In which city are rockets produced? Space rocket: types, technical characteristics. The first space rockets and astronauts. Samara is the capital of the Russian rocket and space industry

This article will introduce the reader to such an interesting topic as the space rocket, launch vehicle and all the useful experience that this invention has brought to humanity. It will also talk about payloads delivered into outer space. Space exploration began not so long ago. In the USSR it was the middle of the third five-year plan, when the Second World War ended. The space rocket was developed in many countries, but even the United States failed to overtake us at that stage.

First

The first successful launch to leave the USSR was a space launch vehicle with an artificial satellite on board on October 4, 1957. The PS-1 satellite was successfully launched into low-Earth orbit. It should be noted that this required the creation of six generations, and only the seventh generation of Russian space rockets were able to develop the speed required to enter near-Earth space - eight kilometers per second. Otherwise, it is impossible to overcome the gravity of the Earth.

This became possible in the process of developing long-range ballistic weapons, where engine boost was used. It should not be confused: a space rocket and a spaceship are two different things. The rocket is a delivery vehicle, and the ship is attached to it. Instead, there can be anything there - a space rocket can carry a satellite, equipment, and a nuclear warhead, which has always served and still serves as a deterrent for nuclear powers and an incentive to preserve peace.

Story

The first to theoretically substantiate the launch of a space rocket were Russian scientists Meshchersky and Tsiolkovsky, who already in 1897 described the theory of its flight. Much later, this idea was picked up by Oberth and von Braun from Germany and Goddard from the USA. It was in these three countries that work began on the problems of jet propulsion, the creation of solid fuel and liquid jet engines. These issues were best resolved in Russia; at least solid fuel engines were already widely used in World War II (Katyusha engines). Liquid jet engines were better developed in Germany, which created the first ballistic missile, the V-2.

After the war, Wernher von Braun's team, taking the drawings and developments, found shelter in the USA, and the USSR was forced to be content with a small number of individual rocket components without any accompanying documentation. The rest we came up with ourselves. Rocket technology developed rapidly, increasingly increasing the range and weight of the load carried. In 1954, work began on the project, thanks to which the USSR was able to be the first to fly a space rocket. It was an R-7 intercontinental two-stage ballistic missile, which was soon upgraded for space. It turned out to be a success - extremely reliable, securing many records in space exploration. It is still used in its modernized form.

"Sputnik" and "Moon"

In 1957, the first space rocket - the same R-7 - launched the artificial Sputnik 1 into orbit. The United States decided to repeat such a launch a little later. However, in the first attempt, their space rocket did not go into space; it exploded at the start - even on live television. "Vanguard" was designed by a purely American team, and it did not live up to expectations. Then Wernher von Braun took up the project, and in February 1958 the launch of the space rocket was a success. Meanwhile, in the USSR the R-7 was modernized - a third stage was added to it. As a result, the speed of the space rocket became completely different - a second cosmic speed was achieved, thanks to which it became possible to leave the Earth's orbit. For several more years, the R-7 series was modernized and improved. The engines of space rockets were changed, and a lot of experiments were done with the third stage. The next attempts were successful. The speed of the space rocket made it possible not only to leave the Earth’s orbit, but also to think about studying other planets in the solar system.

But at first, mankind's attention was almost completely focused on the Earth's natural satellite - the Moon. In 1959, the Soviet space station Luna 1 flew to it, which was supposed to make a hard landing on the lunar surface. However, due to insufficiently accurate calculations, the device passed a little past (six thousand kilometers) and rushed towards the Sun, where it settled into orbit. This is how our star got its first artificial satellite - an accidental gift. But our natural satellite was not alone for long, and in the same 1959, Luna-2 flew to it, having completed its task absolutely correctly. A month later, Luna 3 delivered us photographs of the far side of our night star. And in 1966, Luna 9 softly landed right in the Ocean of Storms, and we received panoramic views of the lunar surface. The lunar program continued for a long time, until the time when American astronauts landed on it.

