S3 LUS

Liquid Upper Stage – S3 LUS

The third stage of the SOARSAT launch system is a Liquid Propulsion rocket upper stage called LUS (Liquid Upper Stage), illustrated in Figure 5. The LUS engines are ignited after release from the SOAR, and the LUS ensures proper delivery of the customer payload in orbit. The LUS is segmented in two modules: the booster module provides the necessary impulsion for the vehicle to leave the Earth atmosphere, while the orbital module ensures orbital insertion and final maneuvers prior to the payload in-orbit delivery.

The LUS rocket upper stage provides Payload accommodation under an aerodynamic fairing, as depicted in Figure 6. The fairing provides protection from atmospheric aero-thermal constraints for both, the payload and the rocket upper stage. In order to minimize costs and risk-taking throughout the development phase, S3 has established a privileged relationship with RKK Energia, the prime Russian rocket and space design office, for the design and manufacturing of the LUS vehicle.

The design will be based on the multi-purpose standardized Block DM-SL rocket upper stage, originally developed in the sixties by RKK Energia. The Block DM-SL rocket upper stage has built the strongest safety and reliability track record of all upper stages operated over the last forty years. The payload accommodation area allows flexibility in the customer’s satellite masses and dimensions. In general, the main constraints are mass of the satellite, orbit semimajor axis and its inclination. We are limited to masses up to 250 kg for any orbit inclinations defined by our clients (or up to 400 kg mass for orbit inclinations up to 40°).

Depending on the satellite mass and dimensions, the payload carriers need to be customized too. We have already designed solutions for payload carriers in various combinations, that enable us to launch configurations of single, double, triple, or four payloads at the same time. Furthermore, the very same payloads that we have designed can be adapted to standardized CubeSat dispensers: 6-unit dispenser, 12-unit dispenser, or 15in clamp bands. In such an approach, we cover the whole mass-size span: starting from 1 kg, 10 x 10 x 10 cm sized CubeSats, up to 400 kg, 1.10 x 1.32 x 1.23 m sized satellites.