99 Current Launch Vehicle Data part4 (Orbital and planetary launch services)
Description
This article is from the Space FAQ, by Jon Leech leech@cs.unc.edu and Mark Bradford tla@surly.org with numerous contributions by others.
99 Current Launch Vehicle Data part4 (Orbital and planetary launch services)
Shavit 3/3 100% (Israel) Shavit ??? 160 ??? 3/3 $22m (350)
Shavit is Israel's first, and so far only, launch vehicle. It is
believed to be derived from the Jericho II ballistic missile. Israel
Aircraft Industries is developing a more advanced version with an
added stage, which would be called "Next." The payload of the new vehicle
would be slightly higher than Pegasus, and a cost of $15 million has
been suggested. Commercialization is desired because Israeli missions
number less than one a year and have limited government support. In order
to avoid dropping spent stages on Arab neighbors, Israel launches west
over the Mediterranean, decreasing the vehicle's performance significantly.
Space Shuttle 69/70 98.6% (USA) Shuttle/RSRM 23,500 ??? 5,900 69/70 [I'm not going (51,800) (13,000) to touch the price issue]
More has been written, and read, about the space shuttle than any other
launch vehicle. Therefore, there is little that can usefully be written
here.
Vehicle | Payload kg (lbs) | Reliability | Price (nation) | LEO Polar GTO | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SLV 5/10 50% (India) (400km) [900km polar] ASLV 150 ??? ??? 2/4 $???m (330) PSLV 3,000 1,000 450 1/2 $???m (6,600) (2,200) (990) * GSLV 8,000 ??? 2,500 0/0 $???m (17,600) (5,500)
India's first (albeit unsuccessful) orbital launch was in 1979, with the
Satellite Launch Vehicle capable of carrying 40 kg to orbit. Despite a
very small budget and technical difficulties (early launches occured only
once every few years and had a 33% success rate), India has continued to
build a strong space program. The Advanced Satellite Launch Vechicle was
used to orbit small Rohini experimental satellites. The Polar Satellite
Launch vehicle is being used to orbit indigenously built IRS remote
sensing satellites. The Geosynchronous SLV is projected to come online
around the turn of the century, to launch India's communications satellites.
GSLV development was delayed when the US tried to prevent the sale of
Russian cryogenic engine technology to India.
Soyuz/Vostok (Russia) [650km] Vostok 4,730 1,840 ??? ?/149 $??m (10,400) (4,060) Soyuz 7,000 ??? ??? 1023/1098 $??m (15,400) Molniya 1500kg (3300 lbs) in ?/258 $???M Highly eliptical orbit
The Soyuz/Vostok series is the same family of vehicles which launched
Sputnik and Gagarin. 1500 launches later, the Soyuz vehicle is still
used to carry cosmonauts to the Mir space station and launches most
medium-sized Russian satellites. The Russian Space Agency plans to
replace the current model Soyuz with a vehicle called "Rus" in 1997.
The payload will be increased by a few hundred kilograms to allow Russia
to launch Soyuz TM capsules to Mir from Plesetsk, rather than being
dependent on the launch facilities in Kazakhstan.
Continue to:
My Books
