. It was a long, cigar shaped three-stage rocket described by the Russians as "akin" to the Vostok launcher (which was then still 2 years away from its first public unveiling). The stages were joined by open truss sections. The Russians also hinted that this vehicle was capable of putting a bomb in orbit for delivery to any place on Earth. In November 1965, when it was paraded again, the Russians were a little defensive in their comments stressing it did not violate any treaty restrictions on use of space weapons because such agreements prohibited their use, not their production. Further, they said in a sense, every ICBM is a space weapon, anyway, as all such missiles fly through space and their use is permitted under the terms of the space treaty.
USE AS A WEAPONS CARRIER, F-l-r
When Soviet test flights of fractional orbit bombardment systems (FOBS, see volume III) began in 1966, unofficial Western observers wondered if they were seeing the SS-10 Scrag being flown. Later, the U.S. Department of Defense credited the FOBS flights to the SS-9 Scarp with added stages. Apparently the SS-10 Scrag never entered the operational inventory. It was paraded again in May 1966 and November 1966. The same brief description of its orbital use continued. However, when it was paraded in November 1967, no reference was made to an orbital capacity, and in the parade appeared for the first time the SS-9 Scarp. The Tass report on this new SS-9 was: "The last to appear were mammoth rockets each of which can deliver to target nuclear warheads of tremendous power. These rockets can be used for intercontinental and orbital launchings." (49)
The SS-9 has indeed become an important element in the Soviet arsenal, and in retrospect it is possible to trace its further extension to use in the space program as well, for missions closely allied with military functions, but not the more civilian and scientific part of the space program.
In December 1965, the Russians announced rocket tests which they called tests of "landing systems" with "some elements" falling in the Pacific (staging, not payloads), which fitted the operational pattern of FOBS flights which came later. In November 1966, General Dankevich associated orbital rockets with silo launches, and said these vehicles carried very large warheads. (50) Secretary Laird in the United States stated that the SS-9 Scarp was the carrier of the FOBS system. (51)
The SS-9 Scarp was paraded as a 33.2-35 meter long, bottle-shaped rocket, with a principal diameter of 3 meters. In the parade the warhead section was about 1.15 meters in diameter, then expanding into a cone to join the main 3 meter diameter cylinder. It is hard to tell precisely whether the SS-9 Scarp as paraded was a two or three stage vehicle. It may have been divided at about 17.5-19.7 meters up from the base, with perhaps another 10.4-8.5 meters making up the second stage, and 5.3 meters making up either a third stage with warhead or simply a warhead.
Since for 2 years the SS-10 Scrag was described as an orbital weapon, it is possible that the third stage of that vehicle was transferred to the SS-9 Scarp for a further version which has not been pictured or put on display. In some of its space uses, a fourth stage is also required, to account for the patterns of debris or expended rocket casings which can be observed in flight. Figure 18 shows a concept of the F-l-r configuration based on SS-9 and SS-10. An alternative final stage is also depicted.
Our interest in this rocket in the context of this report is as a military space payload carrier, the F-l-r or F-l-m. We cannot say what the whole assemblage looks like today. From parade views, we know the first stage differs from that of the A class vehicles. While the A class uses a core with four strap-on boosters, the F class first stage shows six fixed nozzles, and four swivel-mounted vehicles enclosed in protective covers, while a plate covers the center part of the base. An article reviewing the use of the Scarp missile in its space-launcher role by dark was published recently m Spaceflight. (52)
The first known space use of the system was for FOBS tests, apparently in a four stage version. The first stage is suborbital. A carrier rocket stage, whether second stage or third stage is not clear, is abandoned in the initial orbit attained. The Royal Aircraft Establishment gives its dimensions as 8 meters long by 2.5 meters in diameter. In flight, a further change in orbit occurs, and this places an orbital platform in still another position. It is from this latter object that retrofire occurs (hence the designator "r" symbolizing the retrofire fourth stage) which drives the warhead back to Earth, while the rest of the orbiting hardware continues in space for at least a few more orbits.
