Block D (
Блок Д in Russian) is the upper stage of USSR/
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
heavy
expendable launch systemAn expendable launch system is a launch system that uses an expendable launch vehicle to carry a payload into space. The vehicles used in expendable launch systems are designed to be used only once , and their components are not recovered after launch...
s, used for the
N1 rocketN1 or N-1 or 11A52 was a secret Soviet rocket intended to send Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon. It is also known in the West as the G-1e or SL-15. The Soviet classified technical name N1 was an abbreviation from the Russian word носитель...
,
Proton rocketProton is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965 and the launch system is still in use as of 2009, which makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight...
and
Zenit rocketZenit is a family of space launch vehicles designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine. Zenit was built in the 1980s for two purposes: as a liquid rocket booster for the Energia rocket and, equipped with a second stage, as a stand-alone rocket...
. There were plans to use it for some other rockets as well (project Air Launch).
The stage (and its derivatives) has been included in more than 250 launched rockets . By 2002 its modification Block DM had a 97% success rate in 218 flights since 1974, and 43 successive missions in 1997-2002 .
The stage was developed in 1960s as the fifth stage ('Д' is the fifth letter in the Cyrillic alphabet) for the
Soviet MoonshotThe Soviet Union competed with the United States to be the first to land a man on the Moon in the 1960s. The Soviet Moonshot program ultimately consisted of two separate manned programs: a lunar flyby program using a UR-500K / L1 combination, and a lunar landing program using a N1 / L3 combination...
N1 rocketN1 or N-1 or 11A52 was a secret Soviet rocket intended to send Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon. It is also known in the West as the G-1e or SL-15. The Soviet classified technical name N1 was an abbreviation from the Russian word носитель...
. The stage first flew in March 1967 while testing Zond of the moonshot program system. During manned lunar flight Block D would be used for mid-course corrections on the flight to the Moon, then to place the lunar orbiter and lander into a lunar orbit, and decelerate
moon-landerThe LK was a Soviet lunar lander and counterpart of the American Lunar Module . The LK was to have landed a single Soviet citizen on the Moon before the Americans, winning the Moon race...
out onto its landing trajectory.
Block D was also included as fourth stage of
Proton rocketProton is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches. The first Proton rocket was launched in 1965 and the launch system is still in use as of 2009, which makes it one of the most successful heavy boosters in the history of spaceflight...
and as such flew on unmanned Soviet missions to Moon,
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
and
VenusVenus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6...
. It is still used in Proton K configuration of the rocket (the newer Proton M uses
Briz-MThe Briz-M, also known as Breeze-M, is a Russian orbit insertion booster stage manufactured by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and used with the Proton-M rocket.- Characteristics :...
as fourth stage).
Block DM also flies as the third stage for Zenit-3SL rocket, which is used by the
Sea LaunchSea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets. As of April 2009 it had assembled and launched thirty rockets, with two failures and one partial failure. In June 2009 the provider of the Sea...
project to launch geostationary satellites. In 2002 the failure of a Block DM-3—used in the attempted launch of
Astra 1KAstra 1K was a communications satellite manufactured by Alcatel Space for SES Astra. When it was launched on November 25, 2002 it was the largest civilian communications satellite ever launched, weighing...
-- caused considerable concern.
The stage uses
liquid oxygenLiquid oxygen is a form of the element oxygen. It has a pale blue color and is strongly paramagnetic and can be suspended between the poles of a powerful horse shoe magnet...
(LOX) and
keroseneKerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
as propellants, and has one single-chamber
RD-58The RD-58 is a rocket engine, developed in the 1960s by OKB-1, now RKK Energia. The project was managed by Mikhail Melnikov The engine was initially created to power the Block D stage of the Soviet Union's abortive N-1 rocket. Derivatives of this stage are now used as upper stages on some Proton...
main engine. The LOX tank has a spherical shape; the kerosene tank is toroidal, inclined to 15 degrees for better fuel extraction, with the engine mounted in the center of torus. Tanks include the first pump stage for the engine; the main pump is mounted on the engine.
Block D weights 3,5 tons during liftoff, but some parts are jettisoned and the dry mass in space is 2.5 tons. It has 5.70 meters length and generates 83.300 kN thrust for 600 seconds burn time. Block D was modified as
Block DM in 1974, with 11D-58S engine. The unit cost is $4 million.
Modifications
RKK Energia, the company that created Block D, used it as a platform for many modifications over many years for different purposes; for example, the main propulsion unit on Buran started as a modification of the Block D.
- Block DM (1974) - Block D's modification for Earth-based orbits
- Block DM-2 (1982) - Used (as recently as 2008) with Proton M for GLONASS
GLONASS is a radio-based satellite navigation system, developed by the former Soviet Union and now operated for the Russian government by the Russian Space Forces.It is an alternative and complementary to the United States' Global Positioning System , the Chinese Compass...
launches
- Block DM-3, DM-4 (1996)
- Block DM-SL (1999, derivative of DM3) - used in Sea Launch
Sea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets. As of April 2009 it had assembled and launched thirty rockets, with two failures and one partial failure. In June 2009 the provider of the Sea...
missions as upper stage of Zenit 3SL rocket,
External links