RLA-150 Credit - © Mark Wade

This super-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-150 had a payload to low earth orbit 250 metric tons using six modules as the first stage and the RLA-120 core. Glushko proposed that the booster could launch a Soviet manned Mars landing by 1983. The government rejected the RLA concept, but it did lead to the Energia booster 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 kgf each, were six meters in diameter and about thirty meters long.

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

The RLA-150 had a gross lift-off mass 6,000 metric tons, payload to low earth orbit 250 metric tons with six modules as the first stage, and the RLA-120 core. This would begin trials in 1982 and allow a manned Mars expedition to be launched in 1983.

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: 250,000 kg (550,000 lb). to: 185 km Orbit. at: 52.00 degrees. Liftoff Thrust: 65,000.000 kN (14,612,000 lbf). Total Mass: 6,000,000 kg (13,200,000 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. 6 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.

1974 August 1 - Launch Vehicle: RLA-150, Energia.

• New heavy-lift vehicle Nation: USSR. Spacecraft: Buran. Glushko's first action was to implement a decision of the leadership to develop a completely new heavy-lift launch vehicle. This work started in 1974, with a planned first flight in 1984, at a total estimated cost of 5 to 6 billion roubles. One factor in the decision was the fact that Keldysh was greatly disturbed by the manoeuvrability of the space shuttle. He talked the matter up until he managed to get Ustinov and Brezhnev worked as well. He told them a US shuttle could manoeuvre around Soviet PVO and PKO anti-missile and satellite defences and deliver a 25 tonne nuclear bomb of greater than 25 megatons force directly on Moscow.

  Keldysh was convinced that the US planned to use the shuttle for a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Russia. Therefore the USSR needed an analogous capability to maintain the strategic balance. While this discussion was going on, the energies of TsKBEM were completely absorbed in the Apollo-Soyuz program, on which the prestige of the Soviet Union depended.Additional Details: New heavy-lift vehicle(51213). References: 367.

• 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.

• Competitive bidding for new vehicle Nation: USSR. Glushko proposed obtaining competitive bids for the launch complexes and booster subsystems for new boosters developed by OKB-1, dropping the traditional OKB-1 subcontractors. References: 367.

• Vulkan Mars Expedition Nation: USSR. Glushko proposed a Mars expedition launched by the Vulkan heavy-lift launch vehicle. The concept was treated like a bad allergy by the VPK. He later scaled it down and proposed it for launch by Energia (using 100 tonne modules instead of 230 tonne modules).References: 367.

• Vulkan Lunar Base Nation: USSR. Program: Lunar L3. Spacecraft: LZhM, LZM, Lunokhod LEK, LEK. Mishin and Barmin, using budget provided by the Ministry of Defence, had designed a lunar base for launch by the N1 in 1969-1974. After the cancellation of the N1, Glushko pleaded with the Military-Industrial Commission for the work to be taken from Barmin and be given to NPO Energia. Glushko's alternative, Vulkan-launched base was elaborated within his bureau. Bushuyev developed spacecraft for the base. Prudnikova developed a modular lunar city, with living modules, factory modules, a nuclear reactor power module, and a lunar crawler with a 200 km radius of action. The project work was only finally cancelled after the Apollo-Soyuz flights.References: 367.

• Vulkan Lunar Base rejected Nation: USSR. Spacecraft: LZhM, LZM, Lunokhod LEK, LEK. An expert commission led by Keldysh examines the plan for a lunar base launched by the Vulkan booster. The plan is completely rejected. NPO Energia was told to quit dreaming and devote itself only to projects with national economic importance, like Buran. This put a definitive end to Glushko's lunar base projects studied in 1976-1978. But he just waited and started design work again on a lunar base using the Energia launch vehicle after the first Buran launch in 1988.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.