USE AS A MANEUVERING VEHICLE, F-l-m
The F class vehicles have now appeared in several other flight modes. The essential change in the hardware is the appearance of a fourth maneuvering stage which may be the outgrowth of work started in the Polet and Kosmos 102 and 125 programs. These can be labeled the F-l-m series, although there may be subtypes to fit the different flight modes which have been observed. A conceptual representation of the F-l with one type of "m" stage and its associated payload is given in figure 19. All the F-l class space payloads have been launched from Tyuratam. The FOBS flights were at an inclination of 49.5 degrees. The maneuvering flights relating to anti-satellite (ASAT) tests started at an inclination of 62.2 degrees but, with the introduction of the C-l to launch the target satellites from Plesetsk at 65.8 degrees, changed to 65 degrees at launch and incorporated a small change of plane prior to the interception.
[We now know that the “m” stage was in fact the Polet payload as a proof of principal ASAT stage flight test demonstration flown on the basic “A” booster that would later appear in the coming years as a revised F-1-m Tsyklon-2 last stage of the Soviet ASAT program. The ASAT payload third last stage was a separate enlarged payload different from the RORSAT payload and FOBS payload and was really a derivation of the Tsyklon-2 with the third stage as the payload. Both ASAT and RORSAT required a longer Tsyklon second stage than that utilized by the standard SS-9 ICBM from which the Tsyklon was derived.]
[We now know that the Kosmos 102 and 125 program was the initial flight tests of the F-1-m, Tsyklon-2 upper last stage flown on the “A-1” booster and payload shroud that were later flown as the RORSAT payload. The RORSAT last stage was different from the ASAT and FOBS last stages payload and was really a derivation of the Tsyklon-2 with two stages plus the RORSAT payload spacecraft. FOBS, SL-10 essentially used the standard SS-9 with a revised design FOBS third stage different from the ASAT and RORSAT last stages.]
OTHER F-l COMBINATIONS
The series of ocean surveillance satellites employing side-looking radar and powered by a small nuclear reactor is also launched from Tyuratam by the F-l. Clark considers the "m" stage to be used to perform the low-orbit injection as well as for raising the reactor to the higher orbit at the conclusion of the low-orbit operational phase. (53) It is possible that the other series of ocean surveillance satellites, with the presumed role of electronic intelligence gathering (Elint), use a different "m" stage to achieve a near-circular orbit with a 93.3 min. period and, later, to move away from this orbit at the end of their active phase. This has been designated as an F-l-x vehicle because of the uncertainty of the nature of the final stage.
Both of these classes of satellites fly at the 65 degrees inclination and make small orbital adjustments throughout the operational phase. In order to differentiate between these small station keeping maneuvers and the major maneuvers producing large changes in the orbital parameters, Perry suggested the adoption of the suffix "s" for sustainer when engines are used to maintain an orbit by neutralizing natural decay. (54) Even so, there is still the possibility that two different types of "s" stage are employed since that for the ELINT satellites would not need to be so powerful as that for the radar type in which the stage which inserts the payload into the lower orbit remains attached to the payload throughout the operational phase.
THE IMPROVED F-2 VERSION
A new inclination of 76 degrees appeared with the launch from Plesetsk of Kosmos 921 in mid-1977. Two more Kosmos flights in the same year also flew at this inclination and are believed to have been vehicle tests of the F launcher from the northern cosmodrome. This inclination was not used again but a new series of launches at 82.5 degrees began in mid-1978. Kosmos 1076 and 1151 were identified as performing oceanographic research and had orbital periods of 97.8 min. as did the first launch of the series, Kosmos 1025. Kosmos 1045, with a period of a little more than 2 hours, was orbited by the same launch vehicle as the first two Soviet amateur radio satellites, RS1 and RS2.
Next to appear was a series of low orbit satellites at 82.3 degrees inclination which were recovered after missions lasting 2 weeks. Many of these were stated to be performing Earth resources missions and some were specifically identified as collecting data for the Priroda (Nature) Center. It is believed that all these missions are launched by a version of the F -vehicle with an improved upper stage which may be designated as F-2. Figure 20 is an attempt to guess at what the F-2 might look like if, indeed, such a variant does exist.
