The Voronezh Rocket Engine Building Center (part of the integrated rocket engine building structure headed by NPO Energomash of Roscosmos) has successfully conducted the first fire test of the standard chamber of the RD-0124MS rocket engine, being created for the second stage of the Soyuz-5 perspective launch vehicle.

The chamber consists of units built with new technologies, opening up great opportunities for reducing labor intensity, increasing labor productivity and quality in rocket engine building. During the test, one burn was conducted with a duration of 50 seconds at the nominal thrust mode. The test program was completed in full.

Director of the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau Sergey Kovalev: ‘This test marked the beginning of ground fire testing of the new RD-0124MS engine and its components. At the first try, we got a positive result and achieved the intended goals for developing the chamber. This confirms the fidelity of the inherent design solutions, the effectiveness of the introduced new technologies, as well as the general readiness of the company's testbed base to continue work in this field.’

Viktor Gorokhov, the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau Chief Designer: ‘The next few months will see several more fire tests with this very chamber to collect and analyze the experimental data we need. At the same time, preparations are underway for the development tests of the engine in its complete set and for firing bench tests of the product as part of the second stage of the launch vehicle.’

The RD-0124MS rocket engine with a vacuum thrust force of 60 tons runs on liquid oxygen and naphthyl and is to be used in the second stage of the Soyuz-5 rocket. It consists of two blocks placed on a common frame, each of the blocks includes two chambers. The engine provides tilting of the chambers in two planes, as well as operating when one of the units is switched off, including at a reduced thrust mode.