Billionaire and owner of the company SpaceX Elon Musk in part of a quick interview for CNN on the question of the journalist Rachel crane about what, in his opinion, rocket is the best on the market, praised Soviet/Ukrainian carrier rocket “Zenit”. Of course, adding that the Falcon 9 rocket, created by his forces, he considers the best in the world.
“Unless you count our, “Zenit” is probably the next best,” said Musk.
The main feature of launch vehicles the Falcon reusability. The possibility of returning the first stage of the rocket back to Earth allows you to use it in the future, some time, of course, after all the necessary repairs and diagnostics. But even in this case, re-use costs about two times cheaper than building a new rocket. In addition, preparing a new start takes much less time. And as a bonus for customers, SpaceX is still a discount of 10 percent.
At the moment no other missile in the world do not have such opportunities. There are, of course, a company like Blue Origin, headed by Jeff Bezos, but to the level SpaceX with them almost weekly commercial launches them far away.
Recall that SpaceX plans this year to produce the first launch of a new rocket, the Falcon Heavy – the heaviest in your family. Its first stage will be equipped with two additional boosters. But even without the planned start of the current successes of SpaceX allow the company to dominate the market of providing commercial space services.
As for the family of missiles “Zenit” presented by the modifications of “Zenit 3SL”, “Zenit 2M”, “Zenit-3SL and Zenit 3SLБФ”, what specific technical solutions, as in the Falcon 9 (it is primarily about mnogorazovogo), they can not boast. However, they are relatively economical compared to other missiles of this class that allows its creators to claim some market share. In low earth orbit, the booster is able to output up to 15 tons of cargo, and its launch weight can be up to 462,2 tons.
Development of the missile began in the Soviet period and was carried out in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnieper) design Bureau “southern”. The first launch rocket “Zenit-2” was produced in 1985.
Launch of “Zenit” in the framework of the program “Sea launch”
The main event associated with the rocket “Zenit” for the last time, it was the signing of the contract between the manufacturer of the “southern machine-building plant them. A. M. Makarov” and ” S7 ” Sea Launch Limited for the purchase of 12 vehicles “Zenith-SLB and Zenit-SL” to run the program “Sea launch”, where the rockets are made with floating cosmodrome, located in the Pacific ocean. The contract was signed on 17 June this year. However, all rights to the RD-171 engines, which are used by the rocket “Zenit” belongs to the Russian space Agency, and Russian Federal space Agency later announced the absence of obligations on transfer of the Ukrainian plant RD-171. How the “Pivdenmash” is going to perform the duties under the contract, remains unclear.
Elon Musk said that the Ukrainian rocket “Zenit” the best after his Falcon
Nikolai Khizhnyak