Molniya-M

Molniya-M (R-7 8K78M)
	Drawing of the Molniya-M carrier rocket
Function	Medium launch vehicle
Manufacturer	TsSKB-Progress
Country of origin	Soviet Union
Size
Height	43.4 m (142.3 ft)
Diameter	2.95 m (9.67 ft)
Mass	305,000 kg (672,000 lb)
Stages	3
Associated rockets
Family	R-7
Comparable	Soyuz-2/Fregat
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	Baikonur 1/5, 31/6; Plesetsk 16/2, 41/1, 43
Total launches	297
Success(es)	276
Failure(s)	21
First flight	4 October 1965
Last flight	30 September 2010
	[edit on Wikidata]

The Molniya-M (Russian: Молния, meaning "lightning"), GRAU designation 8K78M, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) launch vehicle derived from the R-7 Semyorka Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).^[1]^[2]

The original 8K78 booster had been the product of a rushed development program and its launch record was no better than the 8K72 Luna booster of 1958–1960. As 1962 ended, there had been 12 launches of 8K78s, ten of which failed (five Block L failures, four Block I failures, and one failure caused by the Block A core stage).

The two successful launches had had their probes (Venera 1 and Mars 1) fail en route to their respective planetary targets. As such, work began at the Korolev Bureau to improve the basic 8K78 vehicle. The core and strap-ons received the up-rated 8D74M engines and the Kosberg Bureau completely redesigned the Block I stage. The Block L engine was also slightly enhanced. The first six 8K78Ms built used RD-0108 engines in the Block I stage, which was also used in the two crewed Voskhod boosters, all subsequent 8K78Ms using RD-0110 engines which were shared with the Soyuz booster. Molniya boosters flown after the adaption of the new 11A511U core in 1973 used the improved 11D511 first stage engines. While 11A511U cores flown on other R-7 vehicles switched to a shorter instrument packet, the Molniya continued using the old "long" instrument packet.

The 8K78M first flew on 4 October 1965 when it launched Luna 7 but the existing stock of 8K78s had not been used up yet and they continued to fly until 1967. By 1966, the 8K78M hardware was standardized across the board for all R-7 based vehicles with the exception of Voskhod boosters that used the less powerful RD-0107 engine. It made 297 launches and experienced 21 failures. The 8K78M was a generally reliable vehicle with most failures caused by the Block L and no Block I's malfunctioned on a launch after 1968. There was only a single failure of the first two stages, which occurred in 2005 on one of the last 8K78Ms flown. That 21 June, an attempted launch of a Molniya satellite from Plesetsk went awry. The launch went entirely according to plan until T+298 seconds when the Block I shut down after just eight seconds of operation. The launcher, which was at an altitude of 180 km (111 miles), reentered the atmosphere, broke up, and impacted near the town of Tobolsk. Initial speculation was that that the Block I either malfunctioned or staging had failed in a similar manner to Soyuz 18-1 in 1975. The investigation ultimately found a quite different cause. The Block A experienced a racing fuel regulator starting at T+26 seconds that caused premature RP-1 depletion and turbopump overspeed from the pump running empty. The pump disintegrated, tearing up the engine compartment. By coincidence, this happened simultaneous with the scheduled Block A staging at T+290 seconds, but the shock from the pump disintegration prevented the separation command from being sent. Block I ignited while still attached to Block A but the dead weight of the spent core stage dragged it off course and the AVD system, sensing the improper flight trajectory, issued an automatic shutdown command.^[2] The final flight of a Molniya-M lofted an Oko early warning satellite from Plesetsk on 30 September 2010 despite some apprehension that the launch vehicle, manufactured in 2005, had exceeded its storage life. It was replaced by the Soyuz-2/Fregat.^[3]

Although originally developed for planetary probes, those had switched to the larger Proton booster by the 1970s due to increasing mass and complexity. For most of its operational life, the Molniya-M was used to launch its namesake Molniya and also Oko satellites into Molniya orbits, orbits of high eccentricity that allow satellites to dwell over polar regions.

