'Satan' to Test New Mini-Cosmodrome in Russia

Jim -

I had a chance to read your space.com article on the Russian launch.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...ch_041221.html

One question, at the end of the article you wrote:
"but the Kazakh government has insisted that launches of these modified
ICBMs (Dnepr) from Baikonur be phased out as soon as possible."

I assume that the government desires this is due to the toxic fuels (N2O4 /
UDMH) used with the SS-18 / Satan / Dnper. I was under the impression that
the Kazakh government wanted to launch as many of these over next 2 or 3
years.

GB

Kazakh officials have been temporailly mollified
by getting a 5% cut of the launch profits,
so will allow a few years more of Dnepr launches,
but all combat related Satan launches have been terminated.
That's how I've interpreted the public statements recently.



"w9gb" wrote in message
news:KK1yd.612961$D%.395132@attbi_s51...
Jim -

I had a chance to read your space.com article on the Russian launch.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...ch_041221.html

One question, at the end of the article you wrote:
"but the Kazakh government has insisted that launches of these modified
ICBMs (Dnepr) from Baikonur be phased out as soon as possible."

I assume that the government desires this is due to the toxic fuels (N2O4
/
UDMH) used with the SS-18 / Satan / Dnper. I was under the impression
that
the Kazakh government wanted to launch as many of these over next 2 or 3
years.

GB

"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...

Kazakh officials have been temporailly mollified
by getting a 5% cut of the launch profits,
so will allow a few years more of Dnepr launches,
but all combat related Satan launches have been terminated.
That's how I've interpreted the public statements recently.

Jim -

Thanks. I appears that excpet for the Chinese, US and USSR and halting
launch systems with N2O4 / UDMH (toxic propellants). Although I am aware of
H2 / LOX development -- it will be intersting to see how long the Chinese
will take in their conversion.

gb

"w9gb" wrote in
news:Z2kyd.695641$mD.238464@attbi_s02:

Thanks. I appears that excpet for the Chinese, US and USSR and
halting launch systems with N2O4 / UDMH (toxic propellants). Although
I am aware of H2 / LOX development -- it will be intersting to see how
long the Chinese will take in their conversion.

Having had some bad experiences with hypergolics, the
Chinese are developing a new launch family using kerosene,
LH2 and LOX:

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/czn540ho.htm

It's not just toxicity but also cost that is driving these
changes.