Russian spacecraft manufacturer
PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia
(
Russian
:
Ракетно-космическая корпорация ≪Энергия≫ им. С. П. Королёва
,
romanized
:
Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyova
), also known as
RSC Energia
(
РКК ≪Энергия≫
,
RKK "Energiya"
), is a Russian manufacturer of
spacecraft
and
space station
components. The company is the prime developer and contractor of the Russian crewed spaceflight program; it also owns a majority of
Sea Launch
.
[4]
Its name is derived from
Sergei Korolev
, the first chief of its design bureau, and the Russian word for
energy
.
Overview
[
edit
]
Energia is the largest company of the
Russian space industry
and one of its key players. It is responsible for all operations involving human spaceflight and is the lead developer of the
Soyuz
and
Progress
spacecraft, and the lead developer of the Russian end of the
International Space Station
(ISS). In the mid-2000s, the company employed 22,000?30,000 people.
[5]
The enterprise has been awarded 4
Orders of Lenin
,
Order of the October Revolution
and Russian Federation President's Message of Thanks. In addition, 14
cosmonauts
employed by the company have been awarded the title "
Hero of the Russian Federation
".
[6]
Structure
[
edit
]
The company consists of the following subsidiaries and branches:
[6]
- Primary Design Bureau
- Baikonur
branch
- ZAO Experimental Machine-building Plant
- ZAO Volzhskoye DB
- ZAO PO
Kosmos
As of 2009
[update]
, 38% of the company's stock was owned by the Russian state.
[6]
History
[
edit
]
The company was founded on 26 August 1946
[1]
[a]
and has been known successively as:
- Special
Design Bureau
number 1 of RD Institute number 88
(
Russian
:
ОКБ-1 НИИ-88
or
OKB-1
of
NII-88
)
- TsKBEM
(Central Design Bureau of Experimental Machine Building)
[7]
- NPO Energia
- S. P. Korolev RSC Energia
.
It is named after the first chief of its design bureau
Sergei Korolev
(1946?1966). His successors as chief designers were:
Vasily Mishin
(1966?1974),
Valentin Glushko
(1974?1989),
Yuriy Semenov
[
ru
]
(1989?2005),
Nikolai Sevastianov
(2005?2007). Its President and Chief designer was
Vitaly Lopota
, until 1 August 2014.
[8]
Korolev's design bureau was, beginning with the first artificial satellite
Sputnik 1
and the first crewed spaceflight of
Vostok 1
, responsible for a major part of the Soviet space program. It was the main rival of
OKB-52
(later known as
TsKBM
, then the design bureau of
Vladimir Chelomei
) during the
Soviet crewed lunar programs
and the
Soviet space station program
.
[9]
OKB-1 was among others responsible for the development of the crewed
Soyuz spacecraft
and its
Soyuz rocket
, the
N1 "Moon Shot" rocket
, large parts of the
Salyut space station program
, the uncrewed
Progress resupply craft
and designed the
Energia rocket
for the
Buran space shuttle program
. Since the early beginnings of the
Luna programme
it designed many space probes, among others of the
Venera
,
Zond
and
Mars program
.
The company continues to dominate a large part of the Russian space program, and a considerable part of the World's space program, with its Soyuz spacecraft having become the only crewed spacecraft conducting regular flights and the exclusive crew transport vehicle for the
International Space Station
from the
Space Shuttle retirement
in 2011 and until the maiden flight of
Crew Dragon Endeavour
in 2020.
The Chinese
Shenzhou program
is the only other program in the world with planned semi-regular crewed spaceflights.
The President of
Energia
,
Vitaly Lopota
, was removed from his post as president on August 1, 2014.
Dmitry Rogozin
indicated that this was the start of "long-awaited personnel reform in [the Russian] space industry... Tough times require tough decisions".
[8]
Lopota was offered the position of vice president for technological development in the
United Rocket and Space Corporation
,
[8]
the new company formed in 2013 to re-nationalize the Russian space industry.
[10]
Ongoing projects
[
edit
]
Future projects
[
edit
]
- Modernization of "Soyuz TMA" spacecraft for human circum-
lunar
missions ? pending commercial orders for
space tourism
.
- Development of "
Parom
" space tug (in order to replace
Progress M
cargo spacecraft).
- Development of multi-aimed
Orel spacecraft
(instead of abandoned
Kliper
project) for six persons.
- Development of crewed lunar program: landing by 2025, creating of permanent lunar base by 2030 in order to extract
helium-3
.
- Development of human
Mars
mission: landing beyond 2035.
- Development of
Yamal-300
and
Yamal-400
communication satellites for
Gazprom
corporation.
- Development of "
Smotr
"
remote sensing satellites
.
- Development of a pod designed for clearing near-Earth space of satellite debris. The new device is planned to be assembled by 2020 and tested by 2023. The concept is to build the device to use a nuclear power source so that it could remain on task for up to 15 years, primarily working in the geosynchronous orbit zone. Debris collected would be de-orbited to re-enter over the ocean.
[11]
Historic projects
[
edit
]
Over the years the products of Energia and its predecessors included:
Including meteorological rockets as their modifications:
Research, observation and communication Earth satellites
[
edit
]
Cargo spacecraft
[
edit
]
Crewed spacecraft
[
edit
]
Earth space stations
[
edit
]
Lunar orbital spacecraft
[
edit
]
Committee of innovative youth projects
[
edit
]
Committee of Innovative Youth Projects
(Russian: Комитет инновационных проектов молодежи) also known as
KIPM of RSC Energia
is a network structure that unites specialists and heads of different divisions to quickly develop and launch innovative products. KIPM was established in early 2016 on the initiative of a group of young engineers from the RSC Energia. The main task of the new structure is to give young specialists the opportunity to realize their creative ideas. The main criterion for projects selecting is their potential demand in the market.
Currently KIPM work on five projects:
- Unmanned aerial vehicle remote power supply
- 1U-6U Cubesat Deployer
- Parachute system with an elastic linkage and tandem cargo separation
- Assembly of lunar expedition complex at LEO
- Hardware and software system for space experiments onboard crewed space station.
See also
[
edit
]
Note
[
edit
]
- ^
The book "Rockets and People"
Volume 2
, p. 16, give the founding day as 16 August.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]