The RD-864 (,

GRAU index The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...

: 15D177) is a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

liquid-fuel rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because they have reasonably high density and their combustio ...

engine burning a

hypergolic 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. The ...

mixture of

unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (abbreviated as UDMH; also known as 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, heptyl or Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is primarily used as a rocket propellant. At room temperature, UDMH is a colorle ...

(UDMH) fuel with

dinitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russian rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

() oxidizer in a gas generator 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 veh ...

by gimbaling each nozzle in a single axis ±55°. It is used on the third stage of the R-36M UTTKh (GRAU index: 15A18) and Dnepr. For the R-36M2 (GRAU index: 15A18M), an improved version, the RD-869 (GRAU index: 15D300) was developed.

History

When the

military developed an improved version of the R-36M

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...

, Yangel's

OKB-586 The ''Pivdenne'' Design Office (), located in Dnipro, Ukraine, is a designer of satellites and rockets, and formerly of Soviet Union, Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), established by Mikhail Yangel. During the Soviet era, the bu ...

developed a new engine for the third stage, the RD-864. Developed between 1976 and 1978 it flew for the first time on October 31, 1977. With the

START I START I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms. The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 De ...

and

START II START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the United States and Russia on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It was signed by US President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yel ...

the some 150 R-36M and R-36M UTTKh were retired and to be destroyed by 2007. So, a civilian application was looked for and during the 1990s,

Yuzhnoe Design Bureau The ''Pivdenne'' Design Office (), located in Dnipro, Ukraine, is a designer of satellites and rockets, and formerly of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), established by Mikhail Yangel. During the Soviet era, the bureau's OKB des ...

(the R-36M designer) successfully developed the Dnepr

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

. It flew for the first time on April 21, 1999 and as of June 2016 it is still operational. So, while the production of the RD-864 has long since been finished, the engine is still to this day operational. The RD-869 was an improved version for the most powerful

ever, the R-36M2 (15A18M). It had improved efficiency, restart capability and burn life over the RD-864. As of January 2016 there are still 46 operational R-36M2 (RS-20V, SS-18) and thus the RD-869 is still in service, if out of production.

Versions

There are two versions of this engine: * RD-864 (

GRAU The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...

Index: 15D177): First developed as the third stage engine for the R-36M UTTKh (15A18)

and, by extension, on the Dnepr

. * RD-869 (

Index: 15D300): An improved version of the RD-864. It has improved efficiency, restart capability and burn life. It is used on the R-36M2 (15A18M).

References

External links

Yuzhnoye Design Bureau English-language home page
Rocket engines using hypergolic propellant Rocket engines using the gas-generator cycle Rocket engines of the Soviet Union Yuzhnoye rocket engines Yuzhmash rocket engines Rocket engines of Ukraine {{rocket-stub

History

Versions

See also

References

External links