Commenting on the draft version of table 15, dark expressed serious doubts about the wisdom of identifying the recoverable 82.3 degrees launches as F-2 on the grounds that, without new second and third stages, the F vehicle would be incapable of placing a 7,000 kilogram reconnaissance payload in orbit. Basing his reasoning on calculations and the report in Aviation Week and Space Technology to the effect that the new launcher is the two-stage missile with a new third orbital stage, he designates the vehicle as F-l-X rather than F-2. (55)
References:
1. SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS: 1976-80, SUPPORTING FACILITIES AND LAUNCH VEHICLES, POLITICAL GOALS AND PURPOSES, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN SPACE, ADMINISTRATION, RESOURCE BURDEN, FUTURE OUTLOOK PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF HON. BOB PACKWOOD, Chairman, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, UNITED STATES SENATE, Part 1, Dec. 1982.
48 Tolubko, V. F. Moscow, Krasnaya Zvezda, Nov. 18, 1967 , p. 1A.
49. Tass, Moscow , 0710 GMT, Nov. 7,1967 .
50. Dankevich, P. E. Interview on Moscow Radio. 1430 GMT, Nov. 18, 1966 .
51. Laird, Melvin R. Fiscal Year 1971 Defense Program and Budget. Feb. 20, 1970 , p. 103.
52. Clark, Phillip S., The Scarp Program,. Spaceflight, London , May 1981, vol. 23, pp. 147-152.
53. Clark, P. S., op. cit.
54. Perry, G. E., private communication to C. S. Sheldon, Oct. 9, 1980 .
OVERVIEW, SUPPORTING FACILITIES AND LAUNCH VEHICLES OF THE SOVIET SPACE PROGRAM
By Dr. Charles S. Sheldon II*
1971-1975
THE MILITARY COMBAT SPACE VEHICLE ("F")
Tsyklon 2/SL-10(FOBS), SL-11, Tsyklon 3/SL-11 Series
The cumbersome SS-6 Sapwood ICBM represented a beginning for the Soviet continental missile stockpile, but its use of cryogenics and awkward shape for potential silo use must have indicated fairly early that despite its continuing usefulness for space, it was not
especially good for missile purposes, unless these were first strike.
In a 1967 article in Red Star, General Tolubko stated that these surface launches of the [Sapwood] took a long time to prepare and that later version rockets were smaller and placed in silos. (19)
As Soviet missile capabilities improved, they conducted more and more tests at the principal test site of Tyuratam which extended to the Kamchatka target areas, and then beyond to the mid-Pacific. These flights were often protested by the Japanese when target area closures were announced by the Russians. Photographs released by the United Sates Government of Soviet missile tracking ships in mid-Pacific and even of splashes of reentry bodies suggested that the United States was monitoring Soviet tests in the same way that
Soviet ships monitor U.S. missile tests. The Russians have always described these Pacific tests as further tests of carrier rockets, often signaling through variation in the language that new models were coming into the test program, rather than just continuation of earlier series. The observations made of the flights suggest they have definitely been tests of military missiles, not space carrier rockets as such. Every so often in the past, Soviet military leaders made specific reference to the high accuracy with which these tests delivered the "penultimate" stage of the carrier rockets to the assigned area.
As Table 1-11 summarizes, the Western powers have assigned SS designators up through the SS-20 so far, and there are NATO code names for most but not all of these, depending on whether they have been available on display or pictured in clear photographs. Of the longer range missiles, the SS-4, SS-5, and SS-6 have already been discussed in the context of their adaptation to space flight. At one time the SS-7 Saddler made up a large part of the Soviet missile inventory, but it was never put into a Moscow parade, and so far as can be judged was not adapted for space use. It was apparently a fairly modest capacity ICBM, which may have been the missile once shown in a rather blurred film clip from a Soviet movie and pictured on the cover of Missiles and Rockets magazine, in the United States. The SS-8 Sasin (now known as the R-26 never deployed, not the real SS-8 Sasin, R-9) was paraded in Moscow for a number of years, as the first Soviet ICBM ever given such public exposure. It seems never to have played a very prominent part in the inventory, but did become operational. According to U.S. Department of Defense testimony before Congress, the SS-11 replaced the SS-7 as the principal part of the Soviet ICBM inventory. Despite its extensive use, it has not been paraded in Moscow until after 1975, and it does not seem to have come into space use. Having been hidden so carefully, it lacked any publicly known NATO code name until quite recently, but it is now called Sego. It was also of relatively modest capacity.
