RD-0124


The RD-0124 is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in a staged combustion cycle. RD-0124 engines are used on the Soyuz-2.1b and Soyuz-2-1v. A slight variation of the engine, the RD-0124A, is used on the Angara rocket family URM-2 upper stage. RD-0124 is developed by Chemical Automatics Design Bureau.

Design

RD-0124 engines use a multi-stage turbopump powered by pre-combustion of the engine propellants in the preburner. The kerosene fuel is used for regenerative cooling of the engine. Vehicle attitude control during ascent is provided by gimbaling the engine in two planes. The propellant tanks are helium-pressurized. Four combustion chambers are fed by a single turbopump system. The engine operates at a high chamber pressure and, for the type of propellants used, achieves a very high specific impulse of nearly 360 seconds in vacuum - a specific impulse that can only be exceeded by hydrolox rockets like the RS-25, and by the next-generation methalox rockets like the Raptor engine.

History

The inaugural flight of a launch vehicle using an RD-0124 engine took place on December 27, 2006.
Orbital Sciences considered using the RD-0124 in the High Energy Second Stage for their Antares rocket. It would have replaced the Castor 30B second stage.

Versions

This upper stage engine has been adapted to two different launch vehicles, the Soyuz-2-1b/v and the Angara family. As such, there are different versions: