Success Rockets

Success Rockets (Russian: АО «Успешные ракеты») is a Russian private space company that produces ultralight suborbital and orbital launch vehicles, small spacecraft, satellite constellations, and space tugs. The company was founded in 2020 by an entrepreneur Oleg Mansurov. By October 2021 Success Rockets includes several subsidiaries in different Russian regions.[1]

Success Rockets
TypePrivately held company
IndustrySpace
Founded2020
FounderCEO Oleg Mansurov
Headquarters
Russia
ProductsSuborbital and orbital launch vehicles, small spacecraft, satellite constellations, space tugs, Earth remote sensing and data analysis
SubsidiariesSR Rockets, SR Satellites, SR CMS, SR Data
Websitesuccessrockets.ru

Success Rockets is also engaged in Earth remote sensing, data generation, processing, and analysis. The company plans to build its own spaceport. First orbital rocket test flights and commercial launches are planned for 2024.[2][3][4][5]

Space Industry

International Market

Ultralight class launch vehicles have promising marketability due to their cost efficiency as they tend to have low cost-per-kilogram and affordable overall launch cost.[6] By the end of 2021, more than 50 projects of developing ultralight launch vehicles were active around the world, mostly in the USA, Japan, China, India, and Europe.[7] The most advanced were the private Ukrainian-American Firefly Aerospace company with its Firefly Alpha launch vehicle and the American-New Zealand company Rocket Lab with Electron.[8][9]

Market analysis demonstrates that in 2021 global demand for ultralight launch vehicles was about 12-15 launches per year at an estimated cost of $4-5 mln. For payload mass, the per-kilogram launch cost stayed within the range of $18,000-25,000. Market players aim to reduce this cost to $10,000. The global demand for 50+ launches is expected to reduce launch cost to $3 mln. Rocket Lab is the closest to this goal with its launch cost slightly exceeding $6 mln.[7][10][11][12]

Russian Market

Several different private Russian companies made attempts to produce ultralight cargo rockets. S7 Space, a subsidiary of S7 Group holding, planned to launch a rocket from the Sea Launch platform. However, the project stalled in 2014. According to the official information, the company is currently searching for partners.[13] The ‘Lin Industrial’ private company worked on the ‘Taymyr’ rocket, but the project funding was suspended.[14] In 2020 the Russian space agency and RTSS (Reusable Space Transport Systems) company signed an agreement on the mutual development of the reusable cargo spacecraft Argo. In February 2021 its plans to create carrier rocker announced KosmoKurs, a company from Skolkovo Innovation Center. However, the company was closed in April 2021.[15] NSTR Rocket Technologies[16] and VNH-Energo in partnership with the Baltic State Technical University also announced plans to enter the market of superlight launch vehicles.[17]

History

The entrepreneur Oleg Mansurov, founder of the Success Rockets, is a National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) graduate. He interned at MIT and PolyU, studied space technologies at one of the first courses in Open University Skolkovo, took part in Skoltech International Space School.[5] In 2012 he addressed the Russian-German Conference on Electric Propulsions and Their Applications Conference (RGCEP).[4] As the CEO of Success Rockets in 2020 and 2021 Mansurov attended the SPIEF and the Eastern Economic Forum;[18][19] he addressed the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) in St Petersburg[20] and the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Dubai.[21][22] In business circles Mansurov is known as the founder of Actum, a company that organizes hackathons for corporations like VEB.RF, Gazprom Neft, Sberbank, Sibur, and MegaFon.[7][23] The most massive IT-competition ‘Leaders of Digital’, awarded with the Guinness World record as the most massive, is also one of Mansurov's projects.[24][4]

Success Rockets was officially registered as a private space company in July 2020.[25] Mansurov's IT experience allowed SC to earn from satellite imagery data analysis. The company collects images from open sources or purchases them from foreign organizations.[26][3]

According to Mansurov, negotiations with investors lasted for five years.[27][7] Interfax names Mansurov as the sole owner of Success Rockets.[26][6][5] In the end of 2021 the company announced plans to go public in two-three years' time.[28]

Team and Development

As of September 2021, Success Rockets employed more than 40 specialists — engineering designers, chemists, ballisticians, mathematicians, programmers, electronic designers, satellite construction, and rocket science experts.[5][18] To increase cost-efficiency and accelerate production the company outsources the development and buys ready-made solutions from Russian Academy of Sciences and other universities. In his interviews, Mansurov mentions at least eight different development teams from MAI, BMSTU, Voenmeh, and some major business companies that are competent to outsource development tasks at different stages of the project.[7]

Currently, Success Rockets plans to outsource most production and assembly works. To ensure cost efficiency, electronics are imported from China, because Russian industry currently is unable to provide viable substitutes. Success Rockets aims to reduce launch cost to $2.8 mln for orbital rocket carriers and to $100,000 for suborbital launches. Using lower-priced components instead of reusable should lower the expenses. Success Rockets expects to get commercial orders from international private companies but also plans to collaborate with Russian state agencies.[6][27]

Profile

Success Rockets focuses on design, production, and testing ultralight launch vehicles — a suborbital Nebo (trans. ‘Sky’) and an orbital Stalker. The company also produces small spacecraft and satellite constellations on their basis, used for communications and Earth remote sensing; it designs space tugs, performs data processing, and looks for a suitable site to construct its own spaceport. By creating its own full development cycle, the company strives for cost efficiency and resource saving.[29]

