The final 4th firing test of NK-33A engine has been successfully completed in the network of interdepartmental testing program on rig 1 of Vintay separate division on April 20th 2012. The engine has been working for 157.7 seconds without any concerns. The total engine’s operating time during the testing is 600 seconds, press-service of United Engine Corporation (UEC) noted. AEX.ru

«After that the engine will undergo decontamination cycle. Later it will be disassembled for troubleshooting and presented to the members of Inter-departmental commission for taking the final decision on the results of these tests. The April tests of NK-33A are significant stage of “Soyuz-2-1v” design and development work (based on the technology advance gained during development of NK-33). It is also very important for launching of NK-33A production by Russian enterprises for national space programs and potential foreign customers», - UEC noted.

«The Inter-departmental commission will make the decision on serial production and flight testing of NK-33A in the next one and a half months. However, we may already say that the result is positive: the engine has performed well during testing under different conditions and capacity», — Chief Designer of Kuznetsov, Valery Danilchenko, said.

NK-33A engine is the modification of NK-33, developed by Nikolay Kuznetsov design bureau 40 years ago for Soviet “Manned Lunar Program”. No state testing of Kuznetsov’s products has been carried out in the last 25 years.