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Baikal Reusable Accelerator MRKN

" Baikal " is a project of a reusable accelerator (MGU) of the first stage of the Angara carrier rocket. Developed in the State Space Research Center. Khrunichev together with the NGO Molniya. The main idea of ??the project is that the missile accelerator, having completed the task, separated from the carrier, automatically returned to the launch site and landed on the airplane as a wingless unmanned aerial vehicle. The accelerator can be used as a part of the LV family of the Angara light, medium and heavy classes, as well as in other missile systems.

"Baikal" was designed in OAO "NPO" Molniya by order of the State Space Research Center named after. M.V. Khrunichev. In a conversation with the correspondent of the Agency of Military News, the head of the sector of international programs and projects of the State Space Research Center Oleg Alekseevich Sokolov said that work on similar accelerators was being conducted in the US, European countries and, according to some sources, China, but in metal the full-size model was created only in Russia.

The MRKN ( Monogorázovaia Raketa Kosmícheskogo Naznachenia, 'reusable space rocket'), designed by the company Khrúnichev, originally used a configuration of two reusable lateral blocks based on the Baikal around a central block and a second stage not reusable. The reusable side blocks are called VRB ( Vozvrascháemi Raketni Blok / 'return rocket block') and, like the Baikal, are equipped with wings to return to an airport located near the launch center (Vostochni for the MKRN). VRBs also use methane and liquid oxygen and are equipped with an RD-0162 engine.

The project of a reusable accelerator of the first stage of the Angara launch vehicle was realized . Developed in the State Space Research Center. Khrunichev together with the NGO Molniya. The device was called "Baikal". Depending on the class of the Angara launch vehicle, a different number of reusable accelerators are used:

• Light class - one accelerator.
• Middle class - two accelerators.
• Heavy class - four accelerators.

However, the same specimen of a reusable accelerator can be used in carrier rockets different classes. The layout was demonstrated at MAKS-2011. The reusable return stage of the booster rocket contains a direct rotary wing with an inclined heat-insulated wall and a toe made of heat-resistant material in the form of separate sections with the possibility of free deformation on heating, return engines, a fuel system with fuel for return engines located in the front part of the wing, over its entire span in the compartments, the central compartment in the front of the center wing with the function of the supply tank. The invention makes it possible to increase the reliability and reduce the temperature deformations and stresses, the mass of the structure.

The direct rotary wing mounted on the body has the possibility of fixing it in the position along the axis of the stage at the stage of withdrawal and in the rotated by 90° during the return flight stage, the fuel system with fuel, providing the operation of return engines, where the fuel system with fuel for the return engines is located in the front part of the wing, in the nose of the wing, along its entire span in the compartments formed by separated from each partitions by ribs, with the central compartment located in front of a center section with the function the supply tank, wherein in the zone of most intense heating of the wing surface of the sock installed therein separating the fuel from the wing sock insulated sloping wall.

The purpose and tasks include creation of a marching reusable liquid-propellant rocket engine for the first stage of the reusable rocket space system, creation of an effective system of diagnostics and emergency protection of the engine, selection of the optimal shape of the marching reusable liquid rocket engine of promising carrier rockets for manned space complexes and a superheavy carrier rocket, 2012. The work is carried out on the basis of the reserve created in the process of implementing in 2006-2009. Information about the order is provided to the potential participant of the order placement at his request.

According to the developers, the concept of a two-stage launch vehicle with a reusable "atmospheric" first stage makes it possible to provide flexibility in the use of various upper stages, among which can be and are reusable spacecraft. Such a system will have much smaller dimensions and mass than a single-stage reusable system, which has similar indicators of the masses of payloads delivered to orbit and delivered to the Earth, and, consequently, higher technical indicators. With regard to the total cost of development and operation, the development of the system "in parts" can be cheaper than bringing the larger and more complex single-stage carrier to operational state. From the point of view of the designers, the operation of dividing the two-stage system is a well-established procedure in the world practice and should not require significant expenditures.

The product, demonstrated in Paris, was equipped with models of the RD-191M rocket engine and the turbojet two-loop engine with the afterburner (RDDF) RD-33, used on the MiG-29 fighter. RD-191M traction at the ground of 196 tons, a specific impulse at the ground 309 seconds and in a vacuum of 337.5 seconds, developed in the NGO "Energomash" them. V.P. Glushko . The LRE with a mass of 2.2 tons operates on kerosene and liquid oxygen and is attached to the rear of the MRA in a gimbal suspension with a swing angle of plus / minus 8 degrees for pitch and yaw control.

TRDDF RD-33 developed by the St. Petersburg NGO them. V.Ya. Klimova, has a thrust of 8.3 tons and a mass of 1050 kg. Its dimensions: length 4.3 m, width 2.0 m, height 1.1 m. When operating in cruising mode (altitude 11 km and flight speed 0.8 M), the specific fuel consumption (kerosene) is 0.961 kg / ton-hour. RD-33 is equipped with protection systems and early detection of malfunctions.

Indeed, the design of the VRB underwent a radical change as a result of the analyzes at the TsAGI institute in Moscow. The VRBs did not look like the original Baikal stage and looked like small shuttles with fixed wings and flat canards on the front, a shape reminiscent of the canceled RBS project of the Pentagon. The MKRN version with two VRB (MKRN-1-35) is capable of placing up to 35 tons of payload in low orbit, although other more powerful versions capable of placing 45 and 60 tons are contemplated.