OREANDA-NEWS. June 24, 2010. Over several recent years, Russia has been creating a new launch vehicle named ‘Angara’.  Bench tests is a mandatory phase of any booster development project.  Within the framework of the Angara Project, bench tests are carried out at the IS 102 test rig.  This largest European test facility is run by the Space-Industry Research-and-Test Center (NITs RKP), a Federal Governmental Enterprise (Peresvet, Moscow Region).

The URM 1 common core booster, a module of the Angara launch vehicle, passed successfully the complete sequence of bench tests at IS 102 in 2009. 

Following certain preparatory work, ‘cold’ bench tests of the URM 2 common core booster were launched at the same test facility.  The first set of tests took place on 17 June 2010.  The goal was to verify, on a system level, the performance of URM 2’s pneumatic-and-hydraulic system under bench-test conditions.  The test procedure envisaged loading of the oxygen tank with liquid oxygen (LOX), three short-time drains and one complete LOX drainage.  The design parameters of the temperature control system and of the fire safety system were verified experimentally, and the effectiveness of thermal control was assessed of a dry URM 2 and URM 2 loaded with cryogenic propellants.  In the course of these tests, the problem of verifying the LOX supply systems’ performance was solved, the standard LOX loading procedure was finalized, and statistics was accumulated for various parameters during countdown and simulated flight of URM as part of a launch vehicle.

The NITs RKP staff have demonstrated a highly efficient organization, preparation and execution of work, have ensured a safe test process, and have rapidly processed the measured data.

After the data obtained has been analyzed, cold tests will be carried out on URM 2 loaded with the second propellant (kerosene).  This will be followed by testing a fully loaded module.

URM 2 ground fire tests are scheduled for the fall of 2010.

Background:
The creation of the Angara Launch System is deemed to be a goal of state importance.

The Angara Launch System was ordered by the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Space Agency as the state customers.  The Khrunichev Space Center is the prime designer responsible for the development, fabrication and testing of the Angara family of light-, medium- and heavy-lift launchers and for the creation of a multi-purpose launch system as a whole.

A complete sequence of ground fire tests of the Angara Stage 1 Common Core Booster was carried out in 2009.

As a step to ensure flight worthiness of the Angara 1/2 and KSLV-1 (Korea) launch vehicles, NITs RKP performed the first set of ground fire tests of the URM 1 Common Core Booster on 30 July 2009.  These tests testified to Angara Stage 1’s full functionality and compliance with the design specifications. Also, the computational process flow and the timeline to be applied to on-pad processing of flight launch vehicles were verified.

The URM 1 fire tests were preceded by a long preparatory phase encompassing a systemic set of activities.  These included, among other things, development bench tests of life-sized LV mock-ups, setting up a test rig, and testing this rig with URM 1 installed.  It is these latter tests that included the several sequences of cold tests carried out in 2009.

The initial sequence of ground fire tests (nicknamed ‘OSI’ in Russian) was followed by the OSI 2 sequence on 1 October 2009.  The highest possible thrust mode was attained in the OSI 2 tests.

Finally, the completing sequence of fire tests of the Angara Stage 1 Common Core Booster was carried out on 26 November.