Success Rockets plans to reach the project capacity in three steps. First suborbital flights at 20-100 km range are scheduled for late 2021 and 2022. This stage also includes engine and fuel testing, building satellite models and a space tug. The second stage includes production of an ultralight carrier rocket and its test flight at 200 km altitude with a satellite platform and a space tug. At the third stage, Success Rockets plans to scale up the production of ultralight rockets, satellites, and space tugs, and launch them from its own spaceports.[4][30]

Ultralight Rockets

Nebo ultralight rocket is designed for scientific experiments, atmosphere, and meteorological research.[3] Stalker launch vehicle is planned to carry more than 250 kg payload to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit. The first launch is scheduled for 2024.[31]

Success Rockets mostly applies its own technologies and solutions in its rockets. For instance, the engine body is made of carbon fibers, and heat-resistant Graphite is used for de Laval nozzle.[32] To avoid pollution, the team aims to design a zero-waste staging system where all the detached stages burn in the atmosphere after separation.[6]

The rocket’s layout was showcased in December 2021.[33] In December 2022 the company introduced an internally developed series of reusable liquid-propellant rocket engines. All engines are composed of Russian-made components.[34]

Satellites

Success Rockets produces platforms for different small satellites. For example, Skibr-cub, Skibr-micro, and Skibr-mini are used for CubeSats and larger satellites that are mainly purposed for Earth Remote sensing with resolution of 0.5—5 meters,[35] Internet of things, and satellite communication.[36] The production is led by a subsidiary company SR Satellites that was launched in April 2021 in Rostov region.[37][38]

Satellite Constellations

In March 2021 SR announced the development of a 200kg satellite for gas emissions monitoring,[39] in September it was showcased at the 26th UN Conference on Climate Change in Glasgow.[40] A constellation of 60 satellites equipped with two types of spectrometers will form a climate change monitoring system. This program is managed by SR CMS subdivision.[41][22] The system will track greenhouse gasses concentrations in the atmosphere, collect and analyze climate change data.[42]

In October 2021 the company announced plans to create satellite constellations for Earth radar remote sensing that will potentially be demanded by FSUE Atomflot, Rosatom, and Sovcomflot for the Northern Sea Route navigation.[29]

All constellations are designed for low orbit and will burn up in the atmosphere after service without polluting the space.[43]

Space Data Analysis

The first area of the company's work was space data analysis for Russian and international markets. A steady increase in the number of satellites orbiting the Earth makes data processing one of the most popular services[3] that are in great demand for construction, agriculture, natural disasters prognosis, and ecological monitoring.[4] IT companies are the biggest consumers of satellite data on the international market. Russian telecom giants MegaFon, Beeline, MTS (network provider), corporations Yandex and Mail.ru, and large banks announced plans on the creation and launching of their own satellites.[6] As of 2021, state orders made more than 70% of the satellite data market. Success Rockets primarily focuses on private clients.[26]

Space Tugs

SR's lineup of space tugs includes Strannik-1 and Strannik-2 models. Strannik-1 is designed to work with small satellites on low Earth orbit. Strannik-2 is purposed for Interplanetary spaceflights. Estimated payload cost will range from $20,000 to $90,000, respectively.[30] Some space tugs are planned to tow space debris from high orbit to burn up in dense atmosphere.[43]

Tests and Launches
  • In December 2020 the company's 1322 lbs (600kg) thrust engine had a successful test run.
  • In April 2021 first test flights were made in Kirov Oblast. The tested prototype of the UR-1 meteorological rocket and its onboard systems were designed in 6 months. The flight at 2000 m altitude lasted more than 90 seconds.[44][45] The prototype will be further used for the design of the suborbital meteorological rocket Nebo.[46]
  • In December 2021 Success Rockets had a successful test flight of Nebo-25 rocket with femtosatellites (spacecraft weighing less than 100g) at the Kapustin Yar test site. The carrier reached 7000 m altitude when the emergency systems activated. The satellites were recording telemetry data during the flight. The flight made Success Rockets the first private Russian company that achieved more than one launch per year.[47][48][49]

Spaceport

In 2020 Success Rockets announced plans to build its own spaceport. At present Russia has no sites suitable for ultralight launches even though there is a commercial potential. At first, the company considered three locations: Primorsky Krai (‘Asia’ spaceport), south Russia (‘Europe’ spaceport), and the Arctic region near Tiksi.[6] SR's spaceport is planned to have two rocket launchers, a test site, an RKA Mission Control Centre, a rocket production center, a small airfield, a hotel for employees and tourists, and a railway station.[50][36] Currently test launches are made at the Ministry of Defence sites.[6][51]

By Autumn 2021 Rostov Oblast has been chosen as the most suitable region for construction due to its economic and geographic location and developed transport infrastructure.[52]

Partnership and Customers

Success Rockets expects legal support, access to test stands and orders from the Roscosmos corporation as only the Sfera project requires hundreds of small spacecraft.[53][7] The company is already working with Roscosmos's subdivisions.[18]

In July 2021 Roscartography placed an order for a constellation of 36 satellites for Earth remote sensing in optical and infrared spectral ranges.[54] In December an agreement was signed with Rostelecom. The companies plan to create a satellite constellation for broadband Internet and collaborate in data analysis.[55]

In August 2021 SR and China's Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed an agreement on space cooperation on Chinese territory. According to the agreement, an SR subdivision will be opened at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island. The Wenchang province is developing into a space exploration cluster with promising legal conditions.[5] Mansurov hopes to attract Chinese partners because only in 2020 local investments in private space companies reached almost $1 bln.[19] Other potential international investors are Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, that all are interested in CO2 emissions monitoring.[18] In March 2022 a SR's subsidiary SR Satellites was selected by the Zayed Middle East accelerator. The accelerator provides startups access to the UAE market.[56]

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