Effective disgrace and space issues
We have written more than once that our space industry, led by "effective managers," continues its rapid descent from orbit. And here is a new confirmation of this.
New - well forgotten old?
Production Association "Southern Machine-Building Plant. Makarova ”signed a contract with S7 Sea Launch Limited for the production and supply of Zenith launch vehicles.
The press service of the company reported that the contract was signed 28 April 2017.
According to the contract, it is planned to manufacture 12 launch vehicles for use in the Sea Launch and Land Launch programs for the exploration and use of space for peaceful purposes as part of international space projects. Now in production is 2 missiles modifications Zenit-3SL and Zenit-3SLB.
The Ukrainian company expressed its gratitude to many foreign companies, but did not hide the fact that the counterparty is the Russians. It is clear that in this connection social networks are raging, and Ukrainian nationalists threaten to block the supply of missiles.
S7 Sea Launch Limited is indeed a Russian company that was established in the autumn of 2016, when the S7 group signed a contract with Sea Launch to purchase the Sea Launch rocket and space complex. The subject of the transaction was the ship "Sea Launch Commander", the platform "Odyssey" and ground equipment in the American port of Long Beach.
The Sea Launch project has been operational since 1995. Its founders were the Boeing Corporation, the Russian RSC Energia, the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash design bureaus, and the Norwegian enterprise Kvaerner. Several commercial Russian-Ukrainian Zenit launch vehicles from a floating platform were carried out, but Sea Launch went bankrupt in 2009, with RSC Energia playing a leading role after the reorganization.
The question arises: why, exactly?
What is it: the next pulling of a lifebuoy to Ukraine, or something more?
Zenit, a Soviet and later Ukrainian rocket, was quite successful for its time and did not lose its effectiveness in the 21 century.
By and large, it was the cheapest rocket for launches into the geostationary orbit, although it was losing in power and reliability to the Proton. Zenit was launched in the interval from 1985 to 2015 years 83 times, and only 9 starts were unsuccessful. The launches were made both from Baikonur and from the floating cosmodrome SeaLaunch.
The “heart” of the Zenith was the Russian RD-170 engine. Naturally, in the light of recent events at Zenit, it was possible to put a cross, final and irrevocable. However, we see a completely reverse alignment.
Again the question: what about Angara, Proton, Soyuz?
And here is complete sadness.
"Proton". In fact, the year since June 9 of the 2016 of the year, Proton-M does not fly for all known reasons, on which it seems to be working, that's just not clear who and where.
Employees both left the enterprises and continue to do so. Already not in the mass order, the mass departure was last year. This applies primarily to all enterprises of the Khrunichev Center, in Moscow, Voronezh, and Omsk.
The program of financial rehabilitation, developed and implemented by the command “effective managers” of A. V. Kalinovsky, who headed the enterprise in the summer of 2014, successfully finishes the personnel system of CiH.
Fully restructured production in Moscow and Omsk. The main goal of this restructuring is to reduce the areas occupied by the enterprise, with their subsequent sale for development, both in Moscow and in Omsk. All this under the slogan of "lean production." In Voronezh, the area is not reduced, but there is simply nothing to cut.
The year when there were no launches of “Protons” led to a completely natural result: the number of orders for launching satellites was sharply reduced.
And that's fine. Customers need satellites in orbits, not tales of tomorrow. This is a serious industry after all.
The situation with the Proton is simply deplorable: its old production is collapsed, some of the parts and blanks are now being made in the branches thousands of kilometers from Moscow. Quite often, branches cannot process the product completely on their equipment, and for some operations it has to be transported from Omsk or Ust-Katav to Moscow, and then back. This leads to waste of time and money on transportation. Part of the workers from the factory in Moscow was reduced, part - transferred to idle for 2 / 3 salary.
These activities are “effective” proudly referred to as “changing the configuration of production and reducing overhead costs.”
In KB Salyut, which is engaged in design support for existing projects and the development of new ones, the situation is no better than at the factory.
First, as a result of the “development of a motivational model,” a new wage system was introduced. They canceled part of the allowances - for academic degrees and knowledge of a foreign language and tied the award to the volume of work performed. When planning, he was taken into account in standard hours, and in terms of work, he had long since broken off from the actual time costs, both upwards and downwards.
