Which factory makes rockets. Where the most powerful rocket engines in the world are made

I had the opportunity to be at the enterprise where rocket engines were created and are being created, which pulled out almost the entire Soviet space program, and now they are pulling Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even American. Meet NPO Energomash, which has recently become part of the United Rocket and Space Corporation of Russia, the place where the best and most powerful liquid rocket engines in the world are made.
These words are not pathos. Judge for yourself: here, in Khimki near Moscow, engines for the Soviet-Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets were developed; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian "Zenith" and "Dnepr"; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first…

After checking the passport and the arrival of the escort, we advance from the checkpoint to the museum of the plant, or as it is called here “Demonstration Hall”.


The keeper of the hall Vladimir Sudakov is the head of the Information Department. Apparently, he copes well with his duties - he was one of all my interlocutors who knew who Zelenyikot was.


Vladimir led a short but capacious tour of the museum.


Do you see a 7 centimeter pshikalka on the table? The entire Soviet and Russian space has grown from it.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, the head there was Valentin Petrovich Glushko, later he also became the general designer of NPO Energomash.
A disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spacecraft. It was supposed to place solar panels on the disk. In the background - the first models of liquid propellant rocket engines developed by GDL.
Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. went real work on government funding. Here GDL worked together with the Royal GIRD. In wartime, "sharashka" developed rocket boosters for serial military aircraft. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid propulsion.
But all the weather was spoiled by the Germans, who created the first A4 ballistic missile, better known in Russia as the V-2.
Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.
First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using completely Soviet materials. During this period, German engineers were still helping our engineers. But they tried not to let them in on secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.

First of all, the engineers began to speed up and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.


But then there were problems of instability of fuel combustion in a larger spherical combustion chamber. Glushko realized that this was a dead end and started developing engines with a cylindrical chamber.
The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom, they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided the Soviet Union with superiority in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned cosmonautics to this day.


Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.

In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply reject the whole marching chamber of the engine. Problems with combustion instability could not be completely solved, therefore, most of the engines designed by Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.


There is only one single-chamber giant in the hall, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing NK-33 version for the H1 rocket won.

The difference between them is that H1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, while Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. Such a mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this does not in the least prevent China from now launching its taikonauts on just such a mixture.
You can also look at the Proton engine.

And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in Voevoda missiles, widely known under the NATO name Satan.


However, now they, under the name "Dnepr", are also launched for peaceful purposes.
Finally we get to the pearl of Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.

To date, this is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. Surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, against one in the F-1.
The RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project as side booster engines. According to the original design, the boosters were supposed to be reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities.
After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket. In Soviet times, it, like the "Voevoda", was developed by the Yuzhnoye design bureau, which, after the collapse of the USSR, ended up abroad. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, together with the United States and Norway, the Sea Launch project began to be implemented. Although it never reached profitability, it went through a reorganization and now its future is being decided, but the rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space lack of money in the 90s and early 2000s.
How to achieve node mobility at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, bullshit question: only 12 layers of metal and additional booking rings, fill in between the layers with liquid oxygen - and there are no problems ...
This design allows you to rigidly fix the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle, using a gimbal suspension. On the engine, it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with red plugs.


Americans like to repeat about their space: "We stand on the shoulders of giants." Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase also applies to Russian cosmonautics. The same "Angara", although the brainchild of already Russian designers, but its engine - the RD-191, evolutionarily goes back to the RD-171.


In the same way, the “half” of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American astronautics, when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked if there was a propaganda element in this victory - could the Americans conclude a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space? They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the goofy eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the performance of the RD-180 was almost twice that of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power / weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.
Here, on the test video of the Merlin-1D engine, you can see how a jet of generator gas is whipping from the tube next to the nozzle:
Finally, the completion of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Scienses, which needed to replace the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket crashed in October.

At the plant, this trinity RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called "liter", "half a liter" and "quarter".

There are a lot of interesting things at the plant, and most importantly, it turned out to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a pile of steel and aluminum ingots.

