To meet this requirement, an advanced planning division at GKNPTs Khrunichev drafted a family of launchers with a payload ranging from 16.6 tons to almost 130 tons. A key feature of the proposed architecture would be its engines burning kerosene at a relatively low pressure in their combustion chambers.

By the beginning of the 1980s, Energia had proposed two programs: laser-equipped Skif and guided missiles platform Kaskad (where Skif would cover the low-orbit targets, Kaskad engaged targets in high and geosynchronous orbits).

Jun 5, 2023 · The night skies over Kazakhstan lit up on May 15, 1987 as a powerful rocket roared off its pad at the Soviet launch complex at Baikonur. The Energia launch vehicle consisted of a core stage with four engines and four liquid-fueled strap-on booster rockets.

Jun 25, 2024 · Kaskad, Russian for "cascade", was a weapons platform that would have attacked satellites in geostationary orbits using missiles. Skif was a platform that would have annihilated satellites in LEO using lasers.

The latest effort of the Russian industry to develop the super-heavy rocket project includes studies of the layout and architecture of the monumental launch facility capable of hosting the giant vehicle.

Oct 14, 2013 · Previously, Khrunichev proposed the Yenisei-5 and Amur-5 launch vehicles. These were stand-alone vehicles though, not evolvable vehicles like it's competitors (and SLS, the vehicle that Russia wants to compete with).

Space launch vehicles. Russian operational and planned launch vehicles as of 2018.

May 13, 2021 · Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and landing with Soyuz 37 capsule 180 km southeast of Dzheskasgan. Valentin Lebedev was scheduled to be Leonid Popov's Flight Engineer, but he required an operation after injuring his knee while working out on a trampoline.

May 16, 2013 · Two orbital battle station defence systems that could be disguised as Mir space station modules emerged from these studies: Skif and Kaskad. The Energia organisation, the body behind the Soyuz...

Two concepts emerged: Skif—a laser "cannon" in orbit—and another weapon known as Kaskad (Cascade), designed to destroy an enemy's satellites with missiles fired from another craft in orbit.