The RD-8 (Russian: and

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: 11D513) is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

/ Ukrainian liquid propellant rocket engine burning

LOX 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 appli ...

and RG-1 (a rocket grade

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 an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. It has a four combustion chambers that provide

thrust vector control Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the ve ...

by gimbaling each of the nozzles in a single axis ±33°. It was designed in

Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

by the

Yuzhnoye Design Bureau Pivdenne Design Office ( uk, Державне конструкторське бюро «Південне» ім. М. К. Янгеля , lit=State design bureau "Southern", named after M. K. Yangel, translit=Derzhavne konstruktors ...

as the

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

of the

Zenit Zenit, meaning "zenith", may refer to: Spaceflight and rocketry * Zenit (rocket family), a Soviet family of space launch vehicles * Zenit (satellite), a type of Soviet spy satellite * Zenit sounding rocket, a Swiss rocket Sports * Zenit (sports ...

(GRAU: 11K77) second stage. As such, it has always been paired with the

RD-120 The RD-120 (GRAU Index 11D123) is a liquid upper stage rocket engine burning RG-1 (refined kerosene) and LOX in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle with an O/F ratio of 2.6. It is used in the second stage of the Zenit family of launch vehic ...

engine for main propulsion. It can only be started once, and as a high altitude engine it has a thrust of and a

specific impulse Specific impulse (usually abbreviated ) is a measure of how efficiently a reaction mass engine (a rocket using propellant or a jet engine using fuel) creates thrust. For engines whose reaction mass is only the fuel they carry, specific impulse i ...

of . It is the first ever steering engine to use the staged combustion cycle, and as such is the basis for a family of planned engines for the

Mayak The Mayak Production Association (russian: Производственное объединение «Маяк», , from 'lighthouse') is one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation, housing a reprocessing plant. The closest ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

family. The engine itself is built like a hollow cylinder, with a cylindrical space in the center so the RD-120 nozzle can pass through.

Derivatives

Whilst Yuzhnoye's propulsion experience had been mostly on

hypergolic propellant A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other. The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. Th ...

s engines, like

RD-855 The RD-855 (GRAU Index 8D68M), also known as the RD-68M, is a four-nozzle liquid-fuel rocket vernier engine, burning N2O4 and UDMH in a gas generator cycle. It was used on the R-36, Tsyklon-2 and Tsyklon-3 first stage as thrust vector c ...

RD-861 The RD-861 is a Soviet liquid propellant rocket engine burning UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has a main combustion chamber, with four vernier nozzles fed by the gas generator output. It can be reignited a ...

, they are considered too toxic for current ecological standards. While Yuzhnoye still offer to develop hypergolic propulsion, such as

RD-843 The RD-843 is a Ukrainian single nozzle liquid propellant rocket engine burning pressure-fed UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide. It is rated for up to 5 restarts, and can gimbal up to 10 degrees in each direction. It was developed by Yuzhnoye Desig ...

for the

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 ...

's AVUM stage or the

Tsyklon-4 The Tsyklon-4, also known as Tsiklon-4 and Cyclone-4, was a Ukrainian carrier rocket which was being developed for commercial satellite launches. Derived from the Tsyklon-3, it had a new third stage, a larger payload fairing, and a modernised fl ...

project, Yuzhnoye selected a more environmentally friendly

and

propellant for the

launch vehicle family. Not only had Yuzhnoye mastered the most complex cycle for the propellant ( oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle) with the RD-8, but they had worked closely with

NPO Energomash NPO Energomash “V. P. Glushko” is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and produces liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the Soviet design bureau OKB-456, which was founded in 1 ...

during the

program. The manufacturing is done at its sister company of

Yuzhmash The State Factory «Production Union Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant named after O.M. Makarov», PA Pivdenmash or formerly, PA Yuzhmash (Ukrainian: Державне підприємство «Виробниче об'єднання Півде ...

in Dnipropetrovsk, and the RD-120 thrust augmentation project of 2001 to 2003 had been a mixed project between the three companies. On the base of this experience, a family of derivatives engines were proposed. While the

RD-801 The RD-801 (Russian: ) is a Ukrainian liquid propellant rocket engine burning LOX and Kerosene ( RG-1) in a staged combustion cycle. It has a single combustion chamber that provides thrust vector control by gimbaling of the nozzle in two axis by ...

and

RD-810 The RD-810 (РД-810) is a Ukrainian liquid propellant rocket engine burning LOX and Kerosene ( RG-1) in a staged combustion cycle. It has a single combustion chamber that provides thrust vector control by gimbaling of the nozzle in two axis by + ...

are really just based on the general technology, the other members of the family are related enough that they reuse many components of the RD-8. One characteristic of this family is the limitation of keeping the preburner output temperature below . * RD-805 (or RD-802): A proposed upper stage engine of just of thrust, it would use a single chamber of the RD-8. While many new components would be required, it is considered a low technological risk since it only needs smaller versions of already developed component. * RD-809 (sometimes identified as RD-809M): It is an RD-8 re arranged to minimize its diameter. It would use practically every single component of the RD-8, but arranged without the big hollow section in the middle. It was a proposed engine for a proposed liquid upper stage of the

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, then named Taurus II. It would be capable of five engine burns in a single mission. * RD-809K: A proposed single nozzle version of the RD-8. It would mix most principal elements of the RD-8 like the turbopumps with a main combustion chamber and nozzle adapted from the

RD-861K The RD-861 is a Soviet liquid propellant rocket engine burning UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has a main combustion chamber, with four vernier nozzles fed by the gas generator output. It can be reignited a s ...

. It would be capable of 4 starts in a single mission. It is expected to be used in a dual engine configuration in the Mayak upper stage.

References

External links

Yuzhnoye Design Bureau English-language home page

Yuzhmash Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rd-8 (Rocket Engine) Rocket engines of the Soviet Union Rocket engines using kerosene propellant Rocket engines using the staged combustion cycle Yuzhnoye rocket engines Yuzhmash rocket engines Rocket engines of Ukraine

Derivatives

See also

References

External links