Meet NPO Energomash, which has recently become part of the United Rocket and Space Corporation of Russia. This is the place where the best and most powerful liquid rocket engines in the world are produced. They pulled almost the entire Soviet space program, and now they are pulling the Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even the American one.

Here, in Khimki near Moscow, engines were developed for the Soviet-Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian "Zenith" and "Dnepr"; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first...

1. After checking the passport and the arrival of the escort, we advance from the checkpoint to the museum of the plant, or as it is called here “Demonstration Hall”.

2. Curator of the Hall Vladimir Sudakov - Head of the Information Department. Apparently, he copes well with his duties - he was one of all my interlocutors who knew who Zelenyikot was.

3. Vladimir gave a short but capacious tour of the museum.

Do you see a 7 centimeter pshikalka on the table? The entire Soviet and Russian space has grown from it.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, the head there was Valentin Petrovich Glushko, later he also became the general designer of NPO Energomash.

The disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spacecraft. It was supposed to place solar panels on the disk. In the background are the first models of liquid propellant rocket engines developed by GDL.

Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. went real work on government funding. Here GDL worked together with the Royal GIRD. In wartime, "sharashka" developed rocket boosters for serial military aircraft. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid propulsion.

But all the weather was spoiled by the Germans, who created the first A4 ballistic missile, better known in Russia as the V-2.

Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.

4. First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using completely Soviet materials. During this period, German engineers were still helping our engineers. But they tried not to let them in on secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.

5. First of all, the engineers began to speed up and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.

6. The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom, they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided the Soviet Union with superiority in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned space exploration to this day.

7. Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.

8. In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply reject the entire marching chamber of the engine. Problems with combustion instability could not be completely solved, so most of the engines designed by Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.

9. There is only one single-chamber giant in the hall, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing NK-33 version for the H1 rocket won.

The difference between them is that H1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, while Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. Such a mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this does not in the least prevent China from now launching its taikonauts on just such a mixture.

10. You can also look at the Proton engine.

11. And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in Voevoda missiles, commonly known under the NATO name Satan.

However, now they, under the name "Dnepr", are also launched for peaceful purposes.

12. Finally we get to the pearl of Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.

To date, this is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. Surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, against one in the F-1.

The RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project as side booster engines. According to the original design, the boosters were supposed to be reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities.

After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket. In Soviet times, it, like the "Voevoda", was developed by the Yuzhnoye design bureau, which, after the collapse of the USSR, ended up abroad. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, together with the United States and Norway, the Sea Launch project began to be implemented. Although it never reached profitability, it went through a reorganization and now its future is being decided, but the rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space lack of money in the 90s and early 2000s.

13. How to achieve node mobility at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, bullshit question: only 12 layers of metal and additional booking rings, fill it with liquid oxygen between the layers - and there are no problems ...

This design allows you to rigidly fix the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle, using a gimbal suspension. On the engine, it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with red plugs.

14. Americans like to repeat about their space: "We stand on the shoulders of giants." Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase also applies to Russian cosmonautics. The same "Angara", although the brainchild of already Russian designers, but its engine - RD-191, evolutionarily goes back to RD-171.

In the same way, the “half” of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American astronautics, when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked if there was a propaganda element in this victory - could the Americans conclude a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space? They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the goofy eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the performance of the RD-180 was almost twice that of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power / weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.

Here, on the test video of the Merlin-1D engine, you can see how a jet of generator gas is whipping from the tube next to the nozzle:

15. Finally, the completion of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Scienses, which needed to replace the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket crashed in October.

16. At the plant, this trio of RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called "liter", "half a liter" and "quarter".

17. There are a lot of interesting things at the plant, and most importantly, I managed to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a pile of steel and aluminum ingots.

Judge for yourself: here, in Khimki near Moscow, the engines for the Soviet-Russian rockets "Soyuz" and "Proton" were developed; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian "Zenith" and "Dnepr"; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first...

