The well-known businessman and inventor Ilon Mask highly appreciated the Soviet / Ukrainian carrier rocket Zenit. True, created by the forces of his company SpaceX missile Falcon 9 Mask thinks even better.
On the air of the popular American CNN channel during a blitz interview with the leading Rachel Crane, businessman Ilon Mask gave a very high rating to the domestic launch vehicle Zenit. When asked about the best missile, he said: "Zenit." It's probably the best after ours. " This refers to the Falcon 9 family of launch vehicles. These are disposable and partially reusable heavy-duty missiles.
The main feature of Falcon is the first stage, returned back to Earth. Its re-use will cost about half the cost of building a new missile. However, while SpaceX does not make "revolutionary" discounts for customers, limited to a 10% discount.
Note that no other missile has such capabilities. And this year, Mask plans to launch Falcon Heavy - the heaviest carrier rocket of the Falcon family. It will have two additional accelerators, made on the basis of the first stage Falcon 9 Full Thrust and fixed on the sides. But even without taking into account the planned launch, the success of SpaceX allows the corporation to occupy a dominant position in the market of space launches.
The family of Zenit rockets does not have revolutionary technical solutions, like the Falcon 9 (speech, in particular, is about returning the first stage). But it is relatively economical against the backdrop of many other missiles, which allows creators to claim market share.
The rocket began to be developed in the Soviet years in the Yuzhnoye SDB located in Dnipro (formerly Dnepropetrovsk). The first launch of the launch vehicle Zenit-2 "made in 1985. Then they launched Zenit 3SL, Zenit 2M, Zenit 3SLB and Zenit 3SLBF. To a low reference orbit, the launch vehicle can produce up to 15 tons of cargo. The starting mass is up to 462.2 tons.
The main event related to Zenit in recent years was the contract between the rocket manufacturer Yuzhnoye and S7 Sea Launch Limited to purchase 12 missiles for the Sea Launch complex. Many experts, however, look at this agreement without much optimism.