The RD-0214 (

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: 8D811) is a

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

vernier engine A vernier thruster is a rocket engine used on a spacecraft for fine adjustments to the Orientation (geometry) , attitude or velocity of a spacecraft. Depending on the design of a craft's maneuvering and stability systems, it may simply be a sma ...

burning N₂O₄ and

UDMH Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH; 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, НДМГ or codenamed Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is used as a rocket propellant. It is a colorless liquid, with a sharp, fishy, ammonia-like smell ...

in a

gas generator A gas generator is a device for generating gas. A gas generator may create gas by a chemical reaction or from a solid or liquid source, when storing a pressurized gas is undesirable or impractical. The term often refers to a device that uses a ...

cycle. It has four nozzles that can each gimbal 45 in plane to provide TVC to the

RD-0212 The RD-0210 ( GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning N2O4 and UDMH in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. They have single nozzle, possess TVC and are the latest evolutio ...

propulsion module of

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 ...

third stage. It is a revised version of the RD-0207.

Development

When Chelomey's

OKB-52 NPO Mashinostroyeniya (russian: НПО машиностроения, lit=RDA of machine manufacturing) is a rocket design bureau based in Reutov, Russia. During the Cold War it was responsible for several major weapons systems, including the UR-1 ...

started their

UR-200 The UR-200 was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by Vladimir Chelomey's OKB-52 in the Soviet Union. It was known during the Cold War by the NATO reporting name SS-10 '' Scrag'' and internally by the GRAU index 8K81. The desi ...

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...

project, they requested S. A. Kosberg's

OKB-154 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 develop the propulsion. For the second stage, they used a single

RD-0206 The RD-0210 ( GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning N2O4 and UDMH in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. They have single nozzle, possess TVC and are the latest evolutio ...

, a variation of the first stage

RD-0203 The RD-0210 (GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning Dinitrogen tetroxide, N2O4 and Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, UDMH in an Staged combustion cycle (rocket), oxidizer rich stage ...

, but required a vernier engine. To this end, the RD-0207 vernier engine was designed. It also included a heat exchanger to heat the pressurant gases for the second stage tank. While the UR-200 project was in direct competition to the R-36 and was cancelled in favor of the latter, it did have a few test launches and thus was a proven design. Then Chelomey moved his proposals to the super

heavy ICBM Heavy ICBM is a term that was created in the 1970s to describe a class of Soviet and Russian ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles). They were characterized by a heavy throw-weight of 5 to 9 metric tons, several times that of an LGM-30 Minute ...

UR-500 (8K82) and later to the Proton-K (8K82K). A heavy launch vehicle that could perform important missions for the

Soviet moonshot The Soviet crewed lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the Soviet Union to land humans on the Moon, in competition with the United States Apollo program. The Soviet government publicly denied participating in such a competitio ...

. For this new missions, it would not need to comply with ICBM specification standards, but would need at least a third stage. For the third stage, the UR-200 second stage was adapted—with the same 4.1 m tanking as the first and second stages and the RD-0205 module with an RD-0206 and an RD-0207

was given an overhaul. The new module—known as RD-0212—consisted of an

RD-0213 The RD-0210 (GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning N2O4 and UDMH in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. They have single nozzle, possess TVC and are the latest evolution ...

and an RD-0214 vernier engine. Many reliability enhancements were done and much extra test firings were performed. Yet, even as of 2015 design issues were found to have caused failures.

History

The first launch test of the UR-200 was on November 5, 1963, and was unsuccessful. The second vehicle, launched on April 11, 1964, also failed. The final RD-0207 flight was on October 20, 1964. The first RD-0214 flight was on October 3, 1967. On September 15, 1968, the RD-0214 module launched the

Zond 5 Zond 5 (russian: Зонд 5, lit=Probe 5) was a spacecraft of the Soviet Zond program. In September 1968 it became the first spaceship to travel to and circle the Moon, the first Moon mission to include animals, and the first to return safely to ...

around the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

on a

free return trajectory In orbital mechanics, a free-return trajectory is a trajectory of a spacecraft traveling away from a primary body (for example, the Earth) where gravity due to a secondary body (for example, the Moon) causes the spacecraft to return to the primar ...

, that sent the first alive organisms around the moon and back to Earth. On 19 May 1971 a Proton launched the

Mars 2 The Mars 2 was an uncrewed space probe of the Mars program, a series of uncrewed Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union beginning 19 May 1971. The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbit ...

probe to

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

. The orbiter was identical to the

Venera 9 Venera 9 (russian: Венера-9, lit=Venus-9), manufacturer's designation: 4V-1 No. 660, was a Soviet uncrewed space mission to Venus. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975, at 02:38:00 UTC and had a m ...

bus, and the lander was the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars. On 8 June 1975 a Proton launched the

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

. It consisted of an orbiter based on the

design, and a lander that sent the first pictures from the surface of Venus.

Versions

There are two basic versions of this engine: * RD-0207 (

Index: 8D67): A small gas generator rocket

using the same propellants as the

and bundled with it in the

RD-0205 The RD-0210 (GRAU Index: 8D411K) is also known as the RD-465. It and its twin, the RD-0211, are rocket engines burning N2O4 and UDMH in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. They have single nozzle, possess TVC and are the latest evolution ...

propulsion module. It has four combustion chambers that can gimbal 45 degrees in a single plane and allow the

second stage to have vector control. * RD-0214 (

Index: 8D811): An evolution of the RD-0207 engine, used as

of the

propulsion module along the

. It has four combustion chambers that can gimbal 45 degrees in a single plane and allow the Proton third stage to have vector control.

Modules

These engines are actually bundled into modules. The relevant modules and auxiliary engines are: * RD-0205 (

Index: 8D46): A module comprising an

and an RD-0207

. Propulsion of the UR-200 second stage. * RD-0212 (

Index: 8D49): Also known as the RD-473, it is a propulsion module comprising one

and an RD-0214

. Propulsion module of the third stage of the

rockets.

References

External links