The Universal Rocket or ''UR'' family of

missile A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this ...

s and

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 ...

s is a Russian, previously

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 ...

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

family. Intended to allow the same technology to be used in all Soviet rockets, the UR is produced by the

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center The Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (''Государственный космический научно-производственный центр (ГКНПЦ) имени М. В. Хру́ничева'' in Russian) is ...

. Several variants were originally planned, of which only three flew, and only two of which entered service. In addition, the cancelled UR-500 ICBM formed the basis for 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 ...

UR-100

The UR-100 and its variants (e.g. UR-100N) were the standard small

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 ...

of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Only the UR-100N (NATO reporting designation: SS-19 Stiletto) remains in active duty, with 20–30 missiles operational. The

Strela Strela (, ''arrow'') may refer to: Russian/Soviet technology Anti-aircraft missiles * 9K31 Strela-1, a.k.a. SA-9 Gaskin * 9K32 Strela-2, a.k.a. SA-7 Grail * 9K34 Strela-3, a.k.a. SA-14 Gremlin * 9K35 Strela-10, a.k.a. SA-13 Gopher Other * Strela ...

and

Rokot Rokot ( meaning ''Rumble'' or ''Boom''), also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of into a Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It was based on the UR-100N ( ...

carrier rockets are based on the UR-100N. A number of UR-100Ns have been earmarked for use as launch vehicles for the Avangard maneuverable reentry vehicle.

UR-200

The UR-200 was intended to be a larger

that could also be used as a carrier rocket. Nine test flights were made between 4 November 1963, and 20 October 1964, before the program was cancelled in favor of

Mikhail Yangel Mikhail Kuzmich Yangel (; 7 November 1911 – 25 October 1971), was a Soviet people, Soviet engineer born in Irkutsk who was the leading designer in the missile program of the former Soviet Union. Biography Yangel was the grandson of a Russ ...

's R-36 missile and

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 ...

carrier rocket derivative.

UR-500

The UR-500 was designed to be a very large

, with the

throw-weight A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typica ...

necessary to deliver the 50-100 megaton

Tsar Bomba The Tsar Bomba (code name: ''Ivan'' or ''Vanya''), also known by the alphanumerical designation "AN602", was a Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear aerial bomb, and by far the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested. The Soviet phy ...

-like

warhead A warhead is the section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket (weapon), rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: *E ...

. Under pressure from

Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

, the UR-500 was reworked as a space launcher, and eventually renamed the

, the latest version of which is still in service as of 2023.

UR-700

The UR-700 was

Vladimir Chelomei Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomey or Chelomei (, ; 30 June 1914 – 8 December 1984) was a Soviet engineer and designer in the missile program of the former Soviet Union. He invented the first Soviet pulse jet engine and was responsible for develo ...

's heavy-lift entry for the Soviet moonshot. It was meant to carry

cosmonauts An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserve ...

to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

on a

direct ascent Direct ascent is a method of landing a spacecraft on the Moon or another planetary surface directly, without first assembling the vehicle in Earth orbit, or carrying a separate landing vehicle into orbit around the target body. It was proposed ...

mission in the

LK-1 LK-1 was a projected Soviet crewed lunar flyby spacecraft. It would be launched on a three-stage Proton launch vehicle. The project started in 1962 under the lead engineer Vladimir Chelomey, with the first flight planned for 1967. The LK-1 had ...

lunar craft.

Sergei Korolev Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (14 January 1966) was the lead Soviet Aerospace engineering, rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. He invented the R-7 Sem ...

's N1 booster and Soyuz 7K-LOK / LK Lander were chosen instead for the mission, and it never left the drawing board. It would have had a payload capacity to low Earth orbit of 151 metric tons. Superficially, the UR-700 was of the well-known design of Soviet launchers with a central core stack and lateral strap-on boosters. But one distinguishing feature was that the engines of the first stage were cross-fed with fuel and oxidizer from the tanks of the strap-on boosters during the initial flight phase. This meant that when the boosters were spent and jettisoned, the central stack still flew with full tanks, thus reducing dead weight and increasing a possible payload. A nuclear variant known as the UR-700A was also designed to have a much larger payload capacity of 750t (1,500,000 lb) to LEO.

UR-900

The UR-900 was the ultimate Universal Rocket application, 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 ...

for crewed expeditions to other planets, especially Mars. Proposed in 1969, it would have had 15 RD-270 modules in the first and second stages, and the third and fourth stages were based on those of the UR-500. The UR-900 would have stood tall, had a liftoff thrust of , and be able to place 240 tons into low Earth orbit. Like the UR-700, it remained a paper project only.

UR-100

UR-200

UR-500

UR-700

UR-900

See also

References

Further reading