EINSTEIN112
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- Oct 26, 2018
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The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS), itself a division of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, continued to build on their 2022 campaign with the successful launch of a GLONASS-K navigation satellite on a Soyuz rocket. The launch, which took place from Site 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia, occurred at approximately 09:18 UTC on Thursday, July 7.
This marked the ninth launch of the year so far for the Russian Federation, with all of them utilizing various adaptations of the Soyuz launch vehicle. Thursday’s flight also marked the fifth launch of 2022 for the Russian military.
The Soyuz vehicle that was used for the mission was the 2.1b variant, which flies with the standard Soyuz 2 booster and core stage engines but features an updated RD-0124 motor on the Blok-1 second stage.
The more powerful engine attains a maximum specific impulse, or Isp, of 359 seconds in a vacuum — an improvement over the baseline RD-0110 engine that flies on the Soyuz 2.1a with an Isp of 326 seconds. Specific impulse is a measure of efficiency for rocket engines, akin to fuel mileage in an automobile.
A Soyuz 2.1b vehicle launches from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. (Credit: Roscosmos)
The Soyuz 2 family of launch vehicles — including the baseline 2.1a, upgraded 2.1b, and the single-core 2.1v — have flown a total of 143 missions to date with 136 successes, four complete failures, and three partial failures (one between each version).
This marked the ninth launch of the year so far for the Russian Federation, with all of them utilizing various adaptations of the Soyuz launch vehicle. Thursday’s flight also marked the fifth launch of 2022 for the Russian military.
The Soyuz vehicle that was used for the mission was the 2.1b variant, which flies with the standard Soyuz 2 booster and core stage engines but features an updated RD-0124 motor on the Blok-1 second stage.
The more powerful engine attains a maximum specific impulse, or Isp, of 359 seconds in a vacuum — an improvement over the baseline RD-0110 engine that flies on the Soyuz 2.1a with an Isp of 326 seconds. Specific impulse is a measure of efficiency for rocket engines, akin to fuel mileage in an automobile.
A Soyuz 2.1b vehicle launches from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia. (Credit: Roscosmos)
The Soyuz 2 family of launch vehicles — including the baseline 2.1a, upgraded 2.1b, and the single-core 2.1v — have flown a total of 143 missions to date with 136 successes, four complete failures, and three partial failures (one between each version).
