It is being created for the new Soyuz-5 launch vehicle
MOSCOW, January 26. /tass/. The promising Fregat-SBU upper stage (RB), which is being created for the new Soyuz-5 launch vehicle, will be ready for launch at the end of 2025. This was reported to TASS by the press service of the S. A. Lavochkin NGO (developer).
"The development of design documentation and ground-based experimental testing of the RB "Frigate-SBU" are planned in 2022-2025. The readiness of the RB "Frigate-SBU" for launch is the end of 2025," the press service noted.
The NPO named after S. A. Lavochkin clarified that in 2021 the preliminary design of the upper stage was carried out. The project is being developed because the fuel of the Frigate-SB, which formed the basis of the new booster, is not enough to realize the potential of the Soyuz-5. It will differ in the increased size of the discharged tank block, this will allow you to use twice as much fuel (six liters instead of three).
"There are no fundamental changes in the design of the upper stage, its units and systems. This will ensure the maximum reliability of the RB from the beginning of operation, as well as the minimum amount of ground experimental testing and the minimum time and cost of creating a new modification of the RB," the press service added.
The Soyuz-5 in conjunction with the Frigate-SBU, the company stressed, it will be possible to launch a payload into orbit, the mass of which will significantly exceed the specified technical specification for the rocket.
The Soyuz-5 launch vehicle is being developed for the Russian-Kazakh Baiterek project. In 2018, a protocol was signed on amendments to the agreement of the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia on the creation of the Baiterek complex on Baikonur dated December 22, 2004. It defines the obligations of the parties under the project, the withdrawal from lease and the transfer to the Kazakh side of the objects of the ground-based space infrastructure of the Zenit-M complex for modernization.
Kazakhstan is responsible for the creation of ground infrastructure through the modernization of the Zenit-M KRK. Russia is developing a Soyuz-5 launch vehicle, which is planned to be launched from there. The first launch is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023. The launch complex will be named "Nazarbayev Start".