Three other ICBM class missiles have been paraded in Moscow. These are the SS-9, SS-10, and SS-13. Taking them in reverse order, the SS-13 Savage is the technological equivalent of a Minuteman. But the Russians seem not to have favored solid propellant missiles for long range missile or space launch use. Some observers have said this is because their chemistry has not kept up with the same state of the art attained in the United States. In general, the Russians have moved from the early cryogenic systems to storable liquid propellants. The SS-10 Scrag was first paraded in May 1965 and has not been seen since1971. Scrag the GR-1 as we now know it was never fully flight tested or deployed and became a cancelled program. It was a long, cigar shaped three-stage rocket described by the Russians as "akin" to the Vostok launcher (which was then still two years away from its first public unveiling). The stages were joined by open truss sections. The Russians also hinted that this vehicle was capable of putting a bomb in orbit for delivery to any place on Earth. In November 1965, when it was paraded again, the Russians were a little defensive in their comments stressing it did not violate any treaty restrictions on use of space weapons because such agreements prohibited their use, not their production. Further, they said in a sense, every ICBM is a space weapon, anyway, as all such missiles fly through space and their use is permitted under the terms of the space treaty.
Use as a Weapons Carrier. F-l-r
Tsyklon – SL-10, FOBS
When Soviet test flights of fractional orbit bombardment systems (FOBS, see Chapter Six) began in 1966, unofficial Western observers wondered if they were seeing the SS-10 Scrag being flown. Later, the U.S. Department of Defense credited the FOBS flights to the SS-9 Scarp with added stages. Apparently the SS-10 Scrag never entered the operational inventory. It was paraded again in May 1966 and November 1966. The same brief description of its orbital use continued. However, when it was paraded in November 1967, no reference was made to an orbital capacity, and in the parade appeared for the first time the SS-9 Scarp. The TASS report on this new SS-9 was:
The last to appear were mammoth rockets each of which can deliver to target nuclear warheads of tremendous power .... These rockets can be used for intercontinental and orbital launchings. (20)
The SS-9 has indeed become an important element in the Soviet arsenal, and in retrospect it is possible to trace its further extension to use in the space program as well, for missions closely allied with military functions, but not the more civilian and scientific part of the space program.
In December 1965, the Russians announced rocket tests which they called tests of "landing systems" with "some elements'' falling in the Pacific (staging, not payloads), which fitted the operational pattern of FOBS flights which came later. In November 1966, General Dankevich associated orbital rockets with silo launches, and said these vehicles carried very large warheads." Secretary Laird in the United States stated that the SS-9 Scarp was the carrier of the FOBS system. (22)
The SS-9 Scarp was paraded as a 33.2-35 meter long, bottle-shaped rocket, with a principal diameter of 3 meters. In the parade the warhead section was about 1.15 meters in diameter, then expanding into a cone to join the main 3 meter diameter cylinder. It is hard to tell precisely whether the SS-9 Scarp as paraded was a two or three stage vehicle. It may have been divided at about 17.5-19.7 meters up from the base, with perhaps another 10.4-8.5 meters making up the second stage, and 5.3 meters making up either a third stage with warhead or simply a warhead.
Since for two years the SS-10 Scrag was described as an orbital weapon, it is possible that the third stage of that vehicle was transferred to the SS-9 Scarp for a further version which has not been pictured or put on display. In some of its space uses, a fourth (third) stage is also required, to account for the patterns of debris or expended rocket casings which can be observed in flight.
Our interest in this rocket in the context of this report is as a military space payload carrier, the F-l-r or F-l-m. We cannot say what the whole assemblage looks like today through 1975. From parade views, we know the first stage is quite different from the A class vehicles. While the A class uses a core with four strap-on boosters, for a total of 20 nozzles, the F class first stage shows 6 nozzles visible, while a plate covers the center part of the base, which could hide a seventh central nozzle.
The first known space use of the system-was for FOBS tests, apparently in a four (three) stage version. The first stage is suborbital. A carrier rocket stage, whether (second) stage or third stage is not clear, is abandoned in the initial orbit attained. The Royal Aircraft Establishment gives its dimensions as 8 meters long by 2.5 meters in diameter. In flight, a further change in orbit occurs, and this places an orbital platform in still another position. It is from this latter object that retrofire occurs (hence the designator "r" symbolizing the retro fire fourth (third) stage) which drives the warhead back to Earth, while the rest of the orbiting hardware continues in space for at least a few more orbits.
