Chapter 573 - 561: Ultimate Aesthetics

December 4, Baikonur Cosmodrome.

On the launch pad of the western launch area, an odd rocket had already been erected, pointing toward the sky above the grassland.

Miklin Yevgeny, who looked even older than last year, did not stay at the command center in Moscow but was not far from the launch pad, watching the rocket that was about to launch.

Beside him were many members of the design bureau, and even the director, Borisov, who had come. The latter put down his binoculars and looked toward the composed Miklin:

"Yevgeny, is this our first recoverable rocket?"

"At least it’s partially recoverable."

There wasn’t much emotion in Miklin’s tone, which made one think he might not be very satisfied with it.

But Borisov didn’t think so. The Angara S2 was an unequivocal reusable rocket, and moreover, it was the world’s first recoverable rocket to use a gliding recovery method.

The Angara S2’s conception occurred before the Huayin Treaty conference convened. At that time, RKA had already received a briefing from the space agency, which firmly decided they would go ahead full tilt with the lunar program.

The "Zenith" boosters that had been prepared for the "Hurricane" rocket had undergone four separate launch-landing tests and had achieved three successes. So, Borisov requested a usable recoverable rocket to be made as quickly as possible on this basis.

In the end, Miklin chose to use the Angara A1 rocket as the core stage and paired it with two Zenith boosters to manufacture the brand-new Angara S2 rocket.

The Angara series is a family of rockets with the base model using a 3.6 meter diameter body and a single RD191 engine. The following expansions involve strapping together different numbers of core stages as boosters, much like the Delta IV, it belongs to the CBC configuration.

The bare Angara A1 was designed to withstand the powerful thrust from boosters, hence it was chosen as the core stage of the new recoverable rocket.

With two Zenith boosters strapped on, the Angara S2’s lift-off mass exceeded 1100 tons, and its total lift-off thrust provided by the core’s RD191 and the boosters’ RD171MV reached 1690 tons—it was a bona fide heavy-lift rocket.

Although the "Zenith" boosters could not cross the atmospheric layer, they could still provide 720 tons of thrust under a self-weight of 470 tons. Even with the gliding kit’s substantial dead weight, they still enabled the entire rocket to achieve a payload ratio of 2.7%, with 30 tons to near-Earth orbit and 9.5 tons to GTO on recovery.

The development process of the Angara S2 was not long, and only the boosters were recoverable, yet the launch price dropped significantly.

The payload for this launch was 11 remote sensing satellites, with a total mass of 6.2 tons. The second stage used a single RD0124 engine at a cost of 25 billion Rubles, with a quoted price of 74 billion Rubles, which is equivalent to about 120 million US Dollars.

Meanwhile, the Evergreen Proton M Rocket with a GTO capability of 7.5 tons cost 14 billion Rubles, and its quote was 44 billion Rubles, approximately 71 million US Dollars.

At first glance, the slightly more powerful Angara S2 might seem too expensive. However, the cost of a single-use core stage, the Angara A1, was only 40 billion Rubles, and the remaining two boosters could be reused more than 20 times each.

The price of the Angara A1 was also due to it being newly developed. In the future, its cost is estimated to settle at around 25 billion Rubles, so using up the boosters’ lifespan could bring the single launch cost down to 29 billion Rubles, which is about 47 million US Dollars.

This price, even in the currently highly competitive market of reusable rockets, still holds great appeal, and it could decrease further with an increase in rocket production, optimistically estimated to eventually reach around 40 million US Dollars.

Externally, it could undertake various high-orbit heavy satellite launch missions, while internally, Russia could confidently use it, saving a considerable amount of launch costs.

For example, the International Space Station’s rotational gravity module, which was expected to be launched with an Angara A5, could also be launched with an Angara S2, but at more than half the reduced cost.

In the future, Miklin planned to develop an even smaller capacity rocket based on this, placing a second stage directly on top of the "Zenith Booster" with a payload capacity of under 10 tons and a launch cost lower than 35 million US Dollars. However, they would need to solve attitude control problems that require high computing control, making development more challenging than bundling it with the Angara S2.

Borisov was extremely satisfied with such a pragmatic approach. After all, the Federation currently didn’t have any significant launch missions, and the giant rocket "Hurricane" project had hit another standstill.

The standstill was due to the required RD0120 engines; reigniting the production of high-performance hydrolox engines was proving to be extremely difficult, with constant potential for delays.

Moreover, apart from the extremely expensive but cost-amortizing Moon missions, Russia simply couldn’t afford the "Hurricane". Slightly smaller rockets could save a lot of money.

"Miklin Yevgeny, my great designer, you have done very well. We are about to become the third country in the world to master reusable rockets," he tried to console Miklin, but the old man just muttered dejectedly:

"We are just starting, while others are already planning to send cruisers into space."

Naturally, Miklin was referring to the CZ-18 (New Yuan 4) rocket. Recently, the media had captured images of its assembly box being erected and the Jiuzhang Spaceship waiting to be hoisted, indicating an imminent launch.

With a launch mass exceeding 15,000 tons, it was on par with a cruiser class in naval terms, and foreign media had aptly nicknamed it "Canglong."

The CZ-18 was constantly shaking the nerves of space professionals worldwide, almost pushing conventional chemical rockets to their limits. Each piece of data extracted was a headache for everyone.

Miklin felt as though space travel was like a rope hanging from the clouds, with everyone desperately climbing higher and finding it increasingly difficult the further up they went. However, now someone had not only climbed up swiftly but had also reached the very end of the rope, effectively nailing the ceiling for chemical rockets.

From then on, everyone in the aerospace field knew that chemical rockets had reached their limit, and no one could surpass it later. Chemical propulsion had become a sunset technology waiting to be phased out.

This sense of a blocked path was even more shocking than the rockets themselves. It was hard for anyone to remain calm when faced with the end of their career.

Miklin was in such a state of calm until he noticed the exuberant crowd around him and, stunned, looked towards the runway. Angara S2 had launched and successfully separated for recovery while he was in a daze. The two boosters glided down to land like drones, both returning fully intact.

"Was the launch successful?"

"Yes, Yevgeny, the President will award you a Gold Star Medal! You are a designer as great as Korolyov; you’ve changed Russian space travel!

What do you want? I’ll upgrade your villa and private doctor to the best ones. Tell me what else you want, this is a reward for your work achievements!"

"I want to take a vacation, not long, just 10 days."

"Oh, of course, that’s no problem. Do you want to travel abroad? I wouldn’t recommend Europe."

"No, I’d like to go to Qiongzhou. It’s warm there."

Miklin showed a look of longing:

"And it also has the ultimate aesthetics of space technology."