Energia (;
GRAU
The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...
11K25) was a 1980s
super-heavy lift launch vehicle. It was designed by
NPO Energia of the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
as part of the
Buran program
The ''Buran'' programme (, , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as the "VKK Space Orbiter programme" (), was a Soviet Union, Soviet and later Russian reusable spacecraft project that began in 1974 at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in ...
for a variety of payloads including the
Buran spacecraft. Control system main developer enterprise was the
Khartron
JSC "Khartron" (Hartron) ( Ukrainian: Хартрон, formerly NPO "Electropribor", Russian: НПО "Электроприбор", meaning Scientific Production Association "Electrical device"; originally known as NII-692 or OKB-692 design bure ...
NPO "Electropribor". The Energia used four
strap-on booster
A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine) used either in the first stage of a multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and payload capability. Boosters are tra ...
s each powered by a four-chamber
RD-170
The RD-170 () is the world's most powerful and heaviest liquid-fuel rocket engine. It was designed and produced in the Soviet Union by NPO Energomash for use with the Energia launch vehicle. The engine burns kerosene fuel and LOX oxidizer in fo ...
engine burning
kerosene
Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...
/
LOX
Lox is a fillet of brined salmon, which may be smoked. Lox is frequently served on a bagel with cream cheese, and often garnished with tomato, onion, cucumber, and capers.
Etymology
The American English word ''lox'' is a borrowing of Yiddi ...
, and a central core stage with four single-chamber
RD-0120 (11D122) engines fueled by
liquid hydrogen
Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule, molecular H2 form.
To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point (thermodynamics), critical point of 33 Kelvins, ...
/LOX.
The launch vehicle had two functionally different operational variants: Energia-Polyus, the initial test configuration, in which the
Polyus system was used as a final stage intended to put the payload into orbit, and Energia-Buran,
in which the
''Buran'' orbiter was the payload and the source of the orbit insertion impulse.
The launch vehicle had the capacity to place about 100
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...
s in
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...
, up to 20 tonnes to
geostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...
and up to 32 tonnes by translunar trajectory into
lunar orbit
In astronomy and spaceflight, a lunar orbit (also known as a selenocentric orbit) is an orbit by an object around Earth's Moon. In general these orbits are not circular. When farthest from the Moon (at apoapsis) a spacecraft is said to be at apo ...
.
The launch vehicle made just two flights before being discontinued.
Since 2016, there have been attempts to revive the launch vehicle, reusing an
updated version of its booster engine in the
Soyuz-5 rocket.
Development history
Work on the Energia/Buran system began in 1976 after the decision was made to cancel the unsuccessful
N1 rocket
The N1 (from , "Carrier Rocket"; Cyrillic: Н1) was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit. The N1 was the Soviet counterpart to the US Saturn V and was intended to enable crewed travel to the Mo ...
. The facilities and infrastructure built for the N1 were reused for Energia (notably the huge horizontal assembly building), just as NASA reused infrastructure designed for the
Saturn V
The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...
in the
Space Shuttle program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its ...
. Energia also replaced the "Vulkan" concept, which was a design based on the
Proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...
and using the same
hypergolic propellant
A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other.
The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. The ...
s, but much larger and more powerful. The "Vulkan" designation was later given to a variation of the Energia which has eight boosters and multiple stages.
The Energia was designed to launch the Soviet "
Buran" reusable shuttle,
and for that reason was designed to carry its payload mounted on the side of the stack, rather than on the top, as is done with other launch vehicles. Design of the Energia-Buran system assumed that the booster could be used without the Buran orbiter, as a heavy-lift cargo launch vehicle; this configuration was originally given the name "Buran-T".
[B. Hendrickx, "The Origins and Evolution of the Energiya Rocket Family," ''J. British Interplanetary Soc., Vol. 55,'' pp. 242-278 (2002).] This configuration required the addition of an upper stage to perform the final orbital insertion.
The first launch of the Energia was in the configuration of a heavy launch vehicle, with the large
Polyus military satellite as a payload, however Polyus failed to correctly perform the orbital insertion.
Due to the termination of the
Buran program
The ''Buran'' programme (, , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as the "VKK Space Orbiter programme" (), was a Soviet Union, Soviet and later Russian reusable spacecraft project that began in 1974 at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in ...
the Energia program was concluded after only two launches. The legacy of Energia/Buran project manifests itself in the
RD-170
The RD-170 () is the world's most powerful and heaviest liquid-fuel rocket engine. It was designed and produced in the Soviet Union by NPO Energomash for use with the Energia launch vehicle. The engine burns kerosene fuel and LOX oxidizer in fo ...
family of rocket engines, and the
Zenit launcher, with the first stage roughly the same as one of the Energia first-stage boosters.
Launch history
First launch (Energia–Polyus)

The Energia was first test-launched on 15 May 1987, with the
Polyus spacecraft as the payload. An
FGB ("functional cargo block") engine section originally built as a cancelled
Mir
''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...
module was incorporated into the upper stage used to insert the payload into orbit, similarly to Buran and the US Space Shuttle performing the final orbital insertion, since the planned "Buran-T" upper stage had not yet progressed beyond the planning stage.
The intended orbit had 280 km (170 mi) altitude and 64.6° inclination.
The Soviets had originally announced that the launch was a successful sub-orbital test of the new Energia booster with a dummy payload, but some time later it was revealed that in fact the flight had been intended to bring the Polyus into orbit. The two stages of the Energia launcher functioned as designed, but due to a software error in its attitude control system, Polyus's orbital insertion motor failed to inject the payload into orbit. Instead, the Polyus reentered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
Second launch (Energia–Buran)

The second flight, and the first one where payload successfully reached orbit, was launched on 15 November 1988. This mission launched the uncrewed Soviet Shuttle vehicle
Buran. At apogee, the Buran spacecraft made a 66.7 m/s burn to reach a final orbit of 251 km × 263 km.
[Mark Wade, ''Encyclopedia Astronautics'']
Buran
(accessed 21 September 2010).
Discontinuation and potential revival
Production of Energia rockets ended with the end of the Buran shuttle project in the late 1980s, and more certainly, with the
fall of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...
in 1991. Since that time, there have been persistent rumors of the renewal of production, but given the political realities, that is highly unlikely.
While the Energia is no longer in production, the Zenit boosters were in use until 2017. The four strap-on
liquid-fuel boosters, which burned kerosene and liquid oxygen, were the basis of the Zenit rocket which used the same engines. The engine is the four combustion chamber
RD-170
The RD-170 () is the world's most powerful and heaviest liquid-fuel rocket engine. It was designed and produced in the Soviet Union by NPO Energomash for use with the Energia launch vehicle. The engine burns kerosene fuel and LOX oxidizer in fo ...
. Its derivative, the
RD-171, was used on the
Zenit rocket
Zenit (, ; 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 rocke ...
. A half-sized derivative of the engine, the two-chamber
RD-180
The RD-180 () is a rocket engine that was designed and built in Russia. It features a dual combustion chamber, dual-nozzle design and is fueled by a RP-1/ LOX mixture. The RD-180 is derived from the RD-170 line of rocket engines, which were use ...
, powers
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
's
Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was developed by Lockheed Martin and has been operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006. Primarily used to ...
rocket, while the single-chamber derivative, the
RD-191
The RD-191 () is a high-performance single-combustion chamber rocket engine, developed in Russia and sold by Roscosmos. It is derived from the RD-180 dual-combustion chamber engine, which itself was derived in turn from the four-chamber RD-170 ...
, has been used to launch the Korean
Naro-1
Naro-1 (), previously designated the Korea Space Launch Vehicle or KSLV (also KSLV-1), was South Korea's first carrier rocket, and the first South Korean launch vehicle to achieve low Earth orbit, Earth orbit. On January 30, 2013, the third Naro ...
(as a reduced-thrust variant named the
RD-151) and the Russian
Angara
The Angara (; ) or Angar ( мүрэн) is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It drains out of Lake Baikal and is the headwater tributary of the Yenisey. It is long, and has ...
rocket. The RD-181, based on the RD-191, is used on the
Antares
Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinisation of names, Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by ...
rocket.
In August 2016,
Roscosmos
The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a State corporation (Russia), state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space science, space flights, List of space agencies, c ...
announced conceptual plans to develop a
super heavy-lift launch vehicle
A super heavy-lift launch vehicle is a rocket that can lift to low Earth orbit a "super heavy payload", which is defined as more than by the United States and as more than by Russia. It is the most capable launch vehicle classification by mass ...
from existing Energia components instead of pushing the less-powerful
Angara A5
Angara A5 (Russian: Ангара-А5), is a Russian expendable heavy lift launch vehicle which consists of one URM-1 core and four URM-1 boosters, a URM-2 second stage, and an upper stage, either the Briz-M
The Briz-K, Briz-KM and Briz-M ( m ...
V project. This would allow Russia to launch missions towards establishing a
permanent Moon base with simpler logistics, launching just one or two 80–160-ton super-heavy rockets instead of four 40-ton Angara A5Vs implying quick-sequence launches and multiple in-orbit rendezvous.
Tests of
RD-171MV engine, an updated version of the engine used in Energia, were completed in September 2021 and may potentially be used in the successor
Soyuz-5 rocket.
Proposed variants
Three major design variants were conceptualized after the original configuration, each with vastly different payloads.
Energia-M
The Energia-M was an early-1990s design configuration and the smallest of the three. The number of
boosters was reduced from four to two, the core stage was shortened and fitted with just one
RD-0120 engine. It was designed to replace the Proton rocket, but lost a 1993 competition to the
Angara rocket.
A non-functional prototype ("structural test vehicle") of the Energia M still exists in the Dynamic Test Stand facility at
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...
.
Energia-2 (GK-175)
Energia-2 was an evolution of the Energia studied in the 1980s. Unlike the Energia-Buran, which was planned to be semi-reusable (like the U.S.
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
), the GK-175 concept was to have allowed the recovery and reuse of all elements of the vehicle, similarly to the original, fully reusable Orbiter/Booster concept of the U.S. Shuttle.
The Energia-2 core as proposed would be capable of re-entering and gliding to a landing.
Vulkan
The final never-built design concept was also the largest. With eight Zenit booster rockets and an Energia-M core as the upper stage, the Vulkan (which shared the name with another Soviet heavy lift rocket that was cancelled years earlier) configuration was initially projected to launch up to 200 metric tonnes into 200 km orbit with inclination 50.7°.
The development of the Vulkan and the refurbishment of Universal Test Stand and Launch Pad at site 250 for its launches was in progress between 1990–1993 and abandoned soon after due to a lack of funds and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
[
]
See also
*
Comparison of orbital launchers families
This article compares different orbital launcher families (launchers which are significantly different from other members of the same 'family' have separate entries). The article is organized into two tables: the first contains a list of currentl ...
*
Comparison of orbital launch systems
This comparison of orbital launch systems lists the attributes of all current and future individual rocket configurations designed to reach orbit. A first list contains rockets that are operational or have attempted an orbital flight attempt as o ...
References
External links
Encyclopedia Astronautica: EnergiaDetailed site about Energia�
(rus
{{Buran program
Space launch vehicles of the Soviet Union
Soviet inventions
RSC Energia