After checking the passport and the arrival of the escort, we advance from the checkpoint to the museum of the plant, or as it is called here "Demonstration Hall".

The keeper of the hall Vladimir Sudakov is the head of the Information Department. Apparently, he copes well with his duties - he was one of all my interlocutors who knew who "Zelenyikot" was.

Vladimir led a short but capacious tour of the museum.

Do you see a 7 centimeter pshikalka on the table? The entire Soviet and Russian space has grown from it.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, headed by Valentin Petrovich Glushko, later he also became the general designer of NPO Energomash.
A disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spacecraft. It was supposed to place solar panels on the disk. In the background - the first models of liquid propellant rocket engines developed by GDL.

Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. went real work on government funding. Here GDL worked together with the Royal GIRD. In wartime, "sharashka" developed rocket boosters for serial military aircraft. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid propulsion.

But all the weather was spoiled by the Germans, who created the first A4 ballistic missile, better known in Russia as the V-2.

Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.

First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using completely Soviet materials. During this period, German engineers were still helping our engineers. But they tried not to let them in on secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.

First of all, the engineers began to speed up and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.

In this field he excelled. In the hands of the curator of the museum is the first working prototype, which confirmed the correctness of the chosen scheme. What is most surprising is that the inside of the combustion chamber is a copper alloy. It seems that an element where the pressure exceeds hundreds of atmospheres, and the temperature is a thousand degrees Celsius, must be made from some kind of refractory titanium or tungsten. But it turned out to be easier to cool the chamber, and not to achieve unlimited thermal stability. The chamber was cooled by liquid fuel components, and copper was used because of its high thermal conductivity.

The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom, they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided the Soviet Union with superiority in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned cosmonautics to this day.

Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.

In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply reject the whole marching chamber of the engine.

Problems with combustion instability could not be completely solved, therefore, most of the engines designed by Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.

There is only one single-chamber giant in the hall, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing NK-33 version for the H1 rocket won.

The difference between them is that H1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, while Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. Such a mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this does not in the least prevent China from now launching its taikonauts on just such a mixture.

You can also look at the Proton engine.

And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in Voevoda missiles, widely known under the NATO name Satan.

However, now they, under the name "Dnepr", are also launched for peaceful purposes.

Finally we get to the pearl of Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.

To date, this is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. Surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, against one in the F-1.

The RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project, as engines for side boosters. According to the original design, the boosters were supposed to be reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities. After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket. In Soviet times, it, like the "Voevoda", was developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, which, after the collapse of the USSR, ended up abroad. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, together with the United States and Norway, the Sea Launch project began to be implemented. Although it never reached profitability, it went through a reorganization and its future fate is being decided, but the rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space lack of money in the 90s and early 2000s.

Vladimir Sudakov demonstrates a fantastic development of Energomash engineers - a composite bellows of the engine swing unit.

How to achieve node mobility at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, bullshit question: only 12 layers of metal and additional booking rings, we fill it with liquid oxygen between the layers and there are no problems ...

This design allows you to rigidly fix the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle, using a gimbal suspension. On the engine, it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with red plugs.

Americans like to repeat about their space "We stand on the shoulders of giants." Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase also applies to Russian cosmonautics. The same "Angara", although the brainchild of already Russian designers, but its engine - the RD-191, evolutionarily goes back to the RD-171.

In the same way, the "half" of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American cosmonautics, when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked if there was a propaganda element in this victory - could the Americans make a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space. They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the goofy eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the performance of the RD-180 was almost twice that of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power / weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.

Here, on the test video of the Merlin-1D engine, you can see how a jet of generator gas is whipping from the tube next to the nozzle:

In a closed cycle, this gas is returned to the combustion chamber, which allows more efficient use of fuel. The rotor of the booster pumping unit of the oxidizer is separately installed in the museum. We will meet similar rotors more than once on excursions around NPO Energomash.

Finally, the completion of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Scienses, which needed to replace the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket crashed in October.

At the plant, this trinity RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called "liter", "half a liter" and "quarter".

