The Molniya (, meaning "lightning"),
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 ...
Index 8K78, was a modification of the well-known
R-7 Semyorka
The R-7 Semyorka (, GRAU index: 8K71) was a Soviet Union, Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1961. A derivative, the R-7A Semyorka, R ...
rocket and had four stages.
The rocket was given the name ''Molniya'' due to the large number of
Molniya communication satellites the rockets launched.
History
The 8K78 resulted from a crash program by the
Korolev Bureau to develop a booster for launching planetary probes. A larger third stage was added along with a fourth stage (
Blok L) that was designed to fire in-orbit to send the payload out of
LEO (replacing the inaccurate direct ascent of the first generation Luna probes launched on the 8K72) and the core and strap-ons had the new uprated 8D74K first stage engines. The first couple of 8K78s flown used an 8K74 core however vehicles flown in 1962-63 used the older 8K71 core. The 8K74 core returned for vehicles flown in 1964 and later.
The initial 8K78s had a faulty Blok I design that was prone to vibration issues and pump cavitation. The Blok I was redesigned afterward and the improved version was first flown on 11 November 1963. The uprated 8K78M booster was introduced in 1965 but 8K78s continued to fly into 1967.
The Molniya also carried early
Venera
The Venera (, 'Venus') program was a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather information about the planet Venus.
Thirteen probes successfully entered the Venusian atmosphere, including the two ...
probes to
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
.
Molniya (E6) was a minor revision adapted for
Luna E-6 series space probes where the guidance system for the entire launch vehicle was moved to the probe itself.
Characteristics
* Length: 43.440 m
* Diameter: 10.300 m
* Launch mass: 305,000 kg
* Strap-On Boosters: Blok-B,V,G,D / 4 ×
RD-107
* Stage 1: Blok-A /
RD-108K
* Stage 2: Blok-I /
RD-0108
The RD-0110 (, and its derivatives, the RO-8, RD-0108, RD-461) is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has four fixed nozzles and the output of the gas generator is directed to four secondar ...
* Stage 3: Blok-L /
S1.5400
Launches
Molniya rockets were launched 40 times:
See also
*
R-7 (rocket family)
The R-7 () rocket family is a series of launch vehicles descended from the Soviet R-7 Semyorka, developed in the 1950s as the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). While the R-7 proved impractical as a weapon, it became a corn ...
*
Molniya-M
The Molniya-M (, GRAU index: 8K78M) was a Soviet and Russian launch vehicle derived from the R-7 Semyorka Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The original 8K78 booster had been the product of a rushed development program and its launc ...
*
Soyuz launch vehicle
*
Voskhod rocket
The Voskhod rocket (, ''"ascent"'', ''"dawn"'') was a derivative of the Soviet R-7 ICBM designed for the human spaceflight programme but later used for launching Zenit reconnaissance satellite
A reconnaissance satellite or intel ...
*
Venera 4V-2
References
External links
*
{{commons category, Molniya (rocket)
1960 in spaceflight
1961 in spaceflight
1962 in spaceflight
1963 in spaceflight
Space launch vehicles of the Soviet Union
R-7 (rocket family)