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 accordanc ...

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 applica ...

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 regi ...

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 thu ...

. RD-0124 engines are used on the

Soyuz-2.1b Soyuz-2 (GRAU index 14A14) is a modernized version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage bo ...

and

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 m ...

. A slight variation of the engine, the RD-0124A, is used on the

Angara rocket family The Angara rocket family (Russian: Ангара) is a family of launch vehicles being developed by the Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The launch vehicles are to put between and into low Earth orbit and are ...

URM-2 upper stage. RD-0124 is developed by

Chemical Automatics Design Bureau Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (CADB), also KB Khimavtomatika (russian: Конструкторское бюро химавтоматики, КБХА, KBKhA), is a Russian OKB, design bureau founded by the NKAP (People's Commissariat of the Ai ...

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 the ...

Design

RD-0124 engines use a multi-stage turbopump powered by pre-combustion of the engine propellants in the preburner. The kerosene fuel is used for

regenerative cooling Regenerative cooling is a method of cooling gases in which compressed gas is cooled by allowing it to expand and thereby take heat from the surroundings. The cooled expanded gas then passes through a heat exchanger where it cools the incoming comp ...

of the engine. Vehicle attitude control 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, 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 considered using the RD-0124 in the High Energy Second Stage (HESS) for their Antares 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 Soyuz-2 (GRAU index 14A14) is a modernized version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage bo ...

and

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 Soyuz 5 (russian: Союз 5, ''Union 5'') was a Soyuz mission using the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union on 15 January 1969, which docked with Soyuz 4 in orbit. It was the first docking of two crewed spacecraft of any natio ...

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