Wow, something voluminous turned out to be an excursion. Let's postpone the inspection of the plant until the next day. There are also a lot of interesting things, and most importantly, it turned out to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a pile of steel and aluminum ingots.

The aviation and rocket and space industry is located in large cities - centers of concentration of qualified personnel.

Finished products - airplanes, helicopters, ballistic missiles and others - are assembled from thousands of parts supplied by allied enterprises. Particularly distinguished by its complexity is the production of space complexes.

But in most areas in space technology, our country is "ahead of the rest." Unique Russian technologies provide long-term human space flights. Our designers have developed the world's best system for automatic docking of spacecraft. Russia also holds the lead in the creation of large structures in outer space, film and inflatable structures. Now our space industry is participating in many international projects.

The Baikonur Cosmodrome (in Kazakhstan) is now used by Russia on a lease basis. From here, Russian and foreign cosmonauts go into space. In Russia itself, there are currently two spaceports. One of them is Plesetsk.

In the late 1950s among the forests, lakes and swamps of the Plesetsk district of the Arkhangelsk region, a test site for strategic missile forces and its capital, the city of Mirny, were built. Since 1966, spacecraft have been launched from here. Since that time, Plesetsk has become the most working cosmodrome in the world, which has no equal in terms of the number of launches (more than 1500). But it also remains a military training ground - it was here, for example, that the new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Topol-M, which formed the backbone of our country's strategic nuclear forces at the beginning of the 21st century, received "a start in life" In the Amur Region, on the basis of the former garrison of a strategic missile division, Russia's second Svobodny Cosmodrome has recently been created. The first satellite was launched from there in March 1997.

Almost all unmanned spacecraft are controlled from Krasnoznamensk (Golitsyno-2) near Moscow, and manned ones - from the Mission Control Center (TsUI1) in Korolev, Moscow Region.

Research and design organizations of the industry are concentrated to a large extent in the Moscow region. Almost all Russian aircraft and helicopters are designed here, intercontinental ballistic missiles and launch vehicles are being developed.

A powerful aerospace complex was formed in the Volga region. Among its many large centers, Samara occupies a special place in the national cosmonautics, where launch vehicles, rocket engines and satellites for various purposes, including photo reconnaissance satellites, are developed and manufactured. In Nizhny Novgorod, the Sokol aircraft building plant, which produced Laa-5 and La-7 fighters designed by S.A. Lavochkin during the war years. It was on such machines that the Soviet ace number one, three times Hero of the Soviet Union I. N. Kozhedub, won all his victories (shooting down 62 enemy aircraft). Among today's military products of the plant is the world's most powerful fighter-interceptor MiG-31.

Almost all Mi-24 combat helicopters that fought in Afghanistan were manufactured in Arsenyev (Primorsky Territory), and now the world's first Ka-50 combat helicopter, better known as the Black Shark, is being produced. They also make a unique anti-ship missile "Mosquito", called in the West "Sunburn" ("Sunburn"). Capable of destroying an aircraft carrier, this missile rushes to a target at a height of only 5 m at a speed of 2.5 times the speed of sound, automatically performing anti-aircraft maneuvers, which makes the Mosquito almost invulnerable.

The former artillery plant in Votkinsk (in Udmurtia), founded back in the 19th century, is now the only enterprise in Russia for the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (Topol-M).

... they pull Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even American. Meet NPO Energomash, which has recently become part of the United Rocket and Space Corporation of Russia, the place where the best and most powerful liquid rocket engines in the world are made.

These words are not pathos. Judge for yourself: here, in Khimki near Moscow, engines for the Soviet-Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets were developed; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian "Zenith" and "Dnepr"; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first…

After checking the passport and the arrival of the escort, we advance from the checkpoint to the museum of the plant, or as it is called here “Demonstration Hall”.

The keeper of the hall Vladimir Sudakov is the head of the Information Department. Apparently, he copes well with his duties - he was one of all my interlocutors who knew who Zelenyikot was.

