Launch systems

Rollout
Baikonur launch pads
Diagrams
Links
Photo gallery

The launch system structures at Baikonur for both Soyuz and Proton rockets are unique. Asif Siddiqi describes the conception for the R-7 in Challenge to Apollo:

One of the most expensive and time-consuming aspects in the development of the R-7 was the design of a launch structure to accommodate the unwieldy-looking missile. Originally, the plan was to assemble the missile at the launch pad in a vertical position. […]All the plans, however, proved unwieldy because of concerns about damaging the missile itself at takeoff. It was at this point that Mishin emerged with an original idea for a launch pad. The conception involved assembling the booster horizontally in a hangar and then transporting the rocket to the launch pad, where it would be raised into a vertical position. At the pad, the R-7 would be suspended “at the waist” above its center of gravity, about twenty meters from the base, by four identical and huge “petals”. Chief Designer Barmin, who was responsible for the design of launch complexes, later recalled:

The heavy rocket “hangs” on them [the “petals”] until its engines go into primary thrust mode. And then they pull away to the side simultaneously, and the gas blasts from all the operating engines exit in one large opening and escape the steppe through a special concrete conduit.

The petals would swing into motion not by any external hydraulic power, but by an ingenious system of counterbalanced weights that worked because of gravity. The engineers nicknamed the system Tyul’pan, Тюльпан (“Tulip”) because of the peeling nature of the petals at launch time. Each of the petals would contain work gantries and other systems required to fuel and test the rocket prior to launch. […] For more than forty years, Mishin’s original conception has serviced the space program; it was from the same type of launch pad that cosmonauts flew to the Mir space station from 1986 to 1999.

Rollout

Traditionally, the rocket is rolled out two days before launch at exactly 5 a.m. Moscow time (7 a.m. CST at Baikonur). Before the rollout, personnel and guests place coins on the rails for good luck (these, of course, get thoroughly squashed).

The rocket with its payload is transported horizontally on a railcar from the preparation hangar at Baikonur to the launchpad. It only takes around 40 minutes for the rocket to be trundled out from the processing building, along the railroad track to the launchpad. It rests horizonally on a carrier and is pulled then pushed by the diesel engine.

The rocket is then raised to an upright position on the launchpad by a system of weights and pulleys, and is fuelled for launch (fuel is brought along and stored in railcars). The process takes about 2.5 hours.

The Kosmotrans company does all the transporting of cargo and people around Baikonur.

GUP NPF Kosmotrans
ГУП НПФ «Космотранс»

Kosmotrans Scientific Research & Production Company State Unitary Enterprise (located in St. Petersburg)

The Kosmotrans Scientific Research and Production Company State Unitary Enterprise was founded in 1996 to take responsibility for the operation and maintenance of railway infrastructure at the Baikonur cosmodrome, and for the centralized deliveries of space rocket hardware from the manufacturers to the launch sites. Today, Kosmotrans provides for the transportation of cargo and personnel, including the launch crews, around the Baikonur cosmodrome. (Russian Institutes & Industry, ESA)

Baikonur launch pads

The following descriptions of the Proton and Soyuz launch facilities are from the Baikonur cosmodrome page at the TsENKI site.

Soyuz launch pads

There are two launch pads for the R-7 type rocket, located within sight of each other:

LC 17P32 for LV R-7 type, Area 1, Launch Pad 5. Yurii Gagarin and, much later, ISS Expedition 1 were launched from here.
LC 17P32 for LV R-7 type, Area 31, Launch Pad 6.

Leading developer of launch complex is the Federal state unitary enterprise V.P.Barmin Design Bureau of General Machine-building (KBOM), «Конструкторское бюро общего машиностроения» (КБОМ).