But the standards for labor-intensiveness were not revised, because part of the divisions turned out to be in chocolate, and partly - on a starvation ration with a bare salary.
Of course, this led to the departure of some of the specialists of their own accord, and not retirees at all. It also sharply aggravated relations between divisions - no one wants to work for free. In Voronezh, at KBKhA, there were refusals of workers to go overtime without payment.
But, despite the lack of knowledge and experience in the development of rocket and space technology, A. V. Kalinovsky and his team do not forget to generate new ideas in the field of rocket production.
This is about the Proton Light project presented last year. Having optimized "Angara" and practically having stopped production of the usual "Proton", the "effective" decided to disfigure it, giving rise to new versions, as if the rocket is a children's designer, and not a complicated technical system.
It’s very difficult to say why this was needed for Kalinowski’s company. Apparently, I really wanted to play "cool specialists". It took a year for the mind to prevail and everyone understood that “Light” is nonsense.
"Proton" and so in theory, fly only until 2025-th year. Then everything, finish. But today's owners of the territory where the Baikonur space center is located are by no means eager to even pay for Proton, which is poisoning everything.
But on the Proton-Light, new contracts are already being signed, although the rocket itself is not yet available.
But there is a complete collapse and collapse of the “effective managers” of Kalinovsky Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. Reorganization of production and development of new projects is carried out at the expense of borrowed funds. The amount of credits and loans hanging at the enterprise, during the work of A. V. Kalinovsky, managed to double and increased from 28 billion rubles to 52 billion rubles. And as collateral for the loan goes the territory of the Moscow site of the enterprise. There are also debts to suppliers, and they are comparable in magnitude with the debt to banks.
According to the balance sheet for the 2016 year, the amount of claims to the company is already 9,5 billion rubles.
Good start, in the "proton" style. Effective.
"Angara".
Huge sums were invested in the development of the Angara and in the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome. In recent years, the media have repeatedly talked about these projects. First, in loud promises, then in victorious reports.
And then, as usual, in principle, scandals and investigations began.
A lot of things were thrown out into the light, but the fact that the noise and shouts were much more than real achievements saddened the most.
One Angara carried out an orbital launch two and a half years ago, one Soyuz flew from the Eastern one a year ago.
And that is all. I hope so far.
There were rumors, however, so far only rumors that the Angara would not be trusted with the new manned Federation ship that was preparing to fly it to the Moon.
In general, it is clear that the rocket must fly, and the spaceport to launch. If both do not happen, then the matter is amiss. And both components are smoothly moving into the category of "expensive toys" and "money for the wind."
The question of what state billions have spent is repeated many times in the media, in blogs, and in comments. There are many questions, but there are no answers.
Let's look at the Angara line.
At first it was prepared on the Zenith launching table, which was already at Baikonur and in Plesetsk. Then they began to design their own. Wings were attached to side accelerators to give reusability.
The concept of universal rocket modules - a promising topic of reducing the cost of production, was subsequently implemented by a young American startup SpaceX.
In general, story “Hangars” is an example of what can happen if you give developers an unlimited budget, unlimited terms and say: “Create!” And they created a rocket with universal modules to save, but with three different launch tables for each А3, А5, А7, which raises the value of the whole complex to the skies.
The only thing that accompanied the "Angara" throughout its life course - is its uselessness.
As a rocket, "Angara" is not needed. And always was not needed. “Angara” was always used for any other purposes besides launching spacecraft. For normal rocket work, existing missiles continued to be exploited: the A1 capabilities are Dnepr, Rokot, Soyuz-U, A3 are Soyuz-2 and Zenit, A5 - Proton, A7 - such loads not.
There are no commercial prospects either - the rocket is twice as expensive as the Proton.
The first orbital heavy launch of the Angara was unique in the history of Russian cosmonautics - it was allowed two days earlier than the appointed time. After long transfers, but two days earlier than the announced date. Accurate on the day when President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan visited Russia on a state visit.
So the first (and at the moment, the last) start of the Angara was not a cosmic, but a political one.
Kazakhstan (and the entire cosmic world) was given to understand that there is no pressure on the “Proton”, there is where to set up “your own bar” with all the components.
