Welcome to the Rocket Profile of Cyclon 3 to convert it ICBM with lots of 3's. Cyclon 3 and its predecessor is Cyclon 2 were based on the R36 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and as such used the storeable hypergolic balance unsymmetric dimethylhydrazine or UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide in all stages. While Cyclon 2 had two stages Cyclon 3 added a third stage which resulted in increased payload capacity. While the rocket's name is commonly spelled T-S-Y-K-L-O-N or sometimes with an I instead of a Y. As you can see, it often has the word Cyclon, the translation of the name in Latin rather than its real script on the side of the rocket. Its first stage has six main chambers at the bottom but these are actually three RD-250 PM engines, each with two nozzles. The combination of the three engines is in turn considered an RD-261 module. Whether you think of the stage as having six chambers of three engines, either way it's a unique stage. It is complemented by a set of four vernier thrusters which handle the maneuvering, similar to Anaso use rocket. Each of the three RD-250 PM engines provides 881.7 kilneutons in vacuum for a total thrust of around 2645 kilneutons. They operate at an efficiency of 301.4 seconds vacuum-specific impulse, burn time for the stages around two minutes and eight seconds. The second stage is just one of the first stage engines with vacuum nozzles on the two main chambers. This unit is called an RD-262 but it has an unusual feature, a third nozzle. Now the engines at the bottom of the rocket technically had a small generator exhaust but this third nozzle on the second stage is nearly the size of the main nozzles and much larger than the generator nozzles on other rockets. It's almost as if the designers felt bad that the second stage should have had three nozzles and squeezed in the largest extra nozzle they could within the diameter. The stage once again has four verniers and the main engine doesn't gimbal. The RD-262 gets a little more thrust than the first stage thanks to its vacuum optimization, 941.4 kilneutons with 318 seconds of ice being vacuum. It can burn for two minutes and 40 seconds but it ignites the verniers before for a stage separation so they burn for a bit longer than the main engine. Finally there's the third stage with its RD-861 engine and once again four verniers. It is capable of a single re-ignition which is necessary for one of the rocket's main purposes to place that license on synchronous orbits. Cyclone 3 launched from placets into polar orbits. The stage boasted the 78.7 kilneutons of thrust with an ISP of 317 seconds for two minutes and six seconds give or take a few seconds on the verniers. Cyclone 3 launched 122 times from 1977 to 2009 and failed eight of those times for success rate of 93.4%. Its predecessor Cyclone 2 had one of the all-time best records, just one failure in 106 launches for better than 99% reliability. Both launchers were retired because they were built in Ukraine and the primary customer for them Russia wanted to replace them with the Russian built on Garouon which still has an entered operational use. Meanwhile Ukraine had plans to improve on the design with Cyclone 4 and offer it on the commercial market but nothing has come of these plans. Thank you for watching the Rocket Profile of Cyclone 3.