Yuri Gagarin

April 12 has become one of the most significant days in our country. It is impossible to convey the power of the people's jubilation, pride, and truly happiness when the world's first human flight into space was announced. Yuri Gagarin became not only a national hero, he was applauded by the whole world. And therefore, April 12, 1961, a day that triumphantly went down in history, became Cosmonautics Day. The Americans urgently tried to respond to this unprecedented step in order to share space glory with us. A month later, Alan Shepard took off, but the ship did not go into orbit; it was a suborbital flight in an arc, and the United States succeeded in orbital flight only in 1962.

Gagarin flew into space on the Vostok spacecraft. This is a special machine in which Korolev created an extremely successful space platform that solves many different practical problems. At the same time, at the very beginning of the sixties, not only a manned version of space flight was being developed, but a photo reconnaissance project was also completed. "Vostok" generally had many modifications - more than forty. And today satellites from the Bion series are in operation - these are direct descendants of the ship on which the first manned flight into space was made. In the same 1961, German Titov had a much more complex expedition, who spent the whole day in space. The United States was able to repeat this achievement only in 1963.

"East"

An ejection seat was provided for cosmonauts on all Vostok spacecraft. This was a wise decision, since a single device performed tasks both at the launch (emergency rescue of the crew) and the soft landing of the descent module. Designers focused their efforts on developing one device rather than two. This reduced the technical risk; in aviation, the catapult system at that time was already well developed. On the other hand, there is a huge gain in time than if you design a completely new device. After all, the space race continued, and the USSR won it by a fairly large margin.

Titov landed in the same way. He was lucky to parachute near the railway along which the train was traveling, and was immediately photographed by journalists. The landing system, which has become the most reliable and softest, was developed in 1965 and uses a gamma altimeter. She still serves today. The USA did not have this technology, which is why all of their descent vehicles, even the new SpaceX Dragons, do not land, but splash down. Only shuttles are an exception. And in 1962, the USSR already began group flights on the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft. In 1963, the first woman joined the corps of Soviet cosmonauts - Valentina Tereshkova went into space, becoming the first in the world. At the same time, Valery Bykovsky set a record for the duration of a single flight that has not yet been broken - he stayed in space for five days. In 1964, the multi-seat Voskhod ship appeared, and the United States was a whole year behind. And in 1965, Alexey Leonov went into outer space!

"Venus"

In 1966, the USSR began interplanetary flights. The Venera 3 spacecraft made a hard landing on a neighboring planet and delivered there the Earth's globe and the USSR pennant. In 1975, Venera 9 managed to make a soft landing and transmit an image of the planet's surface. And "Venera-13" took color panoramic photographs and sound recordings. The AMS series (automatic interplanetary stations) for studying Venus, as well as the surrounding outer space, continues to be improved even now. The conditions on Venus are harsh, and there was practically no reliable information about them; the developers knew nothing about the pressure or temperature on the surface of the planet, all this, naturally, complicated the research.

The first series of descent vehicles even knew how to swim - just in case. Nevertheless, at first the flights were not successful, but later the USSR was so successful in Venusian wanderings that this planet began to be called Russian. "Venera-1" is the first spacecraft in human history designed to fly to other planets and explore them. It was launched in 1961, but a week later the connection was lost due to sensor overheating. The station became uncontrollable and was only able to make the world's first flyby near Venus (at a distance of about one hundred thousand kilometers).

In the footsteps

"Venera-4" helped us find out that on this planet there are two hundred and seventy-one degrees in the shadow (the night side of Venus), a pressure of up to twenty atmospheres, and the atmosphere itself is ninety percent carbon dioxide. This spacecraft also discovered a hydrogen corona. "Venera-5" and "Venera-6" told us a lot about the solar wind (plasma flows) and its structure near the planet. "Venera-7" clarified data on temperature and pressure in the atmosphere. Everything turned out to be even more complicated: the temperature closer to the surface was 475 ± 20°C, and the pressure was an order of magnitude higher. On the next spacecraft, literally everything was redone, and after one hundred and seventeen days, Venera-8 gently landed on the day side of the planet. This station had a photometer and many additional instruments. The main thing was the connection.

