Launch (launch vehicle)

2024: Product Announcement

In August 2024, Russia launched the simultaneous implementation of three projects to create new ultralight-class launch vehicles (SLKs). These developments are aimed at launching small spacecraft into low Earth orbit with a total weight of up to 500 kg.

We are talking about the Start-1M conversion rocket and two fundamentally new products - Voronezh and Paragon/HYBRIS. The first project is being implemented by the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering, and the other two are teams of enthusiasts who won the National Technology Initiative (NTI) competition and received financial support from the Voskhod Foundation.

Freepik

The Start-1M Raketa carrier is being developed on the basis of the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile. It is planned that it will be launched from a mobile launcher or from the Vostochny cosmodrome. According to Denis Manturov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, the first launch of Start-1M is scheduled for 2026.

The Voronezh project is being implemented by the ZD R&D company. This two-stage rocket is expected to have a launch mass of 35 tons and will be able to deliver about 430kg of payload into orbit. The Voronezh launch vehicle is planned to be equipped with 13 liquid rocket engines, the development of which will be carried out by the UEC-Kuznetsov enterprise.

The third project - RN Paragon - is being developed by graduates of BSTU "Voenmekh" named after D. F. Ustinov. This two-stage rocket will have a launch weight of 13.5 tons and will be able to put up to 250 kg of payload into orbit. A feature of Paragon will be the use of slot nozzles with an increased specific impulse, which will reduce the mass of the rocket.

The cost of launching 1 kg of payload at the Voronezh launch vehicle is expected at $12 thousand, and the total launch cost should not exceed $3 million. For Paragon, the launch price is predicted in the range from $3 million to $5 million.^[1]

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