The RD-0124 (

GRAU The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the ...

Index 14D23) is a

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 accorda ...

burning

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...

and

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning " wax", and was re ...

in a

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 th ...

. RD-0124 engines are used on the Soyuz-2.1b and Soyuz-2-1v. A slight variation of the engine, the RD-0124A, is used on the Angara rocket family URM-2 upper stage. RD-0124 is developed by Chemical Automatics Design Bureau in

Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on ...

Design

RD-0124 engines use a multi-stage turbopump powered by pre-combustion of the engine propellants in the

preburner 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 th ...

. The kerosene fuel is used for regenerative cooling of the engine. Vehicle

attitude control Attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc. Controlling vehicle ...

during ascent is provided by gimbaling the engine in two planes. The propellant tanks are helium-pressurized. Four combustion chambers are fed by a single turbopump system. The engine operates at a high chamber pressure and, for the type of propellants used, achieves a very high specific impulse of nearly 360 seconds in vacuum – a specific impulse that can only be exceeded by hydrolox rockets like the

RS-25 The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is currently used on the Space Launch System (SLS). Designed and manufactu ...

, and by the next-generation methalox rockets like the Raptor engine.

History

The inaugural flight of a launch vehicle using an RD-0124 engine took place on December 27, 2006.

Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

considered using the RD-0124 in the High Energy Second Stage (HESS) for their

Antares Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius. It has the Bayer designation α Scorpii, which is Latinised to Alpha Scorpii. Often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion", Antares is flanked by σ Scorpii and τ S ...

rocket. It would have replaced the Castor 30B second stage.

Versions

This upper stage engine has been adapted to two different launch vehicles, the Soyuz-2-1b/v and the Angara family. As such, there are different versions: * RD-0124 (

Index 14D23). It is the version for the Soyuz-2-1b and Soyuz-2-1v Blok-I. It is the first liquid rocket engine designed in Russia after the Soviet period. * RD-0124A It is the version that powers the

Angara The Angara ( Buryat and mn, Ангар, ''Angar'', "Cleft"; russian: Ангара́, ''Angará'') is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It drains out of Lake Baikal and is ...

URM-2, both the 1.2 and the bigger 5 versions. It differs on the base model in having an extended burn time of 424 seconds and, at , being lighter. * RD-0124DR Version developed between 2008 and 2013 for the Soyuz-2-3 project. It would differ from the base version in the implementation of a throttled point of with a reduced chamber pressure of and a specific impulse of 347s. The throttling capability meant a redesign of the preburner and the combustion chamber. * RD-0125A Single nozzle version of the RD-0124A, it is planned as an upgrade for the Angara URM-2. It would enable the use of dual engines, which would enhance performance and reduce launch cost. Probably only planned for the Angara-5 URM-2, which is bigger than the Angara-1.2's. *RD-0124MS A new Russian rocket engine with a thrust of 60 tons (533 kN), powered by ''naphthyl''–liquid oxygen propellants. The engine consists of two blocks located on a common frame and a heat shield. Each consists of two diagonally located combustion chambers. The engine provides steering of the chambers in two planes, as well as able to work when one of the blocks is turned off. In development as of 2020 to power second stage of Soyuz-5 rocket.

References

{{Russian and Soviet military designation sequences Rocket engines of Russia Rocket engines using kerosene propellant Rocket engines using the staged combustion cycle KBKhA rocket engines

Design

History

Versions

See also

References