The Energomash Research and Production Association handed over the RD-171MV engine to the Progress rocket and space center last year: there it is waiting for bench tests as part of the first stage of the Soyuz-5 launch vehicle.
The development of the new Soyuz-5 rocket has passed another important stage. The RD-171MV engine was transferred for tests as part of the carrier stage. This was reported by TASS with reference to the CEO of Energomash Igor Arbuzov.
As the CEO stated, all obligations to customers have been fulfilled. Arbuzov announced plans to deliver the engine in 2021 for testing as part of the rocket stage last January. It is worth saying that the RD-171MV already has tests behind its back: Roscosmos conducted the first fire tests of the engine back in 2020. All parameters of the product were normal.
RD-171MV was given the unofficial nickname "tsar-engine": it is positioned as the most powerful liquid rocket engine in the world. The novelty was developed by specialists of NPO Energomash: mainly in order to be used as part of the first stage of the Soyuz-5 medium-class launch vehicle, also known as the Irtysh.
They wanted to use the engine as part of the first stage of the promising superheavy Yenisei rocket. It is difficult to talk about the future of this carrier now. At various times, the media wrote about the revision of the appearance of the carrier and even about the possible rejection of the rocket.
Structurally, the RD-171MV became an upgraded version of the Russian RD-171M engine, which, in turn, was developed on the basis of the Soviet RD-170. The engine runs on oxygen-kerosene steam and has four combustion chambers.
Special attention has been focused on the Soyuz-5 rocket itself lately. Recently, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that during its first test launch in 2023, the Stork satellite will be launched into orbit, and not a mock-up of the spacecraft, as one might assume. In total, according to the flight test program, three launches of a new rocket will be carried out from the Baikonur cosmodrome in 2023-2025.
Soyuz-5
Image source: Roscosmos
In the future, Russian specialists will create an improved Fregat-SBU upper stage for the carrier, which will allow it to fully realize its capabilities. They want to prepare the block for flights in the middle of the decade.