It turned out that the lighting on the nearest neighbor is almost no different from that on Earth - just like ours on a cloudy day. It’s not just cloudy there, the weather has really cleared up. The pictures of what the equipment saw simply stunned the earthlings. In addition, the soil and the amount of ammonia in the atmosphere were examined, and wind speed was measured. And “Venera-9” and “Venera-10” were able to show us the “neighbor” on TV. These are the world's first recordings transmitted from another planet. And these stations themselves are now artificial satellites of Venus. The last to fly to this planet were “Venera-15” and “Venera-16”, which also became satellites, having previously provided humanity with absolutely new and necessary knowledge. In 1985, the program was continued by Vega-1 and Vega-2, which studied not only Venus, but also Halley’s Comet. The next flight is planned for 2024.

Something about a space rocket

Since the parameters and technical characteristics of all rockets differ from each other, let us consider a new generation launch vehicle, for example Soyuz-2.1A. It is a three-stage medium-class rocket, a modified version of the Soyuz-U, which has been in operation very successfully since 1973.

This launch vehicle is designed to launch spacecraft. The latter may have military, economic and social purposes. This rocket can launch them into different types of orbits - geostationary, geostationary, sun-synchronous, highly elliptical, medium, low.

Modernization

The rocket is extremely modernized; a fundamentally different digital control system has been created here, developed on a new domestic element base, with a high-speed on-board digital computer with a much larger amount of RAM. The digital control system provides the rocket with high-precision launch of payloads.

In addition, engines have been installed on which the injector heads of the first and second stages have been improved. A different telemetry system is in effect. Thus, the accuracy of the missile launch, its stability and, of course, controllability have increased. The mass of the space rocket did not increase, but the useful payload increased by three hundred kilograms.

Specifications

The first and second stages of the launch vehicle are equipped with liquid rocket engines RD-107A and RD-108A from NPO Energomash named after Academician Glushko, and the third stage is equipped with a four-chamber RD-0110 from the Khimavtomatika Design Bureau. Rocket fuel is liquid oxygen, which is an environmentally friendly oxidizing agent, as well as slightly toxic fuel - kerosene. The length of the rocket is 46.3 meters, the weight at launch is 311.7 tons, and without the warhead - 303.2 tons. The mass of the launch vehicle structure is 24.4 tons. The fuel components weigh 278.8 tons. Flight tests of Soyuz-2.1A began in 2004 at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, and they were successful. In 2006, the launch vehicle made its first commercial flight - it launched the European meteorological spacecraft Metop into orbit.

It must be said that rockets have different payload launch capabilities. There are light, medium and heavy carriers. The Rokot launch vehicle, for example, launches spacecraft into low-Earth orbits - up to two hundred kilometers, and therefore can carry a load of 1.95 tons. But the Proton is a heavy class, it can launch 22.4 tons into a low orbit, 6.15 tons into a geostationary orbit, and 3.3 tons into a geostationary orbit. The launch vehicle we are considering is intended for all sites used by Roscosmos: Kourou, Baikonur, Plesetsk, Vostochny, and operates within the framework of joint Russian-European projects.

The opportunity presented itself to be at an enterprise where rocket engines were created and are being created, which supported almost the entire Soviet space program, and now they support the Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even the American one. Meet NPO Energomash, which recently joined the United Rocket and Space Corporation of Russia, the place where the best and most powerful liquid rocket engines in the world are made.
These words are not pathos. Judge for yourself: here, in Khimki near Moscow, engines for the Soviet-Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets were developed; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian Zenit and Dnepr; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first…

After checking the passport and the arrival of the accompanying person, we move from the entrance to the plant museum, or as it is called here, the “Demonstration Hall”.


The keeper of the hall, Vladimir Sudakov, is the head of the Information Department. Apparently, he copes with his duties well - he was the only one of all my interlocutors who knew who “Zelenyikot” was.


Vladimir gave a short but informative tour of the museum.


Do you see a 7 cm spray gun on the table? This is where the entire Soviet and Russian space grew from.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, the head there was Valentin Petrovich Glushko, who later became the general designer of NPO Energomash.
The disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spaceship. Solar panels were supposed to be placed on the disk. In the background are the first models of liquid rocket engines developed by GDL.
Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. real work began with government funding. Here the GDL already worked together with the Royal GIRD. During wartime, rocket boosters for serial military aircraft were developed at Sharashka. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid engine construction.
But the whole weather was ruined by the Germans, who created the first ballistic missile A4, better known in Russia as the V-2.
Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.
First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using entirely Soviet materials. During this period, our engineers were still helped by the Germans. But they tried to keep them away from secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.

First of all, the engineers began to boost and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.


But then problems arose of instability of fuel combustion in a larger spherical combustion chamber. Glushko realized that this was a dead end and began developing engines with a cylindrical chamber.
The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided the Soviet Union with primacy in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned space exploration to this day.


Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.

In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply deflect the engine's main chamber as a whole. The problems with combustion instability were never completely resolved, which is why most engines designed by the Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.


In the hall there is only one single-chamber giant, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing version NK-33 for the N1 rocket won.

The difference is that N1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, and Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. This mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this in no way prevents China from now launching its taikonauts using just such a mixture.
You can also look at the Proton engine.

And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in the Voevoda missiles, widely known under the NATO name “Satan”.


However, now they are also launched under the name “Dnepr” for peaceful purposes.
Finally we get to the pearl of the Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.

Today it is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. It surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, versus one in the F-1.
RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project as side booster engines. According to the original design, the boosters were reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times of use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities.
After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket. In Soviet times, it, like the Voevoda, was developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, which ended up abroad after the collapse of the USSR. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, the Sea Launch project began to be implemented jointly with the United States and Norway. Although it never reached profitability, it underwent reorganization and now its future fate is being decided, but the rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space poverty in the 90s and early 2000s.
How to achieve mobility of the assembly at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, it’s a bullshit question: just 12 layers of metal and additional armor rings, fill between the layers with liquid oxygen - and there are no problems...
This design allows you to rigidly mount the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle using a gimbal. On the engine it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with the red plugs.


Americans like to repeat about their space: “We stand on the shoulders of giants.” Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase entirely applies to Russian cosmonautics. The same “Angara”, although the brainchild of Russian designers, but its engine - RD-191, goes back evolutionarily to the RD-171.


In the same way, the “half” of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American space program when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked whether there was a propaganda element to this victory - could the Americans have entered into a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space? They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the astonished eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the characteristics of the RD-180 were almost twice those of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power/weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.
Here in the video of testing the Merlin-1D engine you can see a stream of generator gas gushing from a tube next to the nozzle:
Finally, the end of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is being considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Sciences, which needed a replacement for the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket accident in October.

At the factory, this trinity RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called “liter”, “half liter” and “quarter”.

There are a lot of interesting things at the plant, and the main thing was to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a bunch of steel and aluminum blanks.

LAUNCHER "SOYUZ-U"

The Soyuz-U unified medium-class launch vehicle (LV) was developed on the basis of the Soyuz LV and has been in operation since 1973. Designed for launching into low-Earth orbit transport ships under the International Space Station program, as well as automatic spacecraft of various types. The launch vehicle was developed and produced by JSC RCC Progress (Samara). The Soyuz-U launch vehicle is the undisputed world leader among medium-class launch vehicles in terms of the number of launches and reliability.

• universal launch vehicle for performing various tasks;
• environmentally friendly fuel components - kerosene and liquid oxygen;
• world leader in the number of launches and reliability, more than 800 launches have been carried out (Soyuz-U and Soyuz-U2) - reliability 97.3%.

Soyuz-U launch vehicle

Structurally, the Soyuz-U launch vehicle is made according to the scheme of longitudinal-transverse division of rocket stages. At the first stage of the flight, the engines of the four side blocks and the central block work; at the second stage, after the separation of the side blocks, only the engine of the central block works.

The tail compartment of each side block houses an autonomous liquid four-chamber single-shot rocket engine RD-118, equipped with two steering nozzles.

The central block of the second stage uses a four-chamber RD-117 rocket engine with four steering nozzles. The launch of the liquid-propellant rocket engine of the central and side blocks is carried out on Earth, which makes it possible to control the operation of the engines in the transient mode and, if malfunctions occur during launch, to cancel the rocket launch. This significantly increases the safety of spacecraft launches to the ISS.

The third stage uses the RD-0110 propulsion system, consisting of a four-chamber single-start engine and four rotary steering nozzles (used to control flight along three axes). After the third stage engine is turned off and the space head is separated, the third stage performs an escape maneuver.

Launch complex of the Soyuz launch vehicle

The complex at BAIKONUR is designed for pre-launch preparation and launches of a medium-class Soyuz-type launch vehicle with various spacecraft. The main developer of the launch complex (SC) is a branch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "TsENKI" - Research Institute of SC.

The launch complex, created in 1957 in an unusually short time for the R-7 ICBM (the prototype of the Soyuz launch vehicle), was subsequently repeatedly modified in connection with the modernization of the rocket itself. The launch complex was successfully used to launch the first intercontinental ballistic missile, the first artificial Earth satellite, the first cosmonaut in the history of mankind - Yu.A. Gagarin, spacecraft "Vostok", "Voskhod", "Soyuz", spacecraft launched to the Moon, Mars , Venus. For various sectors of the economy and to meet government needs, satellites for television broadcasting, communications, photography of the Earth's surface, weather forecasting, biological research were launched from the launch complexes of Soyuz launch vehicles, and work was also carried out with foreign companies in the field of biotechnology and space exploration.

Until 2012, launches of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle were also carried out from the launch complex of the PLESETSK cosmodrome.

Main characteristics of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle

Meet NPO Energomash, which recently joined the United Rocket and Space Corporation of Russia. This is where the best and most powerful liquid rocket engines in the world are made. They pulled almost the entire Soviet space program, and now they pull the Russian, Ukrainian, South Korean and, in part, even the American one.

Here, in Khimki near Moscow, engines for the Soviet-Russian Soyuz and Proton rockets were developed; for the Russian "Angara"; for the Soviet-Ukrainian Zenit and Dnepr; for the South Korean KSLV-1 and for the American Atlas-5 rocket. But first things first...

1. After checking the passport and the arrival of the accompanying person, we move from the entrance to the plant museum, or as it is called here, the “Demonstration Hall”.

3. Vladimir gave a short but informative tour of the museum.

Do you see a 7 cm spray gun on the table? This is where the entire Soviet and Russian space grew from.
NPO Energomash developed from a small group of rocket science enthusiasts, formed in 1921, and in 1929 called the Gas Dynamic Laboratory, the head there was Valentin Petrovich Glushko, who later became the general designer of NPO Energomash.

The disk with a sphere in the center is not a model of the solar system, as I thought, but a model of an electric rocket spaceship. Solar panels were supposed to be placed on the disk. In the background are the first models of liquid rocket engines developed by GDL.

Behind the first concepts of the 20-30s. real work began with government funding. Here the GDL already worked together with the Royal GIRD. During wartime, rocket boosters for serial military aircraft were developed at Sharashka. They created a whole line of engines, and believed that they were one of the world leaders in liquid engine construction.

But the whole weather was ruined by the Germans, who created the first ballistic missile A4, better known in Russia as the V-2.

Its engine was more than an order of magnitude superior to Soviet designs (25 tons versus 900 kg), and after the war, engineers began to catch up.

4. First, they created a complete replica of the A4 called R-1, but using entirely Soviet materials. During this period, our engineers were still helped by the Germans. But they tried to keep them away from secret developments, so ours continued to work on their own.

