 | |
Native name | НПО Энергомаш имени академика В. П. Глушко |
|---|---|
Romanized name | NPO Energomash named after “V. P. Glushko” |
| Formerly | OKB-456 |
| Industry | Aerospace industry Space industry Defense industry Rocket engines |
| Founded | (1946; 79 years ago (1946))Khimki,Soviet Union |
| Founder | Valentin Petrovich Glushko |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | |
| Revenue | $182 million[1] (2016) |
| $59.7 million[1] (2016) | |
| $48 million[1] (2016) | |
| Total assets | $47 million[1] (2016) |
| Total equity | $126 million[1] (2016) |
Number of employees | 5500 (2009) |
| Parent | Roscosmos[2] |
| Website | Official Website |
NPO Energomash "V. P. Glushko" is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and producesliquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from theSoviet design bureauOKB-456, which was founded in 1946. NPO Energomash acquired its current name on May 15, 1991, in honor of its former chief designerValentin Glushko.
Energomash is noted for its long history of large scaleLOX/Kerosene engine development. Notable examples are theRD-107/RD-108engines used on theR-7,Molniya andSoyuz rocket families, and theRD-170,RD-171 andRD-180 engines used on theEnergia,Zenit andAtlas V launch vehicles.
As of July 2013[update], the company remained largely owned by thefederal government of Russia, butRSC Energia owned approximately 14% of the total shares.[3] As of 2009[update], NPO Energomash employed approximately 5500 workers at its headquarters inKhimki, Moscow and its satellite facilities inSamara,Perm, andSt. Petersburg.[4]
On 4 August 2016, the company announced that it would launch a new plant by December 2016.[5]
Valentin Petrovich Glushko was appointed chief designer of the newly founded OKB-456 design bureau on July 3, 1946.[6] The company was quickly tasked with the production of a Russian copy of the German V2 rocket engine, under the supervision of Glushko and 234 German designers added to the company in October, 1946.[7][8] At the end of that year, OKB-456 took up residence in an aviation factory near the city ofKhimki, just outside Moscow. Here, the bureau constructed facilities to build and test fire its engines. The RD-100 performed admirably, and low-pressure LOX/Ethanol engine development continued, in the form of the RD-102 and RD-103. However, the development of high-pressure engine technology allowed propellants with a higher energy density to be used, and so LOX/Kerosene quickly replaced LOX/Ethanol as the propellant of choice.[9]
In 2013, the Russian government began a major effort torenationalize the Russianspace sector, and createdUnited Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC) to consolidate its space holdings.[10] In December 2013 President Putin issued apresidential decree setting up the URSC corporation. The decree stipulated that the corporation will take over manufacturing facilities.[11]The industry reorganization continued into 2014[12] with aSberbank cooperation agreement.[13]
In 1954, the development and success of the LOX/KeroseneRD-107 and RD-108 engines allowed the company to expand its engine development work further. The RD-214 engine, using a storable mixture ofNitric Acid and Kerosene, was developed for ballistic missiles with a short readiness time requirement. The RD-214 was soon superseded by the RD-216 and later variants, which used ahypergolic combination ofUDMH and Nitric Acid. This line of development later led to the highly successfulUDMH/N2O4 enginesRD-253 and RD-275 used on theProton launch vehicles – these were the most powerful hypergolic engine of its time, and remains in production to the current day.[14]
The RD-107 and RD-108 engines developed from 1954-1957 were extremely reliable and widely used. However, DB Energomash (renamed from the original OKB designation in 1967) saw great potential in the development of LOX/Kerosene engines with a higher chamber pressure. This presented many challenges to the engine designers, most notably the development of aturbopump which could deliver enough propellant to keep the engine running at a pressure high enough to maintain combustion stability. The resulting engine, developed in the early 1980s, was theRD-170, which runs at a chamber pressure of 24.5 megapascals (3,550 pounds per square inch) and produces 7,550 kilonewtons (1,700,000 pounds-force) of thrust at a sea-levelspecific impulse of 309 sec, and 7,903 kilonewtons (1,777,000 pounds-force) of thrust at a vacuumspecific impulse of 337 sec[15] — one of the most efficient and powerful LOX/Kerosene engines in the world.
Variants of the RD-170 are still in use today on such vehicles as theZenit 3SL used bySea Launch. The modernSoyuz rocket uses updated versions of theRD-107 and RD-108 engines. TheRD-180 engine, developed withPratt & Whitney Rocketdyne through theRD AMROSS partnership, is a direct descendant of the RD-170 line and is used as the propulsion system for the first stage ofAtlas V.[16] The most current engine listed on the NPO Energomash website is the single-chamberRD-191, developed for theAngara and Baikal launch vehicles.
NPO Energomash works with other Russian companies (Keldysh Research Center andKBKhA), and in cooperation with European companies on the Volga rocket engine project.[17]
The company continues to research and explore new engine concepts, such as thetripropellant, bi-modal engines of the RD-700 family (RD-701 andRD-704).[18]
On 1 June 2016, the company successfully tested first-stage engine named RD-181, a modified version of theRD-191 forAntares.[19]
On 10 August 2016, the company successfully tested first-stage engine named PDU-99 "ПДУ-99" forRS-28 Sarmat.[20]
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)