Volna

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Wolna (disambiguation) .

Wolna [ vɔlna ] ( Russian Волна 'wave' ) is the name of the civilian Soviet ICBM R-29 or SS-N-18 , since with their civilian suborbital flights and satellite launches are carried out. The missile is launched from a submerged submarine . The two lower stages of the rocket are powered by dinitrogen tetroxide and UDMH (asymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine ), while the third stage, which is only used for orbital missions, runs on solid fuel. From an equatorial launch position, the rocket can mathematically bring up to 115 kg into a low earth orbit. However, due to the necessary ground control after launch, the rockets could only be launched in the Barents Sea , which reduces the payload to around 50 kg in orbit.

The Volna had its first orbital launch on June 21, 2005 with the Cosmos 1 satellite. According to reports from the Russian Navy, the engine of the first stage switched off prematurely in the 83rd second of the flight after the turbo pump of the main engine failed. According to other reports from the Planetary Society , the satellite entered an unscheduled, low orbit. However, these reports could not be confirmed at first and later turned out to be misinterpretations, so that a failure of the first rocket stage is now considered the cause of the error.

The missile was designed by the Makeyev State Missile Center .

Start list

This is a complete launch list for the Volna missile.

Serial No.	Date ( UTC )	Type	Launch site	payload	Type of payload	Payload in kg (gross 1 )	Remarks
1	June 7, 1995	Volna	Barents Sea, K-44 Ryazan	TCM	?	?	success
2	July 20, 2001	Volna	Barents Sea, K-496 Borisoglebsk	Cosmos 1 test, IRDT	Space sailor , re-entry technology	?	Partial success  ( suborbital; payload did not separate from the final rocket stage )
3	July 12, 2002	Volna	Barents Sea, K-44 Ryazan	IRDT 2	Re-entry technology	146 kg	Success  ( suborbital; payload could not be found after landing )
4th	June 21, 2005	Wolna-O	Barents Sea, K-496 Borisoglebsk	Cosmos 1	Space sailor	40 kg	Failure  ( first orbital start; due to a fault in the turbo pump of the main engine, the 1st stage switches off prematurely in the 83rd second of the flight. )
5	October 7, 2005	Volna	Barents Sea, K-496 Borisoglebsk	IRDT 2R	Re-entry technology	146 kg	Success  ( suborbital; payload could not be found after landing )

¹ Gross weight = (satellites + adapter, housing etc.)