Zenit (rocket family)

Zenit was a family of space <a href="/facts/Launch_vehicle/g1GCGFJB">launch vehicles</a> designed by the <a href="/facts/Yuzhnoye_Design_Bureau/euSxfxsR">Yuzhnoye Design Bureau</a> in <a href="/facts/Dnipro/tbWRkq3g">Dnipro</a>, <a href="/facts/Ukraine/Qof0uqAj">Ukraine</a>, which was then part of the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>. Zenit was originally built in the 1980s for two purposes: as a <a href="/facts/Liquid_rocket_booster/4xKL8mb5">liquid rocket booster</a> for the <a href="/facts/Energia_(rocket)/snJSoyMA">Energia</a> rocket and, equipped with a second stage, as a stand-alone middle-weight launcher with a payload greater than the 7 tonnes of the <a href="/facts/Soyuz_(rocket)/GKUhhzoA">Soyuz</a> but smaller than the 20 tonnes payload of the <a href="/facts/Proton_(rocket_family)/susmVN0U">Proton</a>. The last rocket family developed in the USSR, the Zenit was intended as an eventual replacement for the dated Soyuz and Proton families, and it would employ propellants which were safer and less toxic than the Proton's nitrogen tetroxide/UDMH mix. Zenit was planned to take over crewed spaceship launches from Soyuz, but these plans were abandoned after the <a href="/facts/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union/Fyn5jw3n">dissolution of the Soviet Union</a> in 1991.
Many of components of the Zenit rockets were produced in Russia. The Ukrainian space industry was highly integrated with that of Russia due to its Soviet heritage, but that cooperation was interrupted by the <a href="/facts/Russo-Ukrainian_War/kE7cHvoQ">Russo-Ukrainian War</a> beginning in 2014, which has effectively led to a hiatus in the Zenit program. The subsequent <a href="/facts/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine/kE7cHvoQ">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a> in 2022 saw damage to its manufacturing facilities due to Russian missile strikes, and what survived those strikes pivoted to producing military weapons.
Zenit-3SL was launched by the <a href="/facts/Sea_Launch/7LbLz348">Sea Launch</a> consortium's floating launch platform in the <a href="/facts/Pacific_Ocean/bdxgXRVM">Pacific Ocean</a> and Zenit-2 was launched from <a href="/facts/Baikonur_Cosmodrome/sk16LwcH">Baikonur Cosmodrome</a> in <a href="/facts/Kazakhstan/Vfs8NI6e">Kazakhstan</a>. <a href="/facts/RD-171M/DVefcXeK">RD-171M</a> engines of the Zenit's first and second stages as well as the upper stage of the Zenit-3SL rocket were supplied by Russia. An improved Zenit-3SLB rocket was used for commercial launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome beginning in April 2008, marketed as <a href="/facts/Land_Launch/47w9dglI">Land Launch</a>.
Zenit-3SL was launched 36 times with 32 successes, one partial success, and three failures. The first failure, the launch of a <a href="/facts/Hughes_Aircraft/NURPFI17">Hughes</a>-built communications satellite owned by <a href="/facts/ICO_Satellite_Management/jmqmBy9l">ICO Global Communications</a>, occurred during the second commercial launch on March 12, 2000, and was blamed on a software error that failed to close a valve in the second stage of the rocket. The second failure occurred on January 30, 2007, when the rocket exploded on the <a href="/facts/Odyssey_(launch_platform)/TyQxvjdp">Odyssey</a> launch platform, seconds after engine ignition. The <a href="/facts/NSS-8/mTyRlqU1">NSS-8</a> communication satellite on board was destroyed.
On September 24, 2011 <a href="/facts/Zenit-3SL/g2gQntg4">Zenit-3SL</a> launched successfully from the <a href="/facts/Odyssey_(launch_platform)/TyQxvjdp">Odyssey</a> launch platform under a renewed <a href="/facts/Sea_Launch/7LbLz348">Sea Launch</a> project with <a href="/facts/RSC_Energia/fThW3H3L">RSC Energia</a> as the majority stakeholder. The rocket delivered the European communication satellite Atlantic Bird 7 to its planned orbit. On February 1, 2013, another Zenit-3SL failed while launching the <a href="/facts/Intelsat_27/8XzkEekV">Intelsat 27</a> satellite.

Zenit (rocket family) open-in-new

Zenit (rocket family)