5. First of all, the engineers began to boost and lighten the German design, and achieved considerable success in this - the thrust increased to 51 tf.

6. The first developments with a new type of combustion chamber were military. In the showroom they are hidden in the farthest and darkest corner. And in the light - the pride - the RD-107 and RD-108 engines, which provided the Soviet Union with primacy in space, and allow Russia to lead in manned space exploration to this day.

7. Vladimir Sudakov shows steering cameras - additional rocket engines that allow you to control the flight.

8. In further developments, such a design was abandoned - they decided to simply deflect the engine’s main chamber as a whole. The problems with combustion instability were never completely resolved, which is why most engines designed by the Glushko Design Bureau are multi-chamber.

9. In the hall there is only one single-chamber giant, which was developed for the lunar program, but never went into production - the competing version NK-33 for the N1 rocket won.

The difference is that N1 was launched on an oxygen-kerosene mixture, and Glushko was ready to launch people on dimethylhydrazine-nitrogen tetroxide. This mixture is more effective, but much more toxic than kerosene. In Russia, only the cargo Proton flies on it. However, this in no way prevents China from now launching its taikonauts using just such a mixture.

10. You can also look at the Proton engine.

11. And the engine for the R-36M ballistic missile is still on combat duty in the Voevoda missiles, widely known under the NATO name “Satan”.

However, now they are also launched under the name “Dnepr” for peaceful purposes.

12. Finally we get to the pearl of the Glushko Design Bureau and the pride of NPO Energomash - the RD-170/171 engine.

Today it is the most powerful oxygen-kerosene engine in the world - a thrust of 800 tf. It surpasses the American lunar F-1 by 100 tf, but achieves this due to four combustion chambers, versus one in the F-1.

RD-170 was developed for the Energia-Buran project as side booster engines. According to the original design, the boosters were reusable, so the engines were designed and certified for ten times of use. Unfortunately, the return of the boosters was never implemented, but the engines retain their capabilities.

After the closure of the Buran program, the RD-170 was more fortunate than the lunar F-1 - it found a more utilitarian application in the Zenit rocket. In Soviet times, it, like the Voevoda, was developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, which ended up abroad after the collapse of the USSR. But in the 90s, politics did not interfere with Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, and by 1995, the Sea Launch project began to be implemented jointly with the United States and Norway. Although it never reached profitability, it underwent reorganization and now its future fate is being decided, but the rockets flew and orders for engines supported Energomash during the years of space poverty in the 90s and early 2000s.

13. How to achieve mobility of the unit at high pressures and extreme temperatures? Yes, it’s a bullshit question: just 12 layers of metal and additional armor rings, fill between the layers with liquid oxygen - and there are no problems...

This design allows you to rigidly mount the engine, but control the flight by deflecting the combustion chamber and nozzle using a gimbal. On the engine it is visible just below and to the right of center, above the panel with the red plugs.

14. Americans like to repeat about their space: “We stand on the shoulders of giants.” Looking at such creations of Soviet engineers, you understand that this phrase entirely applies to Russian cosmonautics. Even though the Angara is the brainchild of Russian designers, its engine, the RD-191, goes back evolutionarily to the RD-171.

In the same way, the “half” of the RD-171, called the RD-180, made its contribution to the American space program when Energomash won the Lockheed Martin competition in 1995. I asked whether there was a propaganda element to this victory - could the Americans have entered into a contract with the Russians to demonstrate the end of the era of rivalry and the beginning of cooperation in space? They didn’t answer me, but they told me about the astonished eyes of American customers when they saw the creations of the gloomy Khimki genius. According to rumors, the characteristics of the RD-180 were almost twice those of its competitors. The reason is that the United States has never mastered closed-cycle rocket engines. In principle, it is possible without it, the same F-1 was with an open cycle or Merlin from SpaceX. But in the power/weight ratio, closed-cycle engines win, although they lose in price.

Here in the video of testing the Merlin-1D engine you can see a stream of generator gas gushing from a tube next to the nozzle:

15. Finally, the end of the exposition is the hope of the enterprise - the RD-191 engine. This is the youngest model of the family so far. It was created for the Angara rocket, managed to work in the Korean KSLV-1, and is being considered as one of the options by the American company Orbital Sciences, which needed a replacement for the Samara NK-33 after the Antares rocket accident in October.

16. At the factory, this trinity RD-170, RD-180, RD-191 is jokingly called “liter”, “half liter” and “quarter”.

17. There are a lot of interesting things at the plant, and the main thing was to see how such a miracle of engineering is created from a bunch of steel and aluminum blanks.

A Brief History of Rockets

The general principle of jet flight, which formed the basis of all rockets, is simple - some part is separated from the body, setting everything else in motion.

It is unknown who was the first to implement this principle, but various guesses and conjectures bring the genealogy of rocket science right back to Archimedes. What is known for certain about the first such inventions is that they were actively used by the Chinese, who loaded them with gunpowder and launched them into the sky due to the explosion. Thus they created the first solid fuel rockets. European governments showed great interest in missiles early

Second rocket boom

Rockets waited in the wings and waited: in the 1920s, the second rocket boom began, and it is associated primarily with two names.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, a self-taught scientist from the Ryazan province, despite difficulties and obstacles, himself reached many discoveries, without which it would have been impossible to even talk about space. The idea of ​​using liquid fuel, Tsiolkovsky’s formula, which calculates the speed required for flight based on the ratio of the final and initial masses, a multi-stage rocket - all this is his merit. Largely under the influence of his works, domestic rocket science was created and formalized. In the Soviet Union, societies and circles for the study of jet propulsion began to spontaneously arise, including GIRD - a group for the study of jet propulsion, and in 1933, under the patronage of the authorities, the Jet Institute appeared.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky.
Source: Wikimedia.org

The second hero of the rocket race is the German physicist Wernher von Braun. Brown had an excellent education and a lively mind, and after meeting another luminary of world rocket science, Heinrich Oberth, he decided to put all his efforts into creating and improving rockets. During World War II, von Braun actually became the father of the Reich's “weapon of retaliation” - the V-2 rocket, which the Germans began using on the battlefield in 1944. The “winged horror,” as it was called in the press, brought destruction to many English cities, but, fortunately, at that time the collapse of Nazism was already a matter of time. Wernher von Braun, together with his brother, decided to surrender to the Americans, and, as history has shown, this was a lucky ticket not only and not so much for scientists, but for the Americans themselves. Since 1955, Brown has worked for the American government, and his inventions form the basis of the US space program.

But let's go back to the 1930s. The Soviet government appreciated the zeal of enthusiasts on the path to space and decided to use it in its own interests. During the war years, the Katyusha, a multiple launch rocket system that fired rockets, showed its worth. It was in many ways an innovative weapon: the Katyusha, based on a Studebaker light truck, arrived, turned around, fired at the sector and left, not allowing the Germans to come to their senses.

The end of the war presented our leadership with a new task: the Americans demonstrated to the world the full power of the nuclear bomb, and it became quite obvious that only those who have something similar can claim the status of a superpower. But there was a problem. The fact is that, in addition to the bomb itself, we needed delivery vehicles that could bypass US air defense. Airplanes were not suitable for this. And the USSR decided to rely on missiles.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky died in 1935, but he was replaced by a whole generation of young scientists who sent man into space. Among these scientists was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, who was destined to become the Soviets' "trump card" in the space race.

The USSR set about creating its intercontinental missile with all zeal: institutes were organized, the best scientists were gathered, a missile research institute was being created in Podlipki near Moscow, and work was in full swing.

Only a colossal effort of effort, resources and minds allowed the Soviet Union to build its own rocket, which was called the R-7, in the shortest possible time. It was its modifications that launched Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into space, and it was Sergei Korolev and his associates who launched the space age of mankind. But what does a space rocket consist of?