Annotation: Specialized design office for liquid engines was established on July 22, 1958 to develop engines and propulsion systems, powered by liquid propellants to be installed on the combat missile systems and integrated launch vehicles (LV), developed by Yuzhnoye SDO. Moreover, liquid engines design office was assigned with manufacturing and testing of the main rocket engines, developed by NPO Energomash and to be installed on Yuzhnoye-developed launch vehicles. Over the past 66 years Yuzhnoye SDO has developed more than 40 liquid rocket engines (LRE) of various purpose, designed both to gas-generator cycle and to staged combustion cycle. Seventeen of them were commercially produced by Yuzhmash PA and installed on launch vehicles. Nowadays Yuzhnoye propulsion experts keep working on development of the advanced liquid rocket engines powered both by cryogenic and hypergolic propellants, which satisfy the majority of launch service market demands. Within the framework of extensive cooperation with foreign space companies, on a contract basis, Yuzhnoye propulsion experts are working on the design and development testing of the liquid rocket engines, as well as their components. The accumulated vast experience in the development of liquid rocket engines nowadays enables high scientific and technical level in the creation of up-to-date engines, demanded in the world market. Significant steps in this area have been made by the experts from the Yuzhnoye propulsion division and then subsequent manufacture and delivery by Yuzhmash PA of the engine intended for the European rocket Vega Stage 4; and designing the individual components for the engines with thrusts ranging from 500 kgf to 200 tf ordered by foreign customers. This article provides the review of current and scheduled activities of the Yuzhnoye SDO to develop the liquid rocket engines within the thrust ranges from ~ 40 kgf to ~ 500 tf.

Annotation: The Ukrainian companies Yuzhnoye SDO and SE PA YMZ supply VG143 main engine assembly for Vega LV AVUM upper stage, which is a one-chamber LRE of 250 kg thrust with five ignitions in flight. By the present, 11 successful launches of Vega LV have been made. In the process of flight operation, there were no critical comments on engines operation. This LRE has a combination of attractive characteristics, such as high specific pulse, low mass, multiple ignitions in flight, high reliability confirmed by good results of flight test of the prototype engines. The reserve of this engine from the viewpoint of further modernization is far from being exhausted. Enhancing the capabilities of payload injection by launch vehicles into various orbits of artificial Earth satellites is the main task for the developers of ILV as a whole and for the developers of separate assemblies and systems, such as LRE being part of ILV. With consideration for the experience of prototype engines testing, we should note the following ways of main engine assembly modernization: – increasing the specific pulse due to the increase of nozzle expansion ratio; – decreasing the volume of internal manifolds and mass of chamber; – increasing the operation time; – increasing the ignitions number; – increasing the duration of pauses between ignitions and orbital functioning time. Increasing the thrust and specific pulse of Vega LV VG143 main engine assembly and AVUM stage takes place due to the use of pneumopump propellant feeding system instead of standard pressure feeding. Besides, the information is presented on RD859, RD864, RD866 and RD869 prototype engines, the data on their basic characteristics, testing and operation. The below information is of interest to LRE and LV developers.

Annotation: One of the important directions in the development of Yuzhnoye SDO liquid rocket engines is creation of the engines for launch vehicle upper stages, boosters, space tugs and takeoff-and-landing vehicles. The article presents an overview of Yuzhnoye SDO – developed liquid rocket engines, their basic characteristics, distinctive features and the current status of development and operation. The article presents the information on the following engines: RD858 and RD859 operating on storable propellants, for lunar takeoff-and-landing Block E module; RD809M and RD809K operating on liquid oxygen + kerosene created on the basis of RD8 serial control engine of Zenit launch vehicle second stage. In this case, RD809M engine is RD8 version with tight integration and RD809K engine is its one-chamber version; RD805 engine operating on liquid oxygen + kerosene created on the basis of combustion chamber of RD8 serial control engine of Zenit launch vehicle second stage.; RD835 engine operating on liquid oxygen + kerosene created for the second stages of launch vehicles of Mayak type; the engines and propulsion systems operating on storable propellants, such as RD861K (main engine of Cyclone-4 third stage and Cyclone-4M launch vehicle second stage), DU802 (liquid propulsion system of Krechet autonomous space tug of conversion Dnepr launch vehicle), RD840 (apogee liquid rocket engine of liquid propulsion system of geostationary communication satellite bus), VG143 (main engine assembly of the fourth stage of European Vega launch vehicle), RD864 and RD869 (main engines of Dnepr launch vehicle upper stages). The information presented in the article is of interest to liquid rocket engines and launch vehicles developers.

Annotation: The process of introducing new technologies at Yuzhnoye SDO requires major changes of aerospace products designing methods and project management methods, which allows realizing new opportunities, reducing manufacturing expenses with simultaneous increase of products quality. New software products are presented directed at solving the problems identified when using additive technologies at Yuzhnoye SDO. Such as Autodesk Netfabb, AM Process Simulation, ESI Additive Manufacturing and others that allow optimizing the model for additive technologies through the change of material structure, taking into account and compensation of heat setting during printing propose the tools for creating bionic design. Creation of new technologies of producing cooled nozzle block of LRE chamber without soldering became possible due to integrated approach, with optimal combination of already existing technical solutions with principally new ones, such as laser welding and surfacing. The cost analysis is considered as the most effective optimization method at selection of optimal design and manufacturing technology for its possible implementation at the company. The personnel problem, the issues of quality improvement and labor productivity increase in all production phases are foundational to reduce manufacturing cost.