The RD-119 (

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 8D710) was a

liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, 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 UDMH in the

gas-generator cycle The gas-generator cycle is a power cycle of a pumped liquid bipropellant rocket engine. Part of the unburned propellant is burned in a gas generator (or preburner) and the resulting hot gas is used to power the propellant pumps before being exhau ...

. It has a huge expansion ratio on the nozzle and uses a unique propellant combination to achieve an extremely high

isp An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

of 352 s for a semi-cryogenic gas-generator engine. It also has a unique steering mechanism. The engine main nozzle is fixed, and the output of the gas generator is fed into four nozzles on the side of the engine. Instead of using

gimbaled A gimbal is a pivoted support that permits rotation of an object about an axis. A set of three gimbals, one mounted on the other with orthogonal pivot axes, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain independent of ...

verniers to supply

vector control Vector control is any method to limit or eradicate the mammals, birds, insects or other arthropods (here collectively called " vectors") which transmit disease pathogens. The most frequent type of vector control is mosquito control using a variet ...

, the combustion gases are distributed by an electrically driven system that can control the thrust among the nozzles.

Development

Between 1958 and 1960, Glushko's OKB 456 developed the RD-109 for the Block-I of the 8K73 project — a liquid-oxygen/ UDMH version of the R-7. But Korolev refusal to use such a toxic combination shelved the project. When Yangel's

OKB-586 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 ...

was tasked with developing a launch vehicle out of the R-12, they had to develop an upper stage from scratch. The critical issue was the low specific impulse of the first stage, and thus a very high-efficiency upper-stage engine was needed. For this Glushko offered to adapt the RD-109, and Yangel accepted the proposal. It flew some very important missions on the Kosmos-2 launch vehicle, with about 165 engines produced.

Versions

This engine had two versions. * RD-109:

Index 8D711, also known as GDU-10. It was the original proposal for the 8K73 Project Blok-I stage. * RD-119:

Index 8D710. It was the version used on the Kosmos-2.

References

Literature

External links

NPO Energomash official site.

{{Rocket engines Rocket engines of the Soviet Union Rocket engines using the gas-generator cycle Rocket engines using hypergolic propellant Energomash rocket engines

Development

Versions

See also

References

Literature

External links