Use as a Maneuvering Vehicle, F-l-m.
Tsyklon SL-11
The F class vehicles have now appeared in several other flight modes, and these will be discussed in a later chapter. The essential change in the hardware is the appearance of a fourth maneuvering stage which may be the outgrowth of work started in the Polet and Kosmos 102 and 125 programs. These can be labeled the F-l-m series, although there may be subtypes to fit the different flight modes which have been observed. All the F class space payloads have been launched from Tyuratam. The weapons-related flights have been at an inclination of 49.5 degrees. The maneuvering flights, for a variety of military purposes in the general range of from 62 to 66 degrees inclination. These additional missions seem to relate to inspector/destructor flights, radar ocean surveillance, and possibly other uses.
[We now know that the “m” stage was in fact the Polet payload as a proof of principal ASAT stage flight test demonstration flown on the basic “A” booster that would later appear in the coming years as a revised F-1-m Tsyklon-2 last stage of the Soviet ASAT program. The ASAT payload third last stage was a separate enlarged payload different from the RORSAT payload and FOBS payload and was really a derivation of the Tsyklon-2 with the third stage as the payload. Both ASAT and RORSAT required a longer Tsyklon second stage than that utilized by the standard SS-9 ICBM from which the Tsyklon was derived.] [
We now know that the Kosmos 102 and 125 program was the initial flight tests of the F-1-m, Tsyklon-2 upper last stage flown on the “A-1” booster and payload shroud that were later flown as the RORSAT payload. The RORSAT last stage was different from the ASAT and FOBS last stages payload and was really a derivation of the Tsyklon-2 with two stages plus the RORSAT payload spacecraft. FOBS, SL-10 essentially used the standard SS-9 with a revised design FOBS third stage different from the ASAT and RORSAT last stages.]
F-2, Tsyklon 3, SL-14
Subsequently the Soviets introduced the SL-14 three stage variant of the Tsyklon launch vehicle into their launch inventory. It utilized an entirely new third stage plus the standard production SS-9 first two stages.
Reference
1. SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS, 1971-75, OVERVIEW, FACILITIES AND HARDWARE MANNED AND UNMANNED FLIGHT PROGRAMS, BIOASTRONAUTICS CIVIL AND MILITARY APPLICATIONS PROJECTIONS OF FUTURE PLANS, STAFF REPORT , THE COMMITTEE ON AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE .SCIENCES, UNITED STATES SENATE, BY THE SCIENCE POLICY RESEARCH DIVISION CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, VOLUME – I, AUGUST 30, 1976, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1976,
19. Tolubko, V. F. Strategic Intercontinental. . . Kragnaya Zvezda, Moscow. November 18, 1967, P.1A.
20. TASS, Moscow, 0710 GMT, November 7 1967
21. Dankevich, P. E., Interview on Moscow Radio, 1430 GMT, November 18,1966
22. Laird, Melvin R., Fiscal year 1971 Defense Program and Budget, February 20 1970p. 103.
The Tsyklon family of launch vehicles is derived from Yuzhnoye's R-36 (NATO designator SS-9) ICBM and is used in two primary configurations. The two-stage Tsyklon 2 launch vehicle has been launched exclusively from the Baikonur Cosmodrome from Complex 90 left and right for high-value military missions: the co-orbital ASAT, RORSAT, EORSAT, and FOBS (Fractional Orbit Bombardment System). Only the EORSAT program is still operational; thus, the launch rate of the Tsyklon-2 is now only a few per year. Both stages employ hypergolic propellants, the first stage powered by three 11D69 (RD-218) engines and the second stage by one 11D26 (RD-219) engine.
The Tsyklon-3 launch vehicle appeared more than a decade after the Tsyklon-2 for use in both civilian and military space programs. The Tsyklon-3 is launched only from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome from Complex 32 left and right. The restartable third stage of the Tsyklon-3 is powered by the Ukrainian 11 D25(RD-861) which also uses UDMH and N204. A total of 11 Tsyklon-3 launch vehicles were flown during 1993-1994 with one failure occurring on 25 May 1994. The cause of that failure was determined to be a short circuit which prevented a successful separation of the second and third stages. Like its Baikonur cousin, the Tsyklon-3 can be transported to the launch pad, erected, fueled, and launched - all automatically and within only a few hours (References 440-444).
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