The Rockot light class launch vehicle is based on the RS-18 ICBM (NATO designation: SS-19, Stiletto). The Rockot LV offers high power performance, accuracy of orbital injection and flight reliability. It can lift-off from launch pads currently operational at the Plesetsk and the Baikonur Cosmodromes. The Rockot LV comprises the first and the second stages, the Breeze-KM upper stage as the third stage, and the payload compartment under the nose fairing that can accommodate a 2.26m-diameter payload.

The payload and the nose fairing are installed in the third stage according to the conventional LV pattern. All the stages of the Rockot LV operate on high-boiling propellant components – dissymmetric dimethyl hydrazine as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidizer. The Rockot LV is operated complete with the launch canister with filler ports for refueling. The first and the second stages are separated under the thrust load developed by the second stage’s steering engine that ignites before the liquid-fuel rocket engine of the first stage is cut off. In the meantime, the first stage is slowed down by the powder retro-engines installed in the tail section.

The Breeze-KM upper stage is equipped with the restartable (up to five restart operations) liquid-propellant rocket engine. The engine provides minimum-energy trajectories of spacecraft and facilitates deployment of each satellite into its estimated orbit in case of multiple- injection missions.