Volna
Encyclopedia
Space launch vehicle
Launch vehicle
In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure....

 Volna ("wave" in Russian), is a converted SLBM used for launching artificial satellites into orbit. It is based on the R-29R designed by State Rocket Center Makayev
Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau
The Makeyev Design Bureau is a Russian missile design company located at in Miass, Russia. Opened in December 1947 as SKB-385, the company is the main designer of submarine-launched ballistic missiles in Russia. The organization was named in honor of Victor Makeyev. Its full official name is...

 and related to the Shtil'
Shtil'
Space launch vehicle Shtil Space launch vehicle Shtil Space launch vehicle Shtil (Russian: (Штиль - calm (weather)), is a converted SLBM used for launching artificial satellites into orbit. It is based on the R-29RM designed by State Rocket Center Makeyev and related to the Volna Launch Vehicle....

 Launch Vehicle . The Volna is a 3 stage launch vehicle that uses liquid propellant. The warhead section is used for the payloads that can be either put into orbit with the help of an additional boost engine or travel along a sub-orbital trajectory to be recovered at the landing site. Volna can be launched from Delta III class submarine
Delta III class submarine
The 667BDR Kaľmar Delta-III class submarine is a large ballistic missile submarine operated by Russian Navy. Like as other previous Delta class submarines the Delta III is a double hulled design with a thin low magnetic steel outer hull wrapped around a thicker inner pressure hull.- Design :The...

 or from land based facilities.

Performance

Because of its mobile launch platform the Volna launch vehicle can reach a large number of different inclinations and could increase its performance to low Earth orbit
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...

 by launching from equatorial sites. All flights to date have taken place from the Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...

. From this site the Volna can lift 100kg into a 400km high orbit with an inclination of 79 degrees. The warhead section can accommodate a payload of up to 1.3 m3. For sub-orbital missions the payload can be either a recoverable vehicle of up to 720kg or research equipment placed in a descent vehicle of up to 400kg.

Launch history

  • The first launch of the Volna took place at June 6, 1995 on a suborbital trajectory. The payload of this flight was a thermal-convectional Earth model developed by Bremen University (Germany).
  • On 20 July 2001 the second flight took place with a test vehicle of the Cosmos 1
    Cosmos 1
    Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an unmanned solar sail spacecraft christened Cosmos 1 was launched into space at 15:46:09 EDT on June 21, 2005 from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea...

     solar sail of the Planetary Society and an inflatable re-entry heat shield. The Volna was launched from Delta III Submarine Borisoglebsk
    Russian submarine K-496 Borisoglebsk
    K-496 Borisoglebsk is a Russian advanced Delta III SSBN nuclear submarine. On 21 June 2005 the vessel served as the launch platform for a missile carrying a payload containing a solar sail experiment, Cosmos 1. The submarine was based in the Russian Northern Fleet...

     in the Barents Sea. Although the launch vehicle reached the intended orbit the spacecraft failed to separate. The separation command was not issued by the flight software because of the presence of non-nominal variations. Failure of the Cosmos-1 to separate also resulted in the loss of the secondary payload, a new inflatable re-entry vehicle.
  • On 12 July 2002 the Volna was used for a sub-orbital flight for a second attempt to test a new re-entry vehicle, IRDT-2. The launch took place from Delta III class submarine
    Delta III class submarine
    The 667BDR Kaľmar Delta-III class submarine is a large ballistic missile submarine operated by Russian Navy. Like as other previous Delta class submarines the Delta III is a double hulled design with a thin low magnetic steel outer hull wrapped around a thicker inner pressure hull.- Design :The...

     K-44 Ryazan. Due to a failure in the launcher/payload interface the vehicle was lost and did not land on the expected area on the Kamchatka peninsula. It’s unclear whether the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the Volna and did not inflate correctly or that it remained attached to the payload module. Remains of the vehicle have not been found.
  • The fourth flight took place at 21 June 2005 with onboard the Cosmos 1
    Cosmos 1
    Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. As part of the project, an unmanned solar sail spacecraft christened Cosmos 1 was launched into space at 15:46:09 EDT on June 21, 2005 from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea...

     Solar sail. The launch took place from Delta III Submarine Borisoglebsk
    Russian submarine K-496 Borisoglebsk
    K-496 Borisoglebsk is a Russian advanced Delta III SSBN nuclear submarine. On 21 June 2005 the vessel served as the launch platform for a missile carrying a payload containing a solar sail experiment, Cosmos 1. The submarine was based in the Russian Northern Fleet...

    in the Barents Sea. The spacecraft failed to reach orbit after stage one shut down prematurely at 82.86 seconds instead of the expected 100 seconds. The failure was attributed to “critical degradation in operational capability of the engine turbo-pump”. The second and third stage did not separate and the payload did not reach orbit.
  • On 6 October 2005 the Volna carried IRDT-2R on a sub-orbital trajectory, launched from Delta III Class Submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea. The launch vehicle performed nominally and placed the payload on a trajectory towards the Kamchatka peninsula. Trajectory data shows that the vehicle most likely overshot the landing site and could not be recovered.

External links

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