Cyclone-4M
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (KB Pivdenne)
Two-stage light-lift launch vehicle in development by Yuzhnoye in partnership with Canada's Maritime Launch Services.
Technical specifications
- Height
- 38.7 m
- Diameter
- 4.0 m
- First stage mass
- 260,700 kg
- Second stage mass
- 14,000 kg
- Payload to 200 km LEO
- 5,000 kg
- Payload to GTO
- 910 kg
- Stages
- 2
- Status
- In development
About
Cyclone-4M is a modern two-stage light-lift launch vehicle developed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau as the successor to the earlier Tsyklon (Cyclone) rocket family. The vehicle’s commercial development is managed in partnership with Maritime Launch Services, a Canadian company that originally planned to operate Cyclone-4M from Spaceport Nova Scotia near Canso, Nova Scotia. The first stage is powered by four RD-870 engines burning kerosene and liquid oxygen, generating roughly 3,130 kN of thrust at sea level, while the second stage uses a single storable-propellant RD-861K engine. Cyclone-4M is designed to deliver payloads of up to 5,000 kg to a 200 km low Earth orbit or approximately 910 kg to geostationary transfer orbit. Second-stage qualification testing was completed in October 2019, but the program has faced significant schedule uncertainty following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Maritime Launch Services terminated its agreement to launch Cyclone-4M from Spaceport Nova Scotia by the third quarter of 2024, leaving the vehicle’s launch site and timeline under review.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
