NK-33
The NK-33 and NK-43 are rocket engines designed and built in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau. The NK designation is derived from the initials of chief designer Nikolay Kuznetsov. The NK-33 was among the most powerful LOX/RP-1 rocket engines when it was built, with a high specific impulse and low structural mass. They were intended for the ill-fated Soviet N1F moon rocket, which was an upgraded version of the N1. The NK-33A rocket engine is now used on the first stage of the Soyuz-2-1v launch vehicle. When the supply of the NK-33 engines are exhausted, Russia will supply the new RD-193 rocket engine. It used to be the first stage engines of the Antares 100 rocket series, although those engines are rebranded the AJ-26 and the newer Antares 200 and Antares 200+ rocket series uses the RD-181 for the first stage engines, which is a modified RD-191, but shares some properties like a single combustion chamber unlike the two combustion chambers used in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
JSC Kuznetsov
JSC Kuznetsov (russian: ПАО «Кузнецов») is one of the leading Russian producers of aircraft engines, liquid-propellant rocket engines as well as aeroderivative gas turbines and modular stations. The current joint-stock company was established through the consolidation of several Samara-based aerospace engine companies, including JSC N.D. Kuznetsov SNTK, JSC Samara Design Bureau of Machine Building and JSC NPO Povolzhskiy AviTI. History The company was established in 1912 as the Gnome Factory of Moscow, after the French aircraft engine company Gnome et Rhône which supplied the engine parts assembled by the plant. In 1925 it was renamed 'Frunze Factory No. 24', after Bolshevik leader Mikhail Frunze. The factory was evacuated to its current location in Samara in 1941. The Samara Frunze Engine-Building Production Association was one of the principal aerospace engine production complexes in Russia, with six plants and 25,000 employees in the early 1990s. It has produced ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Kuznetsov Design Bureau
The Kuznetsov Design Bureau (russian: СНТК им. Н. Д. Кузнецова, also known as OKB-276) was a Russian design bureau for aircraft engines, administrated in Soviet times by Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov. It was also known as (G)NPO Trud (or NPO Kuznetsov) and Kuybyshev Engine Design Bureau (KKBM). NPO Trud was replaced in 1994 by a Joint Stock Company (JSC), Kuznetsov R & E C. By the early 2000s the lack of funding caused by the poor economic situation in Russia had brought Kuznetsov on the verge of bankruptcy. In 2009 the Russian government decided to consolidate a number of engine-making companies in the Samara region under a new legal entity. This was named JSC Kuznetsov, after the design bureau. Products The Kuznetzov Bureau first became notable for producing the monstrous Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop engine that powered the Tupolev Tu-95 bomber beginning in 1952 as a development of the Junkers 0022 engine. The new engine eventually generated about 15,000 horse ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
N1 (rocket)
The N1/L3 (from , "Carrier Rocket"; Cyrillic: Н1) was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit. The N1 was the Soviet counterpart to the US Saturn V and was intended to enable crewed travel to the Moon and beyond, with studies beginning as early as 1959. Its first stage, Block A, remains the most powerful rocket stage ever flown. However, all four first stages flown failed mid-flight because a lack of static test firings meant that plumbing issues and other adverse characteristics with the large cluster of thirty engines and its complex fuel and oxidizer feeder system were not revealed earlier in development. The N1-L3 version was designed to compete with the United States Apollo program to land a person on the Moon, using a similar lunar orbit rendezvous method. The basic N1 launch vehicle had three stages, which were to carry the L3 lunar payload into low Earth orbit with two cosmonauts. The L3 contained one stage for trans-lun ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Antares (rocket)
Development The NASA COTS award was for and Orbital Sciences expected to invest an additional $150 million, split between $130 million for the booster and $20 million for the spacecraft. A Commercial Resupply Service contract of $1.9 billion for eight flights was awarded in 2008. As of April 2012, development costs were estimated at $472 million. In June 2008, it was announced that the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, formerly part of the Wallops Flight Facility, in Virginia, would be the primary launch site for the rocket. Launch pad 0A (LP-0A), previously used for the failed Conestoga rocket, would be modified to handle Antares. Wallops allows launches which reach the International Space Station's orbit as effectively as those from Cape Canaveral, Florida, while being less crowded. The first Antares flight launched a Cygnus mass simulator. On December 10, 2009, Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) test-fired their Castor 30 motor for use on the second stage of the Antar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Soyuz-2-1v
The Soyuz-2.1v (russian: Союз 2.1в, ''Union 2.1v''), GRAU index 14A15, known earlier in development as the Soyuz-1 (russian: Союз 1, ''Union 1''), is a Russian expendable launch vehicle. It was derived from the Soyuz-2.1b, and is a member of the R-7 family of rockets. It is built by TsSKB Progress, at Samara in Russia. Launches are conducted from existing facilities at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northwest Russia, with pads also available at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and new facilities at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Eastern Russia. Vehicle The Soyuz-2.1v represents a major departure from earlier Soyuz rockets. Unlike the Soyuz-2.1b upon which it is based, it does away with the four boosters used on all other R-7 vehicles. The first stage of the Soyuz-2.1v is a heavily modified derivative of the Soyuz-2 second stage, with a single-chamber NK-33 engine replacing the four-chamber RD-107 used on previous rockets along with structural modifications to the s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov
Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov was a Chief Designer of the Soviet Design Bureau OKB-276 which deals with the development, manufacture and distribution of equipment, especially aircraft engines, turbines and gearboxes. Biography Kuznetsov started his career as a professional coppersmith and he began working as a mechanic. In 1930 graduated from the school and enrolled at the "Moscow Aviation College" where he studied part-time and worked as a mechanic. In 1933, he joined the Air Technical School in the Motor Branch of "VVIA of Zhukovsky". There he studied under Prof. Nikolai Jegorowitsch Schukowski - then the head of the department for aircraft engines research, and Kuznetsov received a degree with honors in November 1938. The topic of his diploma there was on motors: four-carburettor, 28-cylinder with a 4-star air-cooled power of 1500 hp at 3400 rpm and at an altitude of 6000 meters with two-high-speed driven centrifugal blowers. In April 1939, Kuznetsov became a me ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
RD-180
The RD-180 ( rus, РД-180, Ракетный Двигатель-180, Raketnyy Dvigatel-180) is a rocket engine designed and built in Russia. It features a dual combustion chamber, dual-nozzle design and is fueled by a RP-1/LOX mixture. The RD-180 is derived from the RD-170/RD-171 line of rocket engines, which were used in the Soviet Energia launch vehicle and are still in use in the Ukrainian Zenit launch vehicles. RD-180 engines are also used for the first stage of the American Atlas V launch vehicle, which is being phased out due to the national security implications of being reliant on foreign parts which became of concern after the Russian invasion of Crimea. , Russian supplies and maintenance have been discontinued as the result of trade sanctions caused by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. History The roots of the RD-180 rocket engine extend back into the Soviet Energia launch vehicle project. The RD-170, a four-chamber engine, was developed for use on the strap-o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Staged Combustion Cycle
The staged combustion cycle (sometimes known as topping cycle, preburner cycle, or closed cycle) is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine. In the staged combustion cycle, propellant flows through multiple combustion chambers, and is thus combusted in stages. The main advantage relative to other rocket engine power cycles is high fuel efficiency, measured through specific impulse, while its main disadvantage is engineering complexity. Typically, propellant flows through two kinds of combustion chambers; the first called preburner and the second called main combustion chamber. In the preburner, a small portion of propellant, usually fuel-rich, is partly combusted, and the increasing volume flow is used to drive the turbopumps that feed the engine with propellant. The gas is then injected into the main combustion chamber and combusted completely with the other propellant to produce thrust. Tradeoffs The main advantage is fuel efficiency due to all of the propellant flo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Staged Combustion Cycle
The staged combustion cycle (sometimes known as topping cycle, preburner cycle, or closed cycle) is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine. In the staged combustion cycle, propellant flows through multiple combustion chambers, and is thus combusted in stages. The main advantage relative to other rocket engine power cycles is high fuel efficiency, measured through specific impulse, while its main disadvantage is engineering complexity. Typically, propellant flows through two kinds of combustion chambers; the first called preburner and the second called main combustion chamber. In the preburner, a small portion of propellant, usually fuel-rich, is partly combusted, and the increasing volume flow is used to drive the turbopumps that feed the engine with propellant. The gas is then injected into the main combustion chamber and combusted completely with the other propellant to produce thrust. Tradeoffs The main advantage is fuel efficiency due to all of the propellant flo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Rocket Engine
A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordance with Newton's third law. Most rocket engines use the combustion of reactive chemicals to supply the necessary energy, but non-combusting forms such as cold gas thrusters and nuclear thermal rockets also exist. Vehicles propelled by rocket engines are commonly called rockets. Rocket vehicles carry their own oxidiser, unlike most combustion engines, so rocket engines can be used in a vacuum to propel spacecraft and ballistic missiles. Compared to other types of jet engine, rocket engines are the lightest and have the highest thrust, but are the least propellant-efficient (they have the lowest specific impulse). The ideal exhaust is hydrogen, the lightest of all elements, but chemical rockets produce a mix of heavier species, reducing the e ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Thrust-to-weight Ratio
Thrust-to-weight ratio is a dimensionless ratio of thrust to weight of a rocket, jet engine, propeller engine, or a vehicle propelled by such an engine that is an indicator of the performance of the engine or vehicle. The instantaneous thrust-to-weight ratio of a vehicle varies continually during operation due to progressive consumption of fuel or propellant and in some cases a gravity gradient. The thrust-to-weight ratio based on initial thrust and weight is often published and used as a figure of merit for quantitative comparison of a vehicle's initial performance. Calculation The thrust-to-weight ratio is calculated by dividing the thrust (in SI units – in newtons) by the weight (in newtons) of the engine or vehicle. Note that the thrust can also be measured in pound-force (lbf), provided the weight is measured in pounds (lb). Division using these two values still gives the numerically correct (dimensionless) thrust-to-weight ratio. For valid comparison of the initial th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
NK-15
The NK-15 (GRAU index 11D51) was a rocket engine designed and built in the late 1960s by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau. The NK designation was derived from the initials of chief designer Nikolay Kuznetsov. The NK-15 was among the most powerful LOX/kerosene rocket engines when it was built, with a high specific impulse and low structural mass. It was intended for the ill-fated Soviet N-1 Moon rocket. History The engine equipped the N1 rocket - the first two launch attempts failed due to this engine. Its successor the NK-33 was to be used on the N1F, a new version of the N1, but the program was cancelled. Versions * NK-15V (GRAU index 11D52): Modified NK-15 optimized for vacuum operation, used on the N1 second stage. See also *Comparison of orbital rocket engines References NK-15 ''Encyclopedia Astronautica The ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' is a reference web site on space travel. A comprehensive catalog of vehicles, technology, astronauts, and flights, it includes ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |