The Tsyklon-2 (), also known as Tsiklon-2 and Tsyklon-M (known as SL-11 by the United States DoD),

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 11K69, was a

Soviet 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 ...

, later Ukrainian,

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

carrier rocket A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistag ...

used from the 1960s to the late 2000s. The rocket had 106 launches, one suborbital and 105 orbital, with only one failure and 92 consecutive successful launches, from 27 December 1973 with the launch of Kosmos 626 to 25 June 2006 with the final flight of the Tsyklon-2, which makes this launcher most reliable within rocket launched more than 100 times.

History

A derivative of the R-36

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...

, and a member of the

Tsyklon The Tsyklon (, "Cyclone", also known as Tsiklon), GRAU index 11K67, was a Soviet-designed expendable launch system, primarily used to put Kosmos satellites into low Earth orbit in the late-1960s. It is based on the R-36 intercontinental ballist ...

family, the Tsyklon-2 made its maiden flight on 6 August 1969, and conducted 106 flights, the last one occurring on 24 June 2006. It was the most reliable Soviet/Russian carrier rocket ever used, and launched more than 100 times having failed only once, and the second most reliable carrier rocket overall, behind the

Atlas II Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. The Atlas II was a direct evolution of the Atlas I, featuring longer first-stage tanks, higher-perfor ...

that was launched only 63 times. Along with other R-36 family member

Tsyklon-3 The Tsyklon-3, also known as Tsiklon-3 and Cyclone-3 (known as SL-14 by the United States DoD), GRAU index 11K68, was a Soviet, and subsequently Ukrainian orbital carrier rocket. Overview Tsyklon-3 launching a Meteor-3 satellite at left A ...

, the Tsyklon-2 was retired in favor of new-generation and all-Russian carrier rockets, such as the

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 ...

and Soyuz-2.

Description

Like the Tsyklon-3, the Tsyklon-2 was derived from the R-36 ''Scarp'' ICBM. However, it did not have a third stage, like the Tsyklon-3 did, also it was slightly shorter and had a lower weight mass when fueled.

External links

Encyclopedia Astronautica- Tsyklon 2

References

Yuzhmash space launch vehicles 1973 in spaceflight Space launch vehicles of the Soviet Union Space launch vehicles of Ukraine {{rocket-stub

History

Description

See also

External links

References