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Russia's Proton Rocket, Which Predates Apollo, Will Finally Stop Flying (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the technical-difficulties dept.

The Russian-manufactured Proton rocket that has been traveling into space since before humans landed on the Moon will finally stop flying. "In an interview with a Russian publication, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said production of the Proton booster will cease as production shifts to the new Angara booster," reports Ars Technica. "No new Proton contracts are likely to be signed." From the report: First launched in 1965, the rocket was initially conceived of as a booster to fly two-person crews around the Moon, as the Soviet Union sought to beat NASA into deep space. Indeed, some of its earliest missions launched creatures, including two turtles, to the Moon and back. The decision will bring down the curtain on one of the longest-used and most versatile rockets in world history. As the United States developed the space shuttle in the 1970s and began flying it in the 1980s, the Russian space agency saw the opportunity to commercialize the Proton rocket, and by the end of the 1990s, the booster became a major moneymaker for the Russian space industry. With a capacity of 22.8 tons to low-Earth orbit, it became a dominant player in the commercial market for heavier satellites. An increasing rate of failures, combined with the rise of SpaceX's cheaper Falcon 9 rockets, "have caused the number of Proton launches in a given year to dwindle from eight or so to just one or two," adds Ars. "This shrinking market has opened the door to the Angara rocket, which has the advantage of not using environmentally hazardous fuel for each of its stages..."

5 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Soyuz by stooo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Russia's Soyuz Rocket, Which Predates anything else, simply continues Flying

    it's basically the rocket that launched the very fist satellite into orbite, just with more stages.

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    1. Re:Soyuz by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Informative

      Soyuz is both the name of a rocket and the name of a crewed vehicle. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(rocket_family) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(spacecraft). The Russians sometimes have named rockets after the first or most prominent payload of the rocket in question.

    2. Re:Soyuz by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm wondering when Soyuz will end. It's a horribly inefficient design by modern standards, even with the updates they've been doing. No insult to Korolyov, it was a great rocket for its time... but it's time is long past.

      Soyuz's payload fits in between Angara 1 and Angara 5, which is probably why they aren't yet planning to discontinue Soyuz. Like Falcon and Delta IV, Angara is built around a small common design, which can be used as a side-mounted booster for heavier payloads, except in their case, they're strapping four boosters around the central core instead of one, to make the heavy Angara 5 which is replacing Proton.

      I see an opening for a two-booster Angara 3. I think it would end up being somewhere between 150% and 200% the lifting capacity of Soyuz, which makes it less than ideal as a drop-in replacement, but should be serviceable as a lineup replacement.

      Of course, the continued flight of any Russian rocket (for anything but Russian military/intelligence payloads) kind of depends on them getting some form of reusability. They designed a folding-wing, horizontal-landing version of the Angara URM, but apparently they don't have the funding to actually build it.

    3. Re:Soyuz by joh · · Score: 4, Informative

      Urban legend. NASA didn't spent a dime on that, the pen was privately developed (Fisher) and astronauts bought them for $10. Fisher made a profit on the pens over time and is still selling them today. Russia used them later too. Pencils in space are not a good idea anyway, the core contains graphite and broken off pieces that float around can cause shortcuts in equipment.

      But as always with these legends they make a good story and seem never to die because people who prefer a wrong good story over true stories are plenty.

  2. Headline Wrong - Apollo Launched First by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First "true" Apollo (Apollo II) launch was in January 1964 (https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo.html) while the first Proton launch was in July of 1965 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Proton_launches_(1965%E2%80%9369)). There were Apollo technology test launches as early as 1961.

    Proton definitely outlasted Apollo, but I don't think it's accurate to say that it predates it.

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