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The RD-120 (,
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 ...
: 11D123) is a
liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
upper stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own Rocket engine, engines and Rocket propellant, propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of anoth ...
rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...
burning RG-1 (refined
kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...
) 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 vehicles. It has a single, fixed combustion chamber and thus on the Zenit it is paired with the RD-8 vernier engine. The engine was developed from 1976 to 1985 by
NPO Energomash NPO Energomash "V. P. Glushko" is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and produces Liquid rocket engine, liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the OKB, Soviet design bureau OKB-456, w ...
with V.P. Radovsky leading the development. It is manufactured by, among others,
Yuzhmash The State Enterprise "Production Amalgamation 'Southern Machine-Building Plant named after O.M. Makarov'", officially abbreviated as Pivdenmash () and previously as Yuzhmash (), is a Ukrainian state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer. ...
in
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
. It should not be confused with the RD-0120, which is a discontinued LOX/hydrogen rocket engine that was used in the
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 ...
Energia launch system.


History

During the
Buran programme The ''Buran'' programme (, , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as the "VKK Space Orbiter programme" (), was a Soviet and later Russian reusable spacecraft project that began in 1974 at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Moscow and w ...
initial development of the 11D77 —the launch vehicle later known as Zenit—,
KBKhA Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (CADB), also KB Khimavtomatika (, KBKhA), is a Russian OKB, design bureau founded by the NKAP (People's Commissariat of the Aircraft Industry) in 1941 and led by Semyon Kosberg until his death in 1965. Its origi ...
had been assigned the development of the second stage engine, as they had done for the
Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...
and
Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...
vehicles. But given the difficulties for NPO Energomash in developing the RD-123 (which would later be known as the RD-170), they ceded the hydrogen / oxygen sustainer engine development to KBKhA. This project, the analog of the
SSME The RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is used on the Space Launch System. Designed and manufactured in the United States by Rocketd ...
, was project RD-130 within NPO Energomash. But when KBKhA tackled the development, named it RD-''0''120, a name that is always a source of confusion with the engine of the current article. In exchange for them tackling the difficult development of the cryogenic propellant engine, Energomash assumed the responsibility of developing the second stage engine of the 11D77, which would eventually be known as the RD-120. The fact that the RD-120 and the RD-0120 had this intertwined conception, within the same program, and with a swap of designer bureaus, does not help to avoid the confusion. On March 16, 1976 the Government passed a resolution for the development of Zenit, the RD-171 and RD-120. By April 1976, Yuzhnoye supplied NPO Energomash with the final requirements for the 11D77 first and second stage propulsion. One of the desirable effects of consolidating the first and second stage propulsion on the same designer, was that they could learn their lessons on staged combustion engines on the smaller and simpler upper stage engine, and then apply them to the bigger and more innovative first stage RD-170. NPO Energomash, had already worked on a prototype kerosene / oxygen staged combustion engine in that range, based on the RD-268 hypergolic engine, which was already under serial production with
Yuzhmash The State Enterprise "Production Amalgamation 'Southern Machine-Building Plant named after O.M. Makarov'", officially abbreviated as Pivdenmash () and previously as Yuzhmash (), is a Ukrainian state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer. ...
. In February, 1977, the preliminary design of the RD-120 was finished. And on January 31, 1979 the first fire test of the RD-120 was performed. The RD-120 had a complicated debut, with the second stage failing on its first (April 13, 1985), second (June 21, 1985) and fourth (December 28, 1985) flights. While only the first failure could be attributed to the RD-120 —the propellant flow regulator had a leak and the stage ran out of propellant before being orbital—, the program initial performance was quite troubling. Eventually it proved its worth, and by December 1987 the RD-120 (and the Zenit) were considered commissioned. But in the years of the Soviet dissolution, the second stage failed twice in a row on August 30, 1991 and February 5, 1992. Zenit had other second stage failures, but only the first one has ever been attributed directly to the RD-120 itself. During 1990, the NPO Energomash Head of the Propulsion Department, and leading designer, V.K.Chvanov, was awarded the State Prize for the creation of RD-120. In October 1992,
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...
signed an agreement with NPO Energomash to sale and represent their line of engine in the United States. During the initial version of the X-34 program, the one trying to develop a reusable launch vehicle for small payloads through a public/private association, the RD-120 was seriously considered for the 747 air-launched first stage. The RD-120 offered the best price and performance, and was the preferred choice of
Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...
. In fact, on October 11, 1995, the RD-120 was fired on the U.S. and thus became the first Russian rocket engine actively in production to be fired in American soil. This version of the engine, would mainly differ from the Zenit in the addition of a
gimbal 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 ...
mount that would enable it to offer TVC. This version would be known as the RD-120M. The second private partner in the X-34 program,
Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...
, wanted to use their own engine, the
RS-27 The RS-27 (Rocket System-27) was a liquid-propellant rocket engine developed in 1974 by Rocketdyne to replace the aging Rocketdyne S-3D, MB-3 in the Delta. Incorporating components of the venerable MB-3 and the Rocketdyne H-1, H-1 designs, the ...
. And given the constrained schedule and budget of the program, the engine selection was not able to be resolved and the program cancelled and reimplemented as the pure NASA research program that the X-34 was later known for. Also during the 1990s, the Chinese acquired two or three models of the RD-120, and possibly some documentation. This enabled them to bootstrap their indigenous kerosene staged combustion engine program, the YF-100 and YF-115. The RD-120 had significant margins built in, which allowed between 2001 and 2003 to develop a modernized 'Uprated' or 'Forced' version of the engine for
Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial l ...
which increased thrust 10% to . It also incorporated many improvements, which allowed it to increase chamber pressure and thrust without additional weight gain. It still has a 5% extra margin, extended the design life to 4260 seconds, the number of ignitions to 19 and allows to consider it as a base for a reusable rocket, the engine is still not capable of restarting inflight. After a program that used 4 test engines and performed 28 hot fire tests with an accumulated running time of 8,135 seconds, the engine was qualified for flight. Testing started in March 2004 and it had its debut flight on February 15, 2006 where it successfully orbited EchoStar X.


