RLA-135 Credit - © Mark Wade

This heavyweight booster concept was proposed by Glushko in 1974. It was part of the RLA (Rocket Flight Apparatus) family of modular, lox/kerosene powered vehicles designed to meet the Soviet military's third-generation space launch requirements. The RLA-135 had a payload to low earth orbit 100 metric tons using two modules as the first stage and the RLA-120 core. Glushko proposed that the booster could launch a Soviet manned lunar landing by 1981. The government rejected the RLA concept, but it did lead to the Zenit-2 and Energia boosters of the 1980's.

Glushko, new head of NPO Energia, briefed his new launch vehicle family to the VPK Military Industrial Commission on 13 August 1974. These met the requirements of the Ministry of Defense as described in 1973 in Plan Poisk and would replace the failed N1 and all existing launch vehicles. As required by the Ministry of Defense, they used only non-toxic, inexpensive Lox/Kerosene propellants; the various launch vehicles were modular, and used common engines and rocket bodies. The basic engine would be a four-chamber design with a vacuum thrust of 1,200,000 kgf. The modules had a gross mass of about 800 metric tons each, were six meters in diameter and about thirty meters long.

The new design family was called RLA - Rocket Flight Apparatus.

The RLA-135 had a payload to low earth orbit 100 metric tons using two modules as the first stage and the RLA-120 core. This would begin flight trials in 1980 and allow a lunar expedition to be launched in 1981. It would also be used to launch the MKTS spaceplane.

Glushko insisted that a permanent lunar base and Mars expeditions in the 1980's were achievable. What was needed was a reliable heavy lift launch vehicle, and the RLA approach would achieve this. To base these plans on the N1 design would invite catastrophe. The RLA cluster method would allow the modules to be built in the factory and thoroughly tested individually without risking the entire launch vehicle. Total cost of the development program was put at 12.5 billion rubles.

The members of the VPK met the proposal with considerable skepticism. The final decision was that the plan had to be reworked. Brezhnev, Keldysh, and Ustinov would insist in the reformulation that the Lox/LH2 technology and capabilities of the US space shuttle had to be duplicated. The end result would be the Energia launch vehicle and Buran space shuttle, with which neither the military nor the Soviet engineering community was happy.

Manufacturer: Korolev. LEO Payload: 100,000 kg (220,000 lb). to: 185 km Orbit. at: 52.00 degrees. Liftoff Thrust: 32,000.000 kN (7,193,000 lbf). Total Mass: 2,650,000 kg (5,840,000 lb). Core Diameter: 6.00 m (19.60 ft). Total Length: 45.00 m (147.00 ft). Development Cost $: 12,500.000 million. in: 1974 average dollars.

• Stage Number: 1. 2 x Stage: RLA-1. Gross Mass: 800,000 kg (1,760,000 lb). Empty Mass: 45,000 kg (99,000 lb). Thrust (vac): 11,700.000 kN (2,630,200 lbf). Isp: 337 sec. Burn time: 210 sec. Isp(sl): 311 sec. Diameter: 6.00 m (19.60 ft). Span: 6.00 m (19.60 ft). Length: 30.00 m (98.00 ft). Propellants: Lox/Kerosene. No Engines: 1. Engine: RLA-1200. Status: Design 1974. Empty mass, specific impulses, length estimated by comparison to smaller Zenit successor design.

• Stage Number: 2. 1 x Stage: RLA-1. Gross Mass: 800,000 kg (1,760,000 lb). Empty Mass: 45,000 kg (99,000 lb). Thrust (vac): 11,700.000 kN (2,630,200 lbf). Isp: 337 sec. Burn time: 210 sec. Isp(sl): 311 sec. Diameter: 6.00 m (19.60 ft). Span: 6.00 m (19.60 ft). Length: 30.00 m (98.00 ft). Propellants: Lox/Kerosene. No Engines: 1. Engine: RLA-1200. Status: Design 1974. Empty mass, specific impulses, length estimated by comparison to smaller Zenit successor design.

• Stage Number: 3. 1 x Stage: RLA-2. Gross Mass: 150,000 kg (330,000 lb). Empty Mass: 10,000 kg (22,000 lb). Thrust (vac): 2,940.000 kN (660,930 lbf). Isp: 349 sec. Burn time: 160 sec. Diameter: 6.00 m (19.60 ft). Span: 6.00 m (19.60 ft). Length: 12.00 m (39.00 ft). Propellants: Lox/Kerosene. No Engines: 1. Engine: RLA-300. Status: Design 1974. Empty mass, specific impulses, length estimated by comparison to smaller Zenit successor design.

• Glushko briefed his new RLA launch vehicle family to the VPK Military Industrial Commission Nation: USSR. These RLA - Rocket Flight Apparatus - met the requirements of the Ministry of Defence as described in 1973 in Plan Poisk and would replace the failed N1 and all existing launch vehicles. As required by the Ministry of Defence, they used only Lox/Kerosene propellants; the various launch vehicles were modular, and used common engines and rocket bodies. The members of the VPK met the proposal with considerable scepticism. The final decision was that the plan had to be reworked.Additional Details: Glushko briefed his new RLA launch vehicle family to the VPK Military Industrial Commission(24556). References: 367.

• Chertok, Boris Yevseyevich, Raketi i lyudi, Mashinostroenie, Moscow, 1994-1999.. ISBN: 5217024976. Russian language autobiography in four volumes of one of Korolev's chief assistants. NASA is in the process of translating the work - the pdf is for the first volume only, up to WW2. Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20050010181_2005010059.pdf. -Right click to download! More at amazon.com...

• Melnik, T G, Voenno-Kosmicheskiy Siliy, Nauka, Moscow, 1997.. Two-volume official history of the (now defunct) Russin space forces.