The RD-0146 (РД-0146, Ракетный Двигатель-0146, Rocket Engine-0146) is a
liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine
A cryogenic rocket engine is a rocket engine that uses a cryogenic fuel and oxidizer; that is, both its fuel and oxidizer are gases which have been liquefied and are stored at very low temperatures. These highly efficient engines were first flo ...
developed by
KBKhA Kosberg 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 the ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
The RD-0146 is the first Russian rocket engine to burn
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
liquid hydrogen
Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form.
To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...
in the expander cycle, in which
turbopumps
A turbopump is a propellant pump with two main components: a rotodynamic pump and a driving gas turbine, usually both mounted on the same shaft, or sometimes geared together. They were initially developed in Germany in the early 1940s. The purpo ...
are driven by waste heat absorbed in the nozzle and combustion chamber. The RD-0146 featured the fastest-spinning turbopump of any serially produced rocket engine: the fuel turbopump spun at over 120,000 rpm.The RD-0146M variant uses
liquified natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...
as a fuel instead of hydrogen, while the RD-0146D variant is projected to produce specific impulse (''I
sp)'' as high as in a vacuum.
The engine has been proposed for use on multiple
carrier rockets throughout its history. RD-0146 variants were, at various times, selected to power new upper stages for
Proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
,
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 ...
, Onega (a development of
Soyuz-2
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
Rus-M
Rus-M (russian: Русь-М) was a proposed launcher design which was intended to become Russia's main launch vehicle for crewed spaceflight after 2018, and an integral part of the Orel spacecraft being developed to replace the Soyuz.
Rus-M was b ...
. As of 2022, the RD-0146D is in development for use on the
KVTK upper stage.
Development
In 1988,
RSC Energia
PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...
directed
KBKhA
Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (CADB), also KB Khimavtomatika (russian: Конструкторское бюро химавтоматики, КБХА, KBKhA), is a Russian design bureau founded by the NKAP (People's Commissariat of the Aircraf ...
to begin work on a new preburner-less LO
x/LH
2 rocket engine for use on upper stages, the RO-95. Though this engine never left the design phase, its development confirmed the reliability and performance of the expander cycle to KBKhA.
In 1999, a new expander-cycle engine project began. In that year,
GKNPTs Khrunichev awarded a contract to KBKhA to develop a new engine, the RD-0146U, for use on its Proton and Angara launch vehicles. The engine was to be of around thrust class. Soon after, on 7 April 2000, the American company
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) was an American company that designed and produced rocket engines that use liquid rocket propellants, liquid propellants. It was a division of Pratt & Whitney, a fully owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corpo ...
entered an agreement with KBKhA, financing the development of the RD-0146. Pratt & Whitney would gain exclusive international marketing rights to this variant.
In 2002, RSC Energia awarded KBKhA with a contract to develop the RD-0146E variant for use on its Onega launch vehicle, a Soyuz-2 variant with a fully cryogenic upper stage.
In 2008, KBKhA began development of the RD-0146D variant for use on the KVTK upper stage for Angara A5. In 2009,
TsSKB Progress
The Progress Rocket Space Centre (russian: Ракетно-космический центр «Прогресс»), formerly known as TsSKB-Progress (russian: ЦСКБ-Прогресс), is a Russian joint-stock company under the jurisdiction ...
selected the RD-0146 for use on the new
Rus-M
Rus-M (russian: Русь-М) was a proposed launcher design which was intended to become Russia's main launch vehicle for crewed spaceflight after 2018, and an integral part of the Orel spacecraft being developed to replace the Soyuz.
Rus-M was b ...
launch vehicle's second stage.
The first RD-0146 engine was planned to be delivered to Pratt & Whitney in May 2001. Delays attributed to subcontractor production troubles postponed this, and the first live firing of a production engine took place on 9 October, 2001. A second engine was built and fired in December 2002, and was subsequently delivered to Pratt & Whitney in March 2003.
The RD-0146 used a different testing methodology than previous Soviet and Russian engine trial programs. Individual components and subsystems would be tested separately, Earlier testing would use an all-up method, in which an entire engine was assembled and tested. This meant that a single component failure would make it necessary to disassemble the system to detect flaws.
In order to facilitate test firings of the RD-0146, a new liquid hydrogen production plant was constructed, with a capacity of per day. This became the second such facility in Russia.
Description
The RD-0146 is the first Russian rocket engine not to feature a
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 ...
. It is also the first to have a
nozzle
A nozzle is a device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow (specially to increase velocity) as it exits (or enters) an enclosed chamber or pipe.
A nozzle is often a pipe or tube of varying cross sectional area, a ...
extension without an active cooling system, as well as the first engine by KBKhA to feature separate fuel and oxidiser turbopumps.
The engine is capable of five firings and thrust control in two planes. According to the developer, the lack of a gas generator system ensures higher reliability of the engine for multiple firings, by removing the potential of an ignition failure in the engine power cycle.
Related development
LM10-MIRA is a
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 ...
-
liquid methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...
demonstrator engine developed by
Avio
Avio S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the aerospace sector with its head office in Colleferro near Rome, Italy. Founded in 1908, it is present in Italy and abroad with different commercial offices and 10 production sites. Avio operates ...
and
KBKhA
Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (CADB), also KB Khimavtomatika (russian: Конструкторское бюро химавтоматики, КБХА, KBKhA), is a Russian design bureau founded by the NKAP (People's Commissariat of the Aircraf ...
on the basis of the RD-0146. Development began under the terms of an agreement signed between the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
governments in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
on November 28, 2000. The 7.5 tonnes-force engine was successfully tested in June 2014 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 the ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
After the end of the collaboration with KHBhA, Avio continued the development of the M10 engine under the
Vega-E program with a target thrust of 10 tonnes-force.
, the engine ground qualification is foreseen for 2024.
See also
*
Avio M10, a derived engine in development for
Vega
Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, an ...
*
Comparison of orbital rocket engines
This page is an incomplete list of orbital rocket engine data and specifications.
Current, Upcoming, and In-Development rocket engines
Retired and canceled rocket engines
See also
* Comparison of orbital launch systems
* Comparison of o ...
Comparable engines
*
Rocketdyne RL10
*
RL60
The RL60 was a planned liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine designed in the United States by Pratt & Whitney, burning cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. The engine runs on an expander cycle, running the turbopumps with wast ...
*
HM7B
The HM7B is a European cryogenic upper stage rocket engine used on the vehicles in the Ariane rocket family. It will be replaced by Vinci, which will act as the new upper stage engine on Ariane 6. Nearly 300 engines have been produced to date. ...
*
YF-75D
The YF-75D is a liquid-fuel rocket, liquid cryogenic rocket engine, cryogenic rocket engine burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in a closed Expander cycle (rocket), expander cycle. It is China's third generation of upper stage cryogenic fue ...
*
Vinci
*
LE-5B-2
*
CE-7.5
The CE-7.5 is a cryogenic rocket engine developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation to power the upper stage of its GSLV Mk-2 launch vehicle. The engine was developed as a part of the Cryogenic Upper Stage Project (CUSP). It replaced the ...
*
KVD-1
KVD-1 was an upper stage LOX/LH cryogenic engine developed by the Isayev Design Bureau (now KB KhIMMASH) of Russia in the early 1960s. It is a modified version of the RD-56, developed for a never-completed cryogenic upper stage of the N1 (rocket) ...
References
External links
KBKhA RD-0146* RD-0146 description from Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyn
{{Russian and Soviet military designation sequences
Rocket engines of Russia
Rocket engines using hydrogen propellant
Soviet inventions
Rocket engines using the expander cycle
KBKhA rocket engines