The Air Launch Aerospace Corporation was established as a successor to 1997 joint task group (Polyot Aviation Company and Khimautomatiki DB) to explore the possibilty of creating an air-launched system capable of placing satellites into LEO using the AntonovAn-124 "Ruslan" as a flying launch pad.

Utilizing the experience of the team members with aerospace systems design, the reliability and availability of Russian rocket engines and the heavy lift capacity of the Antonov An-124 aircraft, ALAC has designed a program to make the launch portion of the satellite equation faster, better and less expensive.

• reduced cost
• wide range of orbit inclinations
• great operational flexibility
• significant time savings
• high reliability through the use of well-proven technologies and sustainers
• ecological safety
• excellent payload capabilities.

The Air Launch system will be able to address several very large launch markets: the communications satellite constellations, remote sensing, navigation and space research satellites.

Communications satellites that are planned for launch during the next ten years have relatively short lifetimes, an average of five years. This will make the satellite replacement market a very substantial potential market for the Air Launch system.

Because the Air Launch is essentially a stand-alone system it can be integrated into proposed launches at many stages of the planning and integration process.

The Air Launch system would provide a commercial alternative to launching satellites up to 8,000 pounds from Federal installations. We are convinced that provision of launch services by the private sector is consistent with the national security and foreign policy interest of the Russian Federation.

And we are planning to establish an international aerospace company with the participation of foreign investors and partners in order to ensure effectiveness of our activities on the world launch services market.

• capability of orbiting commercial pay-loads of up to 3-41;
• inserting spacecraft into circular orbits with wide range of altitudes (200-10,000 km) and inclinations (0-115 deg), including polar and sunsyn-chronous orbits, as well as launching into highly elliptical orbits incl. GTO and escape trajectories;
• possibility of LV and SC launch preparation both in Russia and in the territory of a customer;
• high reliability and low cost of launch ($2,000 - 2,500 for 1 kg of orbited payload);
• substantial dimensions of the payload envelope (2.90õ7.00 m) and low density of the payload accommodation (70-100 kg/m³);
• ecological safety at all stages of launch preparation and launch.

• Deployment and replenishment of global LEO communications satellite constellations;
• Orbiting Earth monitoring satellites (remote sensing, emergency situation control);
• Deployment and replenishment of LEO navigation satellite constellations;
• Insertion of small and medium class spacecraft into LEO, MEO, high elliptical and escape orbits for scientific use.

air launch project management

Leading Russian space designers and manufacturers with the participation of Ukranian Antonov Design Bureau are taking part in development of the project.

• Antonov An-124 "Ruslan" heavy-lift aircraft will be used as a flying launch pad;
• LOX/kerosene engine NK-43 as well as DM upper stage that is used in LV "Proton" and Sea Launch LV "Zenit-3";
• high precision guidance system based on Bisser computing system and gyroplatform P.Ya.-ÇÎÎ developed for upper stages DM (Proton) and DM-SL (Zenit-SL);
• modern structural and thermal protection materials, cryogenics, guidance and control systems developed by the Russian scientists.

• The carrier aircraft Antonov An-124-AL "Ruslan" will be used as an airborne launching platform;
• The Polyot two-stage launch vehicle (LV) equipped with modified LOX/kerosene NK-43M engine for the first stage and 11 D58MFD for the second stage;
• Ground launch preparation facilities at the base and intermediate airfields;
• Automated preparation, launching and flight control systems.

INMARSAT and TDRSS communications channels are planned to be leased for control and telemetry data transmission to the users.

An-124-AL carrier aircraft represents a retrofitted heavy-lift Antonov An-124-100 "Ruslan", in service since 1982. The carrier aircraft can take off virtually from any world area where a 3,000 km runway is available. An opportunity to start from an area nearest to customer manufacturing facilities ensures timely services and flexible launch schedule.

In fact, the carrier aircraft represents the reusable first stage of the launch system.

• Mounting and fastening the LV mated with SC inside the transport-launch container in the cargo bay;
• Fueling the LV with fuel components and gasses;
• LV ejection in the launch area;
• Guidance and control of LV and space vehicle flight;
• Relaying telemetry information to the mission control center.

The two-stage launch vehicle "Polyot" is carried internally by the Antonov AN-124-AL carrier aircraft to a specified ocean or land area where it is ejected and then free falls until its first-stage engine ignites.

