RD-100

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RD-100 engine (right) exhibited in the Artillery Military History Museum in Saint Petersburg

The RD-100 (from Russian Реактйвный двигатель , "Reaktiwny Dwigatel", in German: " reaction drive "; GRAU index 8D51) is a rocket engine that was produced in the Soviet Union immediately after the end of the Second World War . It is essentially a copy of the German A4 rocket engine. In comparison, the RD-100 was technically simpler, but more robust and reliable than the original.

The person responsible for developing this engine was Valentin Petrowitsch Gluschko , who was supported by a team of German engineers. It was a challenge to reproduce, with the limited resources available in the Soviet Union, the industrial requirements necessary to produce something so sophisticated. Since there was no equipment, everything had to be redesigned from scratch. The project was initiated in 1946. In mid-1947 the first RD-100 was ready. The first test run took place in May 1948. The R-1 rocket equipped with this engine entered regular service in 1950. Further developments were the units RD-101 and RD-103.

Technical specifications

  • Liquid rocket engine: liquid oxygen (LOX), 75% aqueous solution of ethanol
  • Mixing ratio LOX / ethanol: 1.28
  • Specific impulse : 237 s (vacuum), 1991 Ns / kg / 203 s (sea level)
  • Burning time: 65 s
  • Combustion chamber pressure: 1.62 MPa

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Russian space-rocket and missile liquid-propellant engines (English)
  2. ^ André T. Hensel: History of space travel to 1970: From the race into space to the moon landing. Springer-Verlag, 2019. p. 41.
  3. ↑ a b c d e RD-100 in the Encyclopedia Astronautica , accessed on April 24, 2020 (English).