Rokot-M (launch vehicle)

History

2023: Start of Production

Center named after M.V. Khrunichev (part of Roscosmos) has begun production of the first Rockot-M launch vehicle. It will be equipped with a Russian, not Ukrainian, control system. This was told at the enterprise on April 10, 2023.

According to the Rokot-M project, a contract was carried out with our cooperation on components, bench products are being manufactured, as well as a number of elements of the first flight rocket with long production periods, - said the Director General of the Center named after M.V. Khrunicheva Alexey Varochko in an interview with TASS.

Rokot Raketa carrier

For commercial launches, Rokot has been used since 2000. The Raketa carrier is designed to launch spacecraft weighing up to 2 tons into low Earth orbits. "Rokot" consists of three stages. The first two stages are the RS-18 Strategic Missile Accelerator Unit (SS-19). The third stage is the new Briz-KM upper stage. The starting mass of "Rokot" is more than 100 tons.

The Rokot-M project is a continuation of the previously closed Rokot project, but with the transition to a domestic management system. Previously, it was made by the Kharkov enterprise Hartron. The program was completed with launch on December 27, 2019.

TASS recalls that in the materials of the Center named after M.V. Khrunichev earlier it was reported that the company is working on the creation of a Rokot-2 launch vehicle with a new control system that will replace the Ukrainian one installed on the Rokot series missiles. Initially, the launch was planned for 2022.

In May 2022, the general director of the Center named after M.V. Khrunichev said that after a detailed audit of the equipment for Rokot, experts came to the conclusion that it was also necessary to put in order the equipment, which had been in operation for a long time and had already exhausted its resource. Therefore, the first launch of the Rokot-M launch vehicle from the Plesetsk cosmodrome is planned to be carried out in 2024.^[1]

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