Versions

This engine has had two operative versions and some proposed variations: * RD-120 (
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 11D123): Original version developed for the
Zenit-2 The Zenit-2 was a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with 6 failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets and was designed by the Yuzhmash. History With 13� ...
second stage. The main characteristics is that it uses a vertical turbopump, since the fuel tank is a torus and the engine has to fit in the center hole. * RD-120 (augmented thrust) (
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 11D123): Thrust augmented version developed for the
Zenit-3SL The Zenit-3SL was an expendable carrier rocket operated by Sea Launch. First flown in 1999, it was launched 36 times, with three failures and one partial failure. It was a member of the Zenit family of rockets, and is built by the Yuzhnoye Des ...
second stage. Some authors identified it as the RD-120M (
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 11D123M). * RD-120K: Project of unknown first stage project. Had reduced expansion area and the subsystem arrangements was done to reduce total length. It had enough development done that it actually performed some fire tests. * RD-120M: Version proposed for the X-34 program. It added a gimbaled mount, and was test fired in the USA. * RD-120U: Version proposed for the ULV-22. * RD-146 * RD-182:
Methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...
/ LOX version of the RD-120K. Proposed for the Riksha launch vehicle project for the
Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau The JSC Makeyev Design Bureau (; also known as Makeyev OKB) is a Russian missile design company located in Miass, Russia. Established in December 1947 as SKB-385 in Zlatoust (see Zlatoust Machine-Building Plant), the company was the main designe ...
. * RD-182M: LNG / LOX version of the RD-182. Proposed for the Vozdushnyy Start launch vehicle project. * RD-870: Ukrainian version of RD-120K with Russian-produced combustion chamber replaced with modified
RD-263 The RD-263 (, GRAU index: 15D117) is a liquid-fuel rocket engine, burning a Hypergolic propellant, hypergolic mixture of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) fuel with dinitrogen tetroxide () oxidizer in the Staged combustion cycle (rocket), oxi ...
engines from stocks, being developed by
Yuzhnoye 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 de ...
for use in the first stage of
Cyclone-4M The Cyclone-4M is a Ukrainian carrier rocket which is being developed for commercial satellite launches. History The Cyclone-4M is derived from the Tsyklon-4, which started its life as an all-hypergolic three-stage-to-orbit expendable launch ...
SLV.


Technological derivatives

Not considering straight variations of the RD-120, this very influential engine has been the foundations of many engines spanning derivatives in four countries. The Ukrainian RD-801 and RD-810, the Chinese YF-100 and YF-115, as well as the Indian SCE-200 can be traced directly back to the RD-120. The Soviet/Russian RD-170 family of engines base developed on the lessons learned from the RD-120 project.


