Today, any rocket launch, about whichtold in the news, it seems to be a familiar part of life. Interest from ordinary people, as a rule, arises only when it comes to ambitious space exploration projects or serious accidents occur. However, not so long ago, at the beginning of the second half of the last century, every launch of the rocket forced the whole country to stand still for a while; everyone followed the successes and accidents. It was also at the beginning of the space age both in the USA and then in all countries where they developed their own flight programs to the stars. It was the successes and failures of those years that laid the foundation on which rocket science grew, and with it the spaceports, and more and more sophisticated vehicles. In short, the rocket with its history, structural features and statistics is worthy of attention.
Main in a nutshell
Booster is an optionMultistage ballistic missile, whose mission is the removal of certain goods into space. Depending on the mission of the vehicle being launched, a rocket can put it into a geocentric orbit or accelerate to leave the Earth’s attraction zone.
In most cases, the launch of the rocketcomes from its vertical position. Air launch is very rarely used, when the vehicle is first delivered with an aircraft or other similar device to a certain height, and then launched.
Multistage
One way to classify launch vehicles isby the number of their steps. The devices, which include only one such level and are capable of delivering a payload into space, to date remain only a dream of designers and engineers. The main character on the cosmodromes of the world is a multistage apparatus. In fact, it consists of several connected missiles, which are successively switched on during the flight and detached after the completion of their mission.
The need for such a design lies indifficulty overcoming gravity. The rocket must tear off its own weight from the surface, consisting mainly of tons of fuel and propulsion, as well as the weight of the payload. In percentage terms, the latter is only 1.5-2% of the starting mass of the rocket. Disconnecting in flight flight steps allows to ease the task of the remaining ones and make the flight more efficient. This design also has a reverse side: it places special demands on the launch sites. A zone free from people is needed where the spent steps will fall.
Reusability
It is clear that with this designthe booster cannot be used more than once. However, scientists are constantly working to create such projects. Fully reusable rocket today does not exist because of the need to use high technology, people are not yet available. Nevertheless, there is an implemented program of a partially reusable device - this is the American Space Shuttle.
First rocket launch
If you go back to the history of the question, the appearanceproper launch vehicles preceded the creation of ballistic missiles. One of them, the German "V-2", was used by the Americans for the first attempts to "reach" to space. Even before the end of the war, in early 1944, several vertical launches were carried out. The rocket reached a height of 188 km.
More significant results were achievedfive years later. There was a launch of a rocket in the United States, at the White Sands range. It consisted of two stages: rockets "V-2" and "VAK-Kapral" and was able to reach a height of 402 km.
First booster
However, the beginning of the space age is considered to be 1957.Then the first real launch vehicle, the Soviet Sputnik, was launched. The launch was made at the Baikonur cosmodrome. The rocket successfully coped with the task - it put into orbit the first artificial satellite of the Earth.
The launch of the satellite "Sputnik" and its modificationsA total of Sputnik-3 was produced four times, three of which were successful. Then, on the basis of this device, a whole family of launch vehicles was created, distinguished by elevated power values and some other characteristics.
Rocket launch into space, produced in 1957year, became a landmark event in many ways. He marked the beginning of a new stage of human exploration of the surrounding space, actually opened the space era, pointed out the possibilities and limitations of technology at that time, and also gave the USSR a noticeable advantage over America in the space race.
The modern stage
Today the most powerful areRussian-made Proton-M launch vehicles, American Delta-IV Heavy, and European Arian-5. The launch of a rocket of this type allows to put a payload weighing up to 25 tons into a near-earth orbit, which lies at an altitude of 200 km. Such apparatuses are capable of carrying approximately 6-10 tons to the geo-intermediate orbit and 3-6 tons to the geostationary one.
Стоит остановиться на ракетах-носителях «Протон».In the Soviet and Russian space exploration, he played a significant role. It was used for the implementation of various manned programs, including sending modules of the Mir orbital station. With his help, Zarya and Zvezda, the most important units of the ISS, were delivered to space. Despite the fact that not all recent launches of this type of missiles were successful, Proton remains the most popular launch vehicle: about 10-12 of its launches are made annually.
Foreign colleagues
"Arian-5" is an analogue of "Proton".This launch vehicle has a number of differences from the Russian one, in particular, its launch is much more expensive, but it also has a large payload. The Ariane-5 geo-intermediate orbit is capable of launching two satellites at once. It was the launch of this type of space rocket that launched the mission of the famous Rosette probe, which after ten years of flight became a satellite of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Delta IV began its career in 2002. One of its modifications, the Delta IV Heavy, according to data for 2012, had the highest payload among launch vehicles worldwide.
Components of success
A successful rocket launch is not only based onideal technical characteristics of the device. Much depends on the choice of starting place. The location of the cosmodrome plays a significant role in the success of the mission of the launch vehicle.
Energy costs for launching a satellite into orbitdecrease if its tilt angle corresponds to the geographical latitude of the area in which the launch is carried out. Most importantly, these parameters are taken into account for launching vehicles delivered to a geostationary orbit. The ideal place to launch such rockets is the equator. The deviation of a degree from the equator results in the need to accelerate 100 m / s more. According to this parameter, among the more than 20 cosmodromes of the world, the European Kuru occupies the most advantageous position, located at latitude 5º, Brazilian Alcantara (2.2º), and Sea Launch, a floating cosmodrome that can launch rockets directly from the equator.
Direction matters
Еще один момент связан с вращение планеты.The missiles launched from the equator immediately receive an impressive enough speed eastward, which is connected precisely with the rotation of the Earth. In this regard, all flight paths, as a rule, are laid in the east direction. No luck in this regard, Israel. He has to send missiles to the west, making additional efforts to overcome the earth's rotation, since hostile states are located to the east of the country.
Fall field
As already mentioned, spent rocket stagesfall to Earth, and therefore near the spaceport should be located suitable for this zone. A great option - the ocean. Most of the spaceports are therefore located on the coast. A good example is Cape Canaveral and the American spaceport located here.
Russian launch sites
Spaceports of our country were created duringCold War, and therefore could not be placed in the North Caucasus or the Far East. The first launch site for launching missiles was Baikonur, located in Kazakhstan. There is low seismic activity, good weather most of the year. The possible fall of missile elements on Asian countries leaves a definite imprint on the work of the test site. At Baikonur, there is a need to carefully plot the flight path so that the spent stages do not end up in residential areas and the missiles do not fall into Chinese airspace.
Svobodny Cosmodrome, located on the FarEast, has the most successful placement of the fields of the fall: they fall on the ocean. Another spaceport, where you can often see the launch of a rocket, is Plesetsk. It is located north of all other similar world sites and is an ideal place for sending vehicles to polar orbits.
Missile Launch Statistics
In general, since the beginning of the century, activity on spaceportsthe world has fallen noticeably. If we compare the two leading countries in this industry, the United States and Russia, the first one produces significantly fewer launches annually than the second. In the period from 2004 to 2010 inclusive, 102 missiles launched from America’s launch sites, successfully completing their mission. In addition, there were five unsuccessful launches. In our country, 166 starts were successfully completed, and eight ended in an accident.
Among the unsuccessful launches of devices in Russia, especiallystand out accident "Proton-M". In the period from 2010 to 2014, as a result of such failures, not only launch vehicles were lost, but also several Russian satellites, as well as one foreign device. A similar situation with one of the most powerful launch vehicles was not ignored: the officials involved in the occurrence of these failures were dismissed, and projects began to be developed to modernize our country's space industry.
Today, like 40-50 years ago, manstill interested in space exploration. The current stage is characterized by the possibility of full-fledged international cooperation, which is successfully implemented in the ISS project. However, many points require revision, upgrading or revision. I want to believe that with the introduction of new knowledge and technology, the statistics of launches will become more and more joyful.
