Overview of adapter designs for modern spacecrafts

An adapter is a technical device which gives an opportunity to provide constructive and functional connection between a spacecraft and a carrier rocket. This device perceives the loads during the ground operation and transportation of the spacecraft, as well as at the launch of the launch vehicle, therefore, it must have high rigidity and strength. In Russia, the required rigidity is determined by the developer of the launch vehicle in the form of requirements for the eigenfrequencies of the «spacecraft + adapter» system, which fixed at the junction with the launch vehicle. Foreign manufacturers of space technology impose restrictions on the mass and position of the center of mass of the spacecraft, offering ready-made versions of adapters with the necessary interface at the same time. There are various design schemes of adapters, and the main task of each is to provide the necessary rigidity of the «spacecraft + adapter» system. The review of various foreign manufacture's of space technics executions of the adapter for single launch is carried out in present paper. Technology of manufacturing of adapters, their load bearing capacity and overall dimensions, methods of connecting with a spacecraft are explicitly reviewed. Methods of group launch of spacecrafts and corresponding constructions are also provided; we obtain the estimation of the effectiveness of using of such constructions is the sense of output nett load mass.