Country of origin | Soviet Union |
---|---|
Date | 1960s |
Designer | Kuznetsov Design Bureau |
Application | 1st/2nd-stage engine |
Successor | NK-33 |
Liquid-fuel engine | |
Propellant | LOX / kerosene |
Cycle | Staged combustion |
Pumps | Turbopump |
Performance | |
Thrust, vacuum | 1,753 kN (394,000 lbf) |
Thrust, sea-level | 1,505 kN (338,000 lbf) |
Throttle range | 50–105% |
Thrust-to-weight ratio | 137 |
Chamber pressure | 14.50 MPa (2,103 psi) |
Specific impulse, vacuum | 331 seconds (3.25 km/s) |
Specific impulse, sea-level | 297 seconds (2.91 km/s) |
Dimensions | |
Length | 3.7 m (12 ft) |
Diameter | 2 m (6 ft 7 in) |
Dry mass | 1,247 kg (2,749 lb) |
The NK-15 (GRAU index 11D51) was a rocket engine designed and built in the late 1960s by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau. The NK designation was derived from the initials of chief designer Nikolay Kuznetsov. The NK-15 was among the most powerful LOX/kerosene rocket engines when it was built, with a high specific impulse and low structural mass. It was intended for the ill-fated Soviet N-1 Moon rocket.
The engine equipped the N1 rocket - the first two launch attempts failed due to this engine. [1] Its successor the NK-33 was to be used on the N1F, a new version of the N1, but the program was cancelled.
The N1/L3 was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit. The N1 was the Soviet counterpart to the US Saturn V and was intended to enable crewed travel to the Moon and beyond, with studies beginning as early as 1959. Its first stage, Block A, was the most powerful rocket stage ever flown for over 50 years, with the record standing until Starship's first integrated flight test. However, each of the four attempts to launch an N1 failed in flight, with the second attempt resulting in the vehicle crashing back onto its launch pad shortly after liftoff. Adverse characteristics of the large cluster of thirty engines and its complex fuel and oxidizer feeder systems were not revealed earlier in development because static test firings had not been conducted.
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The Kuznetsov Design Bureau was a Russian design bureau for aircraft engines, administrated in Soviet times by Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov. It was also known as (G)NPO Trud and Kuybyshev Engine Design Bureau (KKBM).
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The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (ГРАУ), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of Armament and Munition of the Russian Armed Forces, a vice-minister of defense.
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The LK was a lunar module developed in the 1960s as a part of several Soviet crewed lunar programs. Its role was analogous to the American Apollo Lunar Module (LM). Three LK modules, of the T2K variant, were flown without crew in Earth orbit, but no LK ever reached the Moon. The development of the N1 launch vehicle required for the lunar flight suffered setbacks, and the first Moon landings were achieved by US astronauts on Apollo 11. As a result, having lost the Space Race, both the N1 and the LK programs were cancelled without any further development.
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The R-11 Zemlya, GRAU index 8A61 was a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. It is also known by its NATO reporting name SS-1b Scud-A. It was the first of several similar Soviet missiles to be given the reporting name Scud. Variant R-11M was accepted into service, with GRAU index 9K51 (9К51).
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The Soyuz-2.1v, GRAU index 14A15, known earlier in development as the Soyuz-1, is a Russian expendable launch vehicle. It is a heavily modified derivative of the Soyuz-2.1b, and is a member of the R-7 family of rockets. It is built by TsSKB Progress, at Samara in Russia. Launches are conducted from existing facilities at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northwest Russia, with pads also available at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and new facilities at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Eastern Russia.
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