Variants

There were four main variants of the Molniya-M, which varied in terms of their upper stage. Originally, the Block L stage was used (Molniya-M (Blok-L)); however, uprated versions replaced this with more powerful, or specialized, stages, for different missions. The Molniya-M (Blok-2BL), used to launch Oko missile defense spacecraft, had a Block 2BL upper stage, The Molniya-M (Blok-ML) had a Block ML upper stage, and the Molniya-M (Blok-SO-L) had a Block SO-L stage.^[1]

Molniya-M 8K78M Variants^[1]
Version	Strap-ons	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3
Molniya-M (Blok-L)	Blok-B,V,G,D / 4 × RD-107MM	Blok-A / RD-108MM	Blok-I / RD-0110	Blok-L / S1.5400
Molniya-M (Blok-ML)				Blok-ML / S1.5400
Molniya-M (Blok-VL)				Blok-VL / S1.5400
Molniya-M (Blok-MVL)				Blok-MVL / S1.5400
Molniya-M (Blok-2BL)				Blok-2BL / S1.5400
Molniya-M (Blok-SO-L)				Blok-SO-L / S1.5400

Retirement

The Molniya-M (Blok-ML) was scheduled to be the last variant to fly, with two launches of Molniya spacecraft scheduled to occur in 2008; however, they were cancelled in light of the launch failure in 2005, in favour of the Meridian spacecraft. The Molniya-M was believed to have been retired on 23 October 2007 after launching an Oko spacecraft Kosmos 2430; however, this later proved to have been incorrect, when a Molniya-M was used to launch another Oko satellite, Kosmos 2446, on 2 December 2008.^[4] Following a launch of Kosmos 2469 on 30 September 2010, the Russian Space Forces confirmed that it had been retired from service.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Krebs, Gunter D. "R-7 Family". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b Zak, Anatoly. "The R-7 family of launchers". www.russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
^ ^a ^b Mu, Xuequan (1 October 2010). "Russia sends military satellite into space". Xinhua. Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
^ "Molnia-M carrier lifts off from Plesetsk with military satellite". ITAR-TASS. 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.^{[permanent dead link]}

[:0-1] Krebs, Gunter D. "R-7 Family". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 23 October 2023.

[:1-2] Zak, Anatoly. "The R-7 family of launchers". www.russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 31 October 2023.

[final-3] Mu, Xuequan (1 October 2010). "Russia sends military satellite into space". Xinhua. Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2010.

[4] "Molnia-M carrier lifts off from Plesetsk with military satellite". ITAR-TASS. 2 December 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.^{[permanent dead link]}

[1]

[2]

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v t e Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara 1.2 A5 Ariane 6 Atlas V Ceres 1 1S Chollima-1 Electron Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha Gravity-1 GSLV H-IIA H3 Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 3 KAIROS^† Kaituozhe 2 Kinetica 1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11 Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 6A 7 7A 8 11 11H LVM3 Minotaur I IV V C Nuri OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qaem 100 Qased RS1^† Shavit 2 Simorgh SLS Block 1 Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v SSLV Starship Tianlong-2 Unha Vega C Vulcan Centaur Zhuque 2
In development	Antares 330 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Deca Epsilon S Eris Gravity-2 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 9 10 12 Miura 5 MLV Neutron New Glenn New Line 1 NGLV Nova OS-M 2 4 Orbex Prime Pallas-1 Red Dwarf SLS Block 1B Block 2 Soyuz-7 Terran R Tianlong-3 VLM Vega E Zero Zhuque 3 Zuljanah
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 230+ Ariane 1 2 3 4 5 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able^† Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV IV Heavy Diamant Dnepr Energia Epsilon Europa I^† II^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos original 1 2/2I 3 3M Lambda 4S LauncherOne Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan^† Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Rocket 3 Safir 1 1A 1B Saturn I IB V Scout X-1 Blue Scout II^† X-2^† X-2M X-3 X-3M X-4 X-2B^† B A B-1 D-1 A-1 E-1 F-1 G-1 Shavit original 1 SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Terran 1^† Thor Able Ablestar 1 2 Agena A B D Burner 1 2 Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena SLV-2G SLV-2H Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon R-36-O original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard Vega original VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M 2FG 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque 1^†
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates past or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but never succeeded (never did or has yet to perform a successful orbital launch)

v t e Soviet and Russian launch vehicles
Active	Angara 1.2 A5 Soyuz-2 2.1a 2.1b 2-1v UR Proton-M
In development	Amur Irtysh Yenisei
Retired	Dnepr Energia Kosmos 1 2I 3 3M N1 R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original L M U U2 FG Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna Start-1 Tsyklon original 2 3 UR UR-500 Proton-K Rokot Strela Zenit 2 2M 3SL 3SLB 3F
Cancelled (no launch attempts)	Tsyklon-4 Proton Light Medium

Variants

Retirement

See also

References