After six decades, Russia will build its final Proton rocket this year

Russia’s essential house company, Roscosmos, stated it’s within the technique of constructing 4 extra Proton rockets earlier than it shuts down manufacturing of the venerable booster.

In a information launch, Roscosmos stated the 4 rockets are on an meeting line on the Khrunichev State House Analysis and Design Heart’s manufacturing unit in Moscow’s Fili district. After their manufacturing is full, these 4 rockets will likely be added to its current stock of 10 flight-ready Proton-M rockets. (The information launch was translated for Ars by Rob Mitchell.)

Russia stated it plans to launch these remaining 14 Proton rockets over the following 4 or 5 years. Throughout this timeframe Russia plans to transition payloads, resembling army communications satellites, that might have launched on the Proton booster to the brand new Angara-A5 rocket.

The ultimate flight of the Proton rocket will deliver an finish to a long-running period. The primary Proton rocket launched in 1965, practically 57 years in the past, amid the house race between the Soviet Union and the USA. Variants of the Proton rocket have launched 426 instances, with a couple of 10 p.c failure charge.

Notably, the Proton rocket has launched parts of 4 separate house stations—Salyut 6, Salyut 7, Mir, and the Worldwide House Station. However the rocket, with a carry capability of 23.7 metric tons to low Earth orbit, had come underneath rising competitors for business launches. In consequence, whereas the Proton booster as soon as launched 10 or 12 instances a yr, the flight charge has fallen to 3 or fewer missions a yr since 2015.

Worldwide demand slackened, partially, resulting from a collection of high-profile failures. On the finish of 2010, one Proton rocket plunged into the ocean as a result of an excessive amount of propellant had been mistakenly loaded into its higher stage. In 2013, one other automobile carried out a fiery dance seconds after liftoff as a result of flight management sensors have been hammered into the rocket’s compartment the other way up. (The spectacular catastrophe is value watching.)

These technical issues arose simply as rivals, notably SpaceX with its Falcon 9 rocket, undercut the Proton on price and supplied higher reliability. This lowered prices for satellite tv for pc operators via decrease insurance coverage premiums.

With the Angara-A5 rocket, Russia hopes to recapture a few of this worldwide satellite tv for pc launch market. Nonetheless, it relies on whether or not Russia can cut back manufacturing prices of the Angara-A5 rocket from $100 million per launch to $57 million by 2024, the nation’s acknowledged aim.

Even this formidable goal for the absolutely expendable rocket most likely will not assist Russia an excessive amount of within the competitors for business launches, nevertheless. SpaceX has already demonstrated that it might re-fly its Falcon 9 booster for lower than $30 million.