Optimization Problems of Launch Vehicle Design.

In spite of great progress in the rocket technology and practical experience in the development and production of a number of rocket space systems (i.e., launch vehicles – LV), the task of optimizing the LV structure is still essential. Even in the fundamental work of well-known American scientists [1] in 1965, where the task of optimization of propellant distribution between the stages of a multi-stage launcher configuration was raised, an approximate solution was proposed. It was shown that in case of equal specific impulses of rocket engines of LV stages working successively, the equal distribution of characteristic velocities for each stage is the optimal one. Later, the same conclusion was made in the teaching aids published in Russia [2]. The treatise [3], published in the US in 2004, says there is no other solution found yet. This paper suggested a new approach in solving this and some other related problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]