Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny,Arkhangelsk Oblast,near the town of Plesetsk,from which it takes its name. As of 2024,it is the only operational orbital spaceport in Europe and the northernmost spaceport in the world. Originally developed as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) site for the R-7 missile,its strategic location approximately 800 kilometres (500
Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway,Russia,Ukraine,United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit-3SL rockets from a former mobile/floating oil drilling rig renamed Odyssey.
Zenit 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.
The Angara rocket family is a family of launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The launch vehicles are to put between 3,800 kg (8,400 lb) and 24,500 kg (54,000 lb) into low Earth orbit and are intended,along with Soyuz-2 variants,to replace several existing launch vehicles.
The State Space Agency of Ukraine is the Ukrainian government agency responsible for space policy and programs. It was formed on 29 February 1992,and was based on the Soviet space program infrastructure that remained in Ukraine following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was called the National Space Agency of Ukraine until 9 December 2010.
Zenit was a series of military photoreconnaissance satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1994. To conceal their nature,all flights were given the public Kosmos designation.
The Kosmos rockets were a series of Soviet and subsequently Russian rockets,derived from the R-12 and R-14 missiles,the best known of which is the Kosmos-3M,which has made over 440 launches. The Kosmos family contained a number of rockets,both carrier rockets and sounding rockets,for orbital and sub-orbital spaceflight respectively. The first variant,the Kosmos,first flew on 27 October 1961. Over 700 Kosmos rockets have been launched overall.
The Zenit-3SL was an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999,it was launched 36 times,with three failures and one partial failure. It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets,and is built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau. RKK Energia produced the Block DM-SL upper stage,whilst the payload fairing was produced by Boeing. Launches were conducted from the Ocean Odyssey platform anchored on the equator in the Pacific Ocean,at a point with 154°W longitude,about 370 kilometres east of Kiritimati.
Blok D is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems,including the N1,Proton-K and Zenit.
The Zenit-2M,Zenit-2SB,Zenit-2SLB or Zenit-2FG was a Ukrainian expendable carrier rocket derived from the Zenit-3SL. It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets,which were designed by the Yuzhmash.
This article outlines notable events occurring in 2004 in spaceflight,including major launches and EVAs.
Start-1 is a Russian satellite launch vehicle based on the RT-2PM Topol,a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile developed by Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology.
Site 45 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome used to be a Zenit rocket launch site consisting of two pads,both of which are currently inactive. It used to be the launch site for all Soviet and Russian government Zenit launches,along with a commercial launch conducted for Globalstar in 1998,and continuing commercial launches under the Land Launch programme. The main pad at the site is area 45/1,which was completed in 1983 following five years of construction. A second pad,area 45/2,was completed in 1990,but was destroyed by a launch failure in the same year.
The Zenit 3SLB or Zenit-3M was a Ukrainian expendable carrier rocket derived from the Zenit-2SB. It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets,which were designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Office. Produced at Yuzhmash,the rocket was a modified version of the Zenit-3SL,designed to be launched from a conventional launch pad rather than the Sea Launch Ocean Odyssey platform. Most of components of the rocket 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 effectively led to a hiatus in the Zenit program. 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.
The Zenit-3F,Zenit-3SLBF or Zenit-2SB/Fregat was an expendable carrier rocket. It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets,which were designed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine.
The Vostok-2,GRAU index 8A92 was an expendable carrier rocket used by the Soviet Union between 1962 and 1967. Forty five were launched,of which five failed. It was derived from the earlier Vostok-K,with uprated engines. It was a member of the Vostok family of rockets.
The Vostok-2M,GRAU index 8A92M was an expendable carrier rocket used by the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1991. Ninety-three were launched,of which one failed. Another was destroyed before launch. It was originally built as a specialised version of the earlier Vostok-2,for injecting lighter payloads into higher Sun-synchronous orbits. It was a member of the R-7 family of rockets,and the last Vostok.
The Soyuz-M,GRAU index 11A511M was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Samara,Russia. It was originally built to launch crewed Soyuz 7K-VI spacecraft for the Soviet armed forces. Following the cancellation of this programme,development of the rocket continued for the Soyuz 7K-S spacecraft. After this too was cancelled,Soyuz-M development was also abandoned,and the rockets that had been completed were used to launch reconnaissance satellites.
Kosmos 112 or Zenit-2 No.36 was a Soviet,first generation,low resolution,optical film-return reconnaissance satellite launched in 1966. A Zenit-2 spacecraft,Kosmos 112 was the thirty-sixth of eighty-one such satellites to be launched and had a mass of 4,730 kilograms (10,430 lb). It was the first satellite to be launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
Kosmos 129 or Zenit-2 No.33 was a Soviet,first generation,low resolution,optical film-return reconnaissance satellite launched in 1966. A Zenit-2 spacecraft,Kosmos 129 was the forty-second of eighty-one such satellites to be launched and had a mass of 4,730 kilograms (10,430 lb).
