Zenit-2

Zenit-2

Zenit-2 at Site 45/1
Function	Carrier rocket
Manufacturer	Yuzhnoye
Country of origin	Soviet Union (Ukraine)
Size
Height	57 metres (187 ft)[1]
Diameter	3.9 metres (13 ft)[1]
Mass	460,000 kilograms (1,010,000 lb)[1]
Stages	Two
Capacity
Payload to LEO	13,740 kilograms (30,290 lb) 11,420 kilograms (25,180 lb) (ISS orbit)[1]
Payload to SSO	5,000 kilograms (11,000 lb)
Associated rockets
Family	Zenit
Derivatives	Zenit-2M Zenit-3SL
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	Baikonur Site 45
Total launches	36[2]
Successes	28
Failures	7
Partial failures	1
First flight	13 April 1985
Last flight	10 June 2004
First stage
Engines	1 RD-171
Thrust	8,180 kilonewtons (1,840,000 lbf)
Specific impulse	337 sec
Burn time	150 seconds
Fuel	RP-1/LOX
Second stage
Engines	1 RD-120 1 RD-8
Thrust	912 kilonewtons (205,000 lbf) 79.5 kilonewtons (17,900 lbf)
Specific impulse	349 sec
Burn time	315 seconds
Fuel	RP-1/LOX

The Zenit-2 is a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with six failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and was designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau.

With 13-15 ton payload in LEO it was intended as up-middle class launcher greater than 7-ton payload middle Soyuz and smaller than 20-ton payload heavy Proton. Zenit-2 would be certified for manned launches and placed in specially built launch pad at Baykonur spaceport, carrying the new manned partially reusable Zarya spacecraft that developed in end of the 1980s but was canceled. Also in the 1980s Vladimir Chelomey's firm proposed never realised 15-ton Uragan spaceplane launched by Zenit-2.

A modified version, the Zenit-2S, is used as the first two stages of the Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket.^[3] Launches of Zenit-2 rockets are conducted from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 45/1. A second pad, 45/2, was also constructed, but was only used for two launches before being destroyed in an explosion.^[4] A third pad, Site 35 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome was never completed, and work was abandoned after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.^[5]

The Zenit-2 had its last flight in 2004; it has been superseded by the Zenit-2M, which incorporates enhancements made during the development of the Zenit-3SL. The Zenit-2 has a fairly low flight rate as the Russian government usually avoids flying national security payloads on Ukrainian rockets. Zenit-2M itself flew only twice, in 2007 and 2011.

During the late 1990s, the Zenit-2 was marketed for commercial launches. Only one such launch was conducted, with a group of Globalstar satellites, which ended in failure after a computer error resulted in the premature cutoff of the second stage.

Launch history

References