The LV fixed inside the container with special supports (obturators) is transported inside the carrier aircraft at all operational stages and after reaching a launch point is ejected from the CA by a pneumatic system. The LV is pushed out of the CA at a speed of 20 mps (relative to the CA) and at the moment of the first-stage engine ignition it is at a safe distance from the carrier aircraft.

The second-stage engine is re-ignitable to ensure precise insertion of the payload into a designated orbit.

air launch space trasportation system operation

Òî get maximum results from the advantages of the Air Launch system on the world market of launch services it was necessary to solve several technical problems:

• ejection of a 100-ton LV from the carrier aircraft;
• safety of the aircraft crew;
• the Air Launch System processing at the base airfield as well as at the customer.

The analysis of different methods of LV and CA separation showed that the use of traditional scheme with parachutes is not viable as it requires development of parachutes much bigger than the largest existing Russian parachute VPS-14, and the use of a cluster of VPS-14 parachutes would considerably reduce operational reliability as well as safety of the carrier aircraft and its crew. As a result, the ejection solution was based on the idea of a transport-launch container. Computer simulation of the ejection process of a rocket from a container in atmospheric perturbations conditions confirmed its feasibility. The ejection process is characterized by the following parameters:

• the time elapsed from the beginning of the LV movement until the moment it separates from the aircraft does not exceed 2 sec;
• peak reactions in supports do not exceed 30-401 and this is in the range of acceptable LV loading;
• the lateral LV movement inside the container during the ejection does not exceed 3 5 cm and it is compensated by structural gaps. This LV ejection technology allows us to avoid expensive development of new parachutes.

safety

The Air Launch System safety concept is based on high reliability of all components, particularly the LV sustainers. One of the most dangerous emergency cases is a possibility of the LV explosion in proximity of the carrier aircraft right after the first stage engine ignition. Parameters of such an event were calculated and the experts found that the power of fuel explosion at an altitude of 10,000-11,000 m would not exceed 800-1,000 kg TNT. The pressure in the front of the blast wave would not harm the aircraft at a distance of 200-300 m from the explosion center. Considering this the designers calculated that the minimal delay for ignition of the first stage engine after LV ejection would be 7-10 sec.

• the major part of the space launcher and space vehicle pre-launch preparatory work is performed at the plant production facilities;
• fully assembled and completely tested and placed into a container launch vehicle together with the space vehicle is delivered to the base airfield at Gromov flight research center;
• at the base airfield the container is loaded into the earner aircraft, the LV and the earner aircraft are fueled.

With this payload processing its checkout and integration with container and LV can be conducted in the customer's territory. The carrier aircraft can fly to the customer's airfield or the nearest to the pay-load integration facility and the mating of the two container sections can be accomplished at the place.

• launch areas must be in latitudes from 40^oS.to60^oN.;
• orbit inclinations provided by the system must be in the range of 0-115 deg.;
• impact zones over the ocean;
• availability of after-launch landing airfields for the carrier aircraft not farther than 1,500-2,000 km from a launch area.

The above-mentioned requirements determined the necessity of using the airfield of M.M. Gromov Right Research Center as the base airfield.

The launches can be performed either over the Indian Ocean (Arabian Sea) or the Pacific Ocean (Okhotsk Sea) using intermediate airfields in Arabian Peninsula (U.A.E.) or in the Far East (Khorol airfield). The possibilities of using Christmas Island (Australia) or Cape Agulhas (South Africa) are also considered.

economic indicators

The cost of the Air Launch System development - US$ 120-130 million. The low cost is determined by the use of already existing well-proven and highly reliable components and technologies: the aircraft, liquid-fuel sustainers, command and control equipment, ground-based launch preparation facilities. The said project cost includes only expenses of the final project implementation phase, i.e. integration of technologies already developed and thoroughly tested.

The analysis of launch costs and the world launch services market prices shows that the project features high competitiveness and attractive investment indicators.

The Air Launch System concept provides for its integration with future Russian launching systems that are currently being developed on the basis of Soyuz LV, DM upper stage and NK-33/ NK-43 sustainers:

• standardization of development of Polyot LV second stage and Yamal LV upper booster;
• the use of the Air Launch Polyot LV first stage as a strap-on for Yamal LV would enable the system to reach payload capacities equal to those of Zenit LV (two strap-ons, Proton LV (four strap-ons) and pay-load capacity of 25-29 tons (six strap-ons).

• * first stage impact distance 1,300km;
• ** transfer from GTO to GEO;
• ** when using LOX/HYDROGEN.

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