Zenit (rocket family)

Zenit

Zenit-2 rocket (Baikonur, 10 December 2001)
Function	Medium-lift expendable carrier rocket
Manufacturer	Yuzhnoye (design) Yuzhmash (manufacturing)
Country of origin	Zenit-2: USSR, Ukraine Zenit-3SL: Ukraine
Size
Height	57–59.6 m (187–196 ft)
Diameter	3.9 m (13 ft)
Mass	444,900–462,200 kg (980,800–1,019,000 lb)
Stages	2 or 3
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Mass	Zenit-2: 13,740 kg (30,290 lb)
Payload to SSO
Mass	Zenit-2: 11,380 kg (25,090 lb)
Payload to GTO
Mass	Zenit-3SL: 6,000 kg (13,000 lb)
Launch history
Status	Suspended
Launch sites	Baikonur LC-45 Odyssey (ocean platform)
Total launches	84 36 Zenit 2 36 Zenit 3SL 2 Zenit 2M 6 Zenit 3SLB 4 Zenit 3F
Success(es)	71 28 Zenit 2 32 Zenit 3SL 2 Zenit 2M 5 Zenit 3SLB 4 Zenit 3F
Failure(s)	10 7 Zenit 2 3 Zenit 3SL
Partial failure(s)	3 1 Zenit 2 1 Zenit 3SL 1 Zenit 3SLB[1]
First flight	Zenit 2: 13 April 1985 Zenit 3SL: 28 March 1999 Zenit 2M: 29 June 2007 Zenit 3SLB: 28 April 2008 Zenit 3F: 20 January 2011
Last flight	Zenit 2: 10 June 2004 Zenit 3SL: 26 May 2014 Zenit 2M: 8 November 2011 Zenit 3SLB: 31 August 2013 Zenit 3F: 26 December 2017
First stage
Powered by	1 RD-171
Maximum thrust	8,180 kilonewtons (1,840,000 lbf)
Specific impulse	337 seconds (3.30 km/s)
Burn time	150 seconds
Propellant	RP-1 / LOX
Second stage
Powered by	1 RD-120 1 RD-8
Maximum thrust	912 kilonewtons (205,000 lbf) 79,500 newtons (17,900 lbf)
Specific impulse	349 seconds (3.42 km/s)
Burn time	315 seconds
Propellant	RP-1/LOX
Third stage (Zenit-3SL/3SLB) – Block DM-SL
Powered by	1 RD-58M
Maximum thrust	84,900 newtons (19,100 lbf)
Specific impulse	352 seconds (3.45 km/s)
Burn time	650 seconds
Propellant	RP-1 / LOX
Third stage (Zenit-3F) – Fregat-SB
Powered by	1 S5.92
Maximum thrust	19,600 newtons (4,400 lbf)
Specific impulse	327 seconds (3.21 km/s)
Burn time	877 seconds
Propellant	N2O4 / UDMH
[edit on Wikidata]

Zenit (Ukrainian: Зеніт, Russian: Зени́т; meaning Zenith) was a family of space launch vehicles designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipro, Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Zenit was originally 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 middle-weight launcher with a payload greater than the 7 tonnes of the Soyuz but smaller than the 20 tonnes payload of the Proton. The last rocket family developed in the USSR, the Zenit was intended as an eventual replacement for the dated Soyuz and Proton families, and it would employ propellants which were safer and less toxic than the Proton's nitrogen tetroxide/UDMH mix. Zenit was planned to take over crewed spaceship launches from Soyuz, but these plans were abandoned after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Many of components of the Zenit rockets were produced in Russia. The Ukrainian space industry was highly integrated with that of Russia due to its Soviet heritage, but that cooperation was interrupted by the Russo-Ukrainian War beginning in 2014, which has effectively led to a hiatus in the Zenit program.^[2] The subsequent Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 saw damage to its manufacturing facilities due to Russian missile strikes, and what survived those strikes pivoted to producing military weapons.^[3]

Zenit-3SL was launched by the Sea Launch consortium's floating launch platform in the Pacific Ocean and Zenit-2 was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. RD-171M engines of the Zenit's first and second stages as well as the upper stage of the Zenit-3SL rocket were supplied by Russia. An improved Zenit-3SLB rocket was used for commercial launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome beginning in April 2008, marketed as Land Launch.^[4]

Zenit-3SL was launched 36 times with 32 successes, one partial success, and three failures. The first failure, the launch of a Hughes-built communications satellite owned by ICO Global Communications, occurred during the second commercial launch on March 12, 2000, and was blamed on a software error that failed to close a valve in the second stage of the rocket. The second failure occurred on January 30, 2007, when the rocket exploded on the Odyssey launch platform, seconds after engine ignition. The NSS-8 communication satellite on board was destroyed.^[5]

On September 24, 2011 Zenit-3SL launched successfully from the Odyssey launch platform under a renewed Sea Launch project with RSC Energia as the majority stakeholder. The rocket delivered the European communication satellite Atlantic Bird 7 to its planned orbit. On February 1, 2013, another Zenit-3SL failed while launching the Intelsat 27 satellite.^[6]