RD-170 family

As stated in the History section, the RD-120 was used as the first practical application of the oxidizer rich staged combustion with
kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...
propellant at
NPO Energomash NPO Energomash "V. P. Glushko" is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and produces Liquid rocket engine, liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the OKB, Soviet design bureau OKB-456, w ...
, before tackling the RD-170. So, while this later family of engines have more aggressive performance parameters and the original project (the RD-123) predates the RD-120, it was indeed the first actual design of the series development.


RD-801 and RD-810

While Yuzhnoye 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. The ...
s engines, like the RD-855 or
RD-861 The RD-861 () is a Soviet liquid propellant rocket engine burning a hypergolic mixture of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) fuel with dinitrogen tetroxide () oxidizer in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has a main combustion chamber, wi ...
, they were considered too toxic for modern ecological standards. While they still offer to develop hypergolic propulsion, like in the case of the RD-843 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, and ...
's
AVUM Vega (, , ) was a European expendable small-lift launch vehicle developed by Avio and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Designed to carry payloads between into low Earth and pol ...
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, for the
Mayak The Mayak Production Association (, , from 'lighthouse') is one of the largest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation, housing Production reactor, production reactors (''non'' electricity) and a reprocessing plant. The closest settlement ...
launch vehicle family a more environmentally friendly LOX and
kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...
propellant was decided. 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 rocket engine, liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the OKB, Soviet design bureau OKB-456, w ...
during the RD-120 program. The manufacturing is done at its sister company of
Yuzhmash The State Enterprise "Production Amalgamation 'Southern Machine-Building Plant named after O.M. Makarov'", officially abbreviated as Pivdenmash () and previously as Yuzhmash (), is a Ukrainian state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer. ...
in
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, 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. The RD-805 and RD-809 are mostly modifications of the RD-8, but the RD-801 and the RD-810 members of the family can be considered true descendants of the RD-120. One characteristic of this family is the limitation of keeping the preburner output temperature below .


SCE-200

On June 2, 2005, India and
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
signed the ''Framework Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of India on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space'', which would enter in force on February 15, 2006. According to official press release on March 26, 2013 by Ukrainian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, development of a rocket engine for Indian launch vehicles initiated in 2006 under a joint Indian-Ukrainian project named "Jasmine". The engine blue prints supposedly transferred by Ukraine to India, have been identified as the RD-810. Since the transfer specifically excluded engineering analysis methods and software, the Indians did, in fact, had to develop most technologies and engineering models to manufacture and certify the engine. Given the practically identical specifications to the RD-810, and the fact that even the Indians used the Yuzhnoye renders of the engine in their presentations, it can be considered at least heavily influenced by the RD-120.


YF-100 and YF-115

During the 1990s, the Chinese acquired two or three models of the RD-120, and possibly some documentation. This enabled them to bootstrap their indigenous kerosene staged combustion engine program, the YF-100 and YF-115. As was the same case with the Indians and the RD-810, the transfer of the physical engines and blue prints only help in the development. But the development required ten years of research, requiring the mastering of 70 key technologies, the development of 50 new materials and the construction of 61 sets of engines with a combined total of more than 40,000 seconds of ignition time by 2013.


Derivatives comparison


See also

*
NPO Energomash NPO Energomash "V. P. Glushko" is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and produces Liquid rocket engine, liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the OKB, Soviet design bureau OKB-456, w ...
– Engine designer. *
Yuzhmash The State Enterprise "Production Amalgamation 'Southern Machine-Building Plant named after O.M. Makarov'", officially abbreviated as Pivdenmash () and previously as Yuzhmash (), is a Ukrainian state-owned aerospace and defence manufacturer. ...
– Engine manufacturer. * Zenit – Launch vehicle that used the RD-120 as second stage. * YF-100 – Chinese engine that supposedly is based on the RD-120 technology. * RD-810 – Ukrainian engine based on the RD-120 technology. * SCE-200 – Indian engine supposedly based on RD-120 technology.


References


Notes

{{Russian and Soviet military designation sequences


External links


NPO Energia RD-120 pageYuzhmash RD-120 page
Rocket engines of Russia Rocket engines of the Soviet Union Rocket engines using kerosene propellant Rocket engines using the staged combustion cycle Energomash rocket engines Yuzhmash rocket engines