 Model of an RD-170 rocket engine, shown upside down | |
| Country of origin | Soviet Union |
|---|---|
| First flight | 13 April 1985 (1985-04-13) |
| Last flight | 15 November 1988 (1988-11-15) |
| Designer | NPO Energomash |
| Manufacturer | NPO Energomash |
| Application | Main engine |
| AssociatedLV | Energia |
| Successor | RD-180 · RD-191 |
| Status | Retired |
| Liquid-fuel engine | |
| Propellant | LOX /RP-1 |
| Mixture ratio | 2.63 |
| Cycle | Oxidizer-rich staged combustion |
| Configuration | |
| Chamber | 4 |
| Nozzle ratio | 36.87 |
| Performance | |
| Thrust, vacuum | 7,900 kN (1,800,000 lbf) |
| Thrust, sea-level | 7,250 kN (1,630,000 lbf) |
| Throttle range | 40–100% |
| Thrust-to-weight ratio | 82:1 |
| Chamberpressure | 24.52 MPa (3,556 psi) |
| Specific impulse, vacuum | 337 s (3.30 km/s) |
| Specific impulse, sea-level | 309 s (3.03 km/s) |
| Burn time | 150 seconds |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 4 m (13 ft) |
| Diameter | 3.8 m (12 ft) |
| Dry mass | 9,750 kg (21,500 lb) |
| References | |
| References | [1][2][3][4] |
TheRD-170 (Russian:Ракетный Двигатель-170 (РД-170),romanized: Raketnyy Dvigatel-170,lit. 'Rocket Engine-170') is the world's most powerful and heaviest liquid-fuelrocket engine. It was designed and produced in theSoviet Union byNPO Energomash for use with theEnergia launch vehicle. The engine burnskerosene fuel andLOX oxidizer in fourcombustion chambers, all supplied by one single-shaft, single-turbineturbopump rated at 170 MW (230,000 hp) in astaged combustion cycle.[3][5]
Several Soviet and Russian rocket engines use the approach of clustering small combustion chambers around a single turbine and pump. During the early 1950s, many Soviet engine designers, includingValentin P. Glushko, faced problems of combustion instability while designing bigger thrust chambers. At that time, they solved the problem by using a cluster of smaller thrust chambers.
The RD-170 engine featured four combustion chambers and was developed for use on theEnergia launch vehicle – both the engine and the launch vehicle were in production only for a short time. Energia was launched twice. Each Energia vehicle had 4 boosters, each powered by one RD-170.
The engine was designed for 10 reuses but tests showed they could stand up to 20 burns.[6]
Building on the technology from the Energia's liquid fuel booster theZenit was developed, which uses a RD-170 variant, the RD-171. While the RD-170 had nozzles which swiveled on two axes, the RD-171's nozzles only swivel on one axis.[2] Models called the RD-172 and RD-173 were proposed, upgrades that would provide additional thrust, and the RD-173 proposal was finalized as theRD-171M upgrade in 2006.[2]
A modification of RD-171M being developed for theIrtysh rocket. Unlike RD-171M it only uses Russian components and features a new control system.[7] First test sample was manufactured in early 2019.[8]Tests were reported to have been successfully completed in September 2021.[9]
TheRD-180 uses only two combustion chambers instead of the four of the RD-170. TheRD-180 used on theAtlas V replaced the three engines used on early Atlas rockets with a single engine and achieved significant payload and performance gains. This engine had also been chosen to be the main propulsion system for the first stage of the now cancelled RussianRus-M rocket.[10]
TheRD-191 is a single-chamber version used in the RussianAngara rocket.[11] Variants of RD-191 includeRD-151 in South KoreanNaro-1 rocket,[12]RD-181 in AmericanOrbital ATKAntares rocket, and the proposedRD-193 for theSoyuz-2-1v project.[13]
On 28 July 2011, NPO Energomash summarised the results of the work on Rus-M rocket engine and considered the possibility of construction several new variants of RD-170 family engines.[14] According to the information, new and proposed variants will be marked as:
In 2017, Director General of RKK Energia Vladimir Solntsev referred to a "simplified" and "cheaper" version of the RD-171 engine in connection with theSoyuz-5 (Sunkar) project.[16]
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| Cancelled proposals | ||
