Unpacking the new Soyuz-5 rocket with the most powerful engine in the world!

Video from the channel Wylsacom about Soyuz-5, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 18:07. Video type: Onboard.

Blogger Wylsacom tours the Baiterek launch complex at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The complex belongs to Kazakhstan and was built on site 45. There stands a mass and dimensional mock-up of the Soyuz-5, a medium-class two-stage launcher. According to the video, Russia builds the rocket and Kazakhstan handles the launch complex. At the end, footage of the first launch is shown, a test flight that, according to the author, carried a simulated payload on a suborbital trajectory with both stages working normally.

The first stage carries a single RD-171MV kerosene/liquid-oxygen engine. It has four nozzles fed by a single turbopump and stands about 4 meters tall, with a mass of about 10 tonnes. The author cites a consumption of about 2.5 tonnes per second and nearly 400 tonnes of propellant for about 160-180 seconds of operation. The second stage uses the RD-0124MS, equivalent to two RD-0124 engines in a single assembly, with about 100 tonnes of propellant and about 400 seconds of burn time. The 4.1-meter diameter is set by the limits of rail transport from Samara. Also shown are the launch table, the water deluge basin beneath it, and the electric erector-transporter. This positions the rocket without personnel and keeps it climate-controlled.

According to the video, the Soyuz-5 fills the gap between the Soyuz-2.1 and the Angara, with about 17 tonnes of payload and 530 tonnes of total mass. It inherits the Zenit's platform, though it is a different rocket. The author links this complex's fully automated launches to the 1960 Nedelin catastrophe, which killed 74 people according to official figures. He also recalls the Sea Launch consortium, which launched the Zenit-3SL from a sea-based platform.