Vladimir led a short but capacious tour of the museum.

Do you see a 7 centimeter pshikalka on the table? The entire Soviet and Russian space has grown from it.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, the head there was Valentin Petrovich Glushko, later he also became the general designer of NPO Energomash.

A disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spacecraft. It was supposed to place solar panels on the disk. In the background - the first models of liquid propellant rocket engines developed by GDL.

Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. went real work on government funding. Here the GDL has already worked together with the Royal GIRD. In wartime, "sharashka" developed rocket boosters for serial military aircraft. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid propulsion.

But all the weather was spoiled by the Germans, who created the first A4 ballistic missile, better known in Russia as the V-2.

Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.

First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using completely Soviet materials. During this period, German engineers were still helping our engineers. But they tried not to let them in on secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.

First of all, the engineers began to speed up and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.

In this field he excelled. In the hands of the curator of the museum is the first working prototype, which confirmed the correctness of the chosen scheme. What is most surprising is that the inside of the combustion chamber is a copper alloy. It seems that an element where the pressure exceeds hundreds of atmospheres, and the temperature is a thousand degrees Celsius, must be made from some kind of refractory titanium or tungsten. But it turned out to be easier to cool the chamber, and not to achieve unlimited thermal stability. The chamber was cooled by liquid fuel components, and copper was used because of its high thermal conductivity.

The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom, they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided the Soviet Union with superiority in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned cosmonautics to this day.

Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.

In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply reject the whole marching chamber of the engine.

Problems with combustion instability could not be completely solved, therefore, most of the engines designed by Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.

There is only one single-chamber giant in the hall, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing NK-33 version for the H1 rocket won.

The difference between them is that H1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, while Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. Such a mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this does not in the least prevent China from now launching its taikonauts on just such a mixture.

You can also look at the Proton engine.

And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in Voevoda missiles, widely known under the NATO name Satan.

However, now they, under the name "Dnepr", are also launched for peaceful purposes.

Finally we get to the pearl of Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.

To date, this is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. Surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, against one in the F-1.

The RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project as side booster engines. According to the original design, the boosters were supposed to be reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities. After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket.

In Soviet times, it, like the "Voevoda", was developed by the Yuzhnoye design bureau, which, after the collapse of the USSR, ended up abroad. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, together with the United States and Norway, the Sea Launch project began to be implemented. Although it never reached profitability, it went through a reorganization and now its future is being decided, but the rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space lack of money in the 90s and early 2000s.

Vladimir Sudakov demonstrates a fantastic development of Energomash engineers - a composite bellows of the engine swing unit.

How to achieve node mobility at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, bullshit question: only 12 layers of metal and additional booking rings, we fill it with liquid oxygen between the layers and there are no problems ...

This design allows you to rigidly fix the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle, using a gimbal suspension. On the engine, it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with red plugs.

Americans like to repeat about their space, "We stand on the shoulders of giants." Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase also applies to Russian cosmonautics. The same "Angara", although the brainchild of already Russian designers, but its engine - the RD-191, evolutionarily goes back to the RD-171.

In the same way, the “half” of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American astronautics, when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked if there was a propaganda element in this victory - could the Americans make a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space. They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the goofy eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the performance of the RD-180 was almost twice that of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power / weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.

Here, on the test video of the Merlin-1D engine, you can see how a jet of generator gas is whipping from the tube next to the nozzle:

In a closed cycle, this gas is returned to the combustion chamber, which allows more efficient use of fuel. The rotor of the booster pumping unit of the oxidizer is separately installed in the museum. We will meet similar rotors more than once on excursions around NPO Energomash.

Finally, the completion of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Scienses, which needed to replace the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket crashed in October.

At the plant, this trinity RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called "liter", "half a liter" and "quarter".

Wow, something voluminous turned out to be an excursion. Let's postpone the inspection of the plant until the next day. There are also a lot of interesting things, and most importantly, it turned out to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a pile of steel and aluminum ingots.