The facilities of launch and technical complexes are assigned for the LV R-7 type by:

The Center 12C of Rocket & Space Corporation Energiya, Центром 12Ц Ракетно-Космической Корпорации «Энергия»
Progress assembly and test complex factory, Сборочно-Испытательным Комплексом Завода «Прогресс»
The Test Center KBOM, Центром Испытаний КБОМ
The Engineering and Test Center of OKB Vympel, Центром Эксплуатации и Испытаний ОКБ «Вымпел»
Lavochkin NPO (Scientific and Production Corporation), НПО им. С. А. Лавочкина
NPO Applied Mechanics (Scientific and Production Corporation), НПО Прикладной Механики
The Engineering and Test Center of Design Bureau of Transport and Chemical Machine-building, Центром Эксплуатации и Испытаний КБ Транспортно-Химического Машиностроения

Features of Launch Complex LV (Launch Vehicle) R-7 type:

The launching facilities with launch system for LV R-7 and Soyuz are complicated and original technical constructions. They are a multi-stage ferroconcrete building with the top part on the level of firing pad and a broad embrasure in the center. This embrasure goes into splayed deep gas duct. On the balcony-visor there is a launching system that is unique as regards to technical solution. On the mobile circular launch facility there are fastened four open worktip-up supporting girders. The launch vehicle looks like it is suspended on these girders. Articulate connection of supporting girders allows to bring them together up to closing in the top part to form the single ring. This ring is kept in a closed state due to the mass of the suspended rocket.

At the beginning of rocket movement during launch, the load on the force ring decreases and the supporting girders open under their own counterweights to allow passage of the rocket. Such scheme, the rocket suspension using supporting parts located near the center of gravity, allowed to refuse from reinforcement of LV’s end part when connecting the lateral and central blocs in one pack.

The maintenance girders are equipped with elevators to deliver the personal, cosmonauts and different technical means and materials. The girders are pulled apart and go down to a horizontal position before the rocket launching. On the mobile part of launching system there are two multi-stage maintenance girders also articulate connected and equipped with semiannular platforms, located on different levels. Closed around the LV, these platforms allow specialists to perform maintenance along the entire rocket surface.

On the supporting ring there are also cable-girders, which are used for supply and connection of cables, charging, drainage, pneumatic and other communications to the LV. During the launching these girders are disconnected and they recline under the action of counterweights.

Inside the launch facility there are stationary systems for charging with propellant components, thermostating, remote control, compressed gas supply, means for fire fighting, gas control and so on. In the bay of the launch facility there is a maintenance cabin, which can move over gas duct. The cabin has a multi-stage platform for maintenance of the lower part of the LV.

Rockets launched:

Vostok, «Восток»
Vostok-2
Vostok-2M
Voskhod, «Восход»
Luna, «Луна»
Molniya, «Молния»
Molniya-M
Polyot, «Полёт»
Soyuz-L
Soyuz, «Союз»
Soyuz-M
Soyuz-U
Soyuz-U2
Soyuz-U with Ikar
Soyuz-U with US Fregat
Sputnik, «Спутник»
Sputnik-3
Soyuz-FG
Soyuz-FG with US Fregat

Proton launch pads

There are three Proton launch pads:

Launch Complex 200, Launch Pad 39;
Two adjacent to each other: Launch Complex 81, pads 23 and 24 (counted as one).

The leading developer of the launch complexes is the Federal state unitary enterprise V.P. Barmin Design Bureau of General Machine-building (KBOM).

The facilities of launch and technical complexes are assigned for the LV Proton by:

The Center of Space Ground Infrastructure Operation, ЦентроМ Эксплуатации Объектов Наземной Космической Инфраструктуры
The M.V.Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, ГКНПЦ им. М. В. Хруничева
The Test Center TC-2 KBOM, Центр Испытаний ЦИ-2 КБОМ
The Engineering and Test Center of OKB Vympel, Центр Эксплуатации и Испытаний ОКБ «Вымпел»

Features of Launch Complex LV Proton:

The launch complex for LV Proton includes a number of original engineering solutions. The constructional feature of launching and charging facilities and systems of complex, which provide pre-launching and launching of LV Proton, is that the attachment of charging, drainage, electric and pneumatic communications to rocket is carried out by remote control, and dismantling of all communications is carried out in automatic mode. In case of a need to drain the propellant components out of LV tanks after failed launch, it is not required reattachment of all communications to the rocket. There are no cable and cable-charging posts. Instead the original docking mechanisms of launch pad are in use.

Proton types launched: