Tsiklon

Ukrainian orbital launch vehicle. On 16 March and 1 August 1961 the Central Committee and Politburo approved development of Chelomei’s UR-200 (8K81) universal rocket. The UR-200 was to orbit Chelomei’s IS (Istrebitel Sputnik) ASAT; the US (Upravlenniye Sputnik) nuclear-powered naval intelligence satellite; and the Raketoplan combat re-entry vehicle. Trial flights of the missile began on 4 November 1963.

On October 13, 1964, Khrushchev was ousted from power. The new leadership, under Brezhnev, was adverse to all projects Khrushchev had supported. These included those of Chelomei. An expert commission under M V Keldysh was directed to examine all of Chelomei’s projects and make recommendations as to which should be cancelled. Keldysh found that Yangel’s R-36 rocket was superior to Chelomei’s UR-200 and that the Raketoplan was technically overly ambitious. The UR-200 and Raketoplan were accordingly cancelled, while the IS and US satellites were redesigned for launch by the R-36.

A government decree of 24 August 1965 formalised the decision and the Yangel bureau began design work in 1966. Required modifications to the R-36 were minimal; the IS and US Raketoplan-derived payloads had their own engines for insertion into final orbit. The Tsyklon 11K67 first test version was an adaptation of the 8K67 (SS-9 Mod 1) two stage ICBM and flew only briefly (1967 to 1968). It was quickly replaced by the definitive 11K69 Tsyklon 2 launch vehicle. The military project manager was L A Dolnikov.

2 stage vehicle consisting of 1 x 8S671 + 1 x 8S672