The essence of "Baikonur": starting tables "Proton" and manned tables "Union." But while the United States depends on the "Union" on this rocket, Kazakhstan will never dare to encroach, but the "Proton" is still a poison, and not in the direct sense. Although in direct too.
"Proton" pulled from one third to one half of the entire commercial cosmonautics of the world, and each launch brought to the cash desk of Russia for money a little less than Kazakhstan receives for renting a space center per year.
It was from what “start”.
Now "Angara" is actually only one launch pad. In Plesetsk. Created by the Ministry of Defense in order to ensure Russia's access to space from its territory. But Plesetsk is the worst cosmodrome for launching into a geostationary orbit — too much fuel is spent on changing the orbit inclination.
At Vostochny, the construction of two launch pads for the Angara A5 was planned - one “cargo”, the second one - manned. In this configuration and with refinement to the Angara A5B, it was possible by two launches to deliver the Russians in the Federation to the circumlunar orbit. For this potential opportunity Roscosmos steadfastly held in moments of the toughest sequestration of the space budget. For the media, the formula about “ensuring the possibility of reaching the moon before 2030 of the year” was repeated.
I wanted to believe. Even despite the chaos with defective engines, debris in the fuel lines, inappropriate solder, we wanted to. It would be great to see our flight to the moon ...
But there is no money for two tables under the “Angar”, which means there is no flight to the Moon, and there are no manned launches.
Point. While the "Angara" will not fly anywhere.
And now the information on the "Zenith". But there is no evil without good.
The revival of SeaLaunch under the auspices of S7 prompted Roscosmos to work out a Russian rocket on the RD-170. They took as a basis the RSC Energia groundwork for the Rus rocket.
So there was a project "Phoenix". Kazakhstan has given money for this work, and a variant called “Sunkar” (Falcon) is being worked out for it. This rocket can be launched from the Zenit launch tables, saving significant funds.
Most recently, the head of "Energy" spoke about the possibility of putting the Federation spacecraft on the Phoenix, and today this is the only possible option.
But Phoenix is weaker than Angara, so for now no Moon shines on our cosmonauts.
In the future, the Phoenix-5 can be assembled out of five rockets and this will already be a lunar super-heavy rocket. The modular concept of the Angara is repeated, with the difference that each module is an independent rocket. Differences from the "Angara" is.
Approximately also the Americans developed their “Falcon-9”. Is it easy to assemble three or five of one rocket by the example of the triple “Falcon Heavy” - the launch was promised in the 2014 year, 2017 is in the yard and they promise by the fall. Here the same rake, in general.
It turns out on the one hand complete nonsense: when ready in theory, "Angara" to start building a new rocket. And where is the guarantee that the Phoenix will take off?
Certainly, no one can give guarantees, but there are several nuances.
If "Phoenix" turns out with the price of "Zenith", then it will be three times cheaper than "Angara A5". The launch options are comparable if you start from the equator at SeaLaunch. Too many ifs, but alas, that is.
"Phoenix" is not developed GKNPTs them. Khrunichev, breathing incense, and RSC Energia, which has established itself as a quality manufacturer of Soyuz spacecraft and other technology. "Energy" is much less likely to get into reports of corruption scandals. It seems to be encouraging.
Since the Phoenix is sharpened for Zenith launch tables, there are no problems with them. Baikonur or "SeaLaunch" near the equator.
At Phoenix there are private customers, that is, investors. So - money. The same S7 is ready to buy and let.
So the Phoenix is quite capable of replacing the Proton, if held and will be cheaper than the Proton.
But when it will be - again a question.
We get at the output: minus "Proton", minus "Angara" ... plus "Zenith".
But “Zenit” is in the black only if there are still personnel in Ukraine who can make a rocket. And this is also a question.
Sources:
https://donpress.com/news/04-06-2017-ukrainskiy-yuzhmash-podpisal-kontrakt-na-postavku-12-raket-zenit
http://militariorg.ucoz.ru/publ/ukraina_krym_rossija/zachem_rossija_sobiraetsja_spasti_raketnuju_otrasl_ukrainy/17-1-0-73238
http://zelenyikot.com/vostochnaya-angara/
http://badcube.livejournal.com/102339.html
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