Soyuz is a family of expendable Russian and Soviet carrier rockets developed by OKB-1 and manufactured by Progress Rocket Space Centre in Samara, Russia. With over 2,000 flights since its debut in 1966, the Soyuz is the rocket with the most launches in the history of spaceflight.
The R-7 Semyorka, officially the GRAU index 8K71, was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1961. A derivative, the R-7A, was operational from 1960 to 1968. To the West it was unknown until its launch. In modified form, it launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit, and became the basis for the R-7 family which includes Sputnik, Luna, Molniya, Vostok, and Voskhod space launchers, as well as later Soyuz variants. Various modifications are still in use and it has become the world’s most reliable space launcher.
The staged combustion cycle is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine. In the staged combustion cycle, propellant flows through multiple combustion chambers, and is thus combusted in stages. The main advantage relative to other rocket engine power cycles is high fuel efficiency, measured through specific impulse, while its main disadvantage is engineering complexity.
The RD-180 is a rocket engine designed and built in Russia. It features a dual combustion chamber, dual-nozzle design and is fueled by a RP-1/LOX mixture. The RD-180 is derived from the RD-170/RD-171 line of rocket engines, which were used in the Soviet Energia launch vehicle. The engine was developed for use on the US Atlas III and Atlas V launch vehicles and first flew in 2000. It was never used on any other rocket. The engine has flown successfully on all six Atlas III flights and on 87 Atlas V flights, with no failures.
The RD-170 is the world's most powerful and heaviest liquid-fuel rocket engine. It was designed and produced in the Soviet Union by NPO Energomash for use with the Energia launch vehicle. The engine burns kerosene fuel and LOX oxidizer in four combustion chambers, all supplied by one single-shaft, single-turbine turbopump rated at 170 MW (230,000 hp) in a staged combustion cycle.
The NK-33 and NK-43 are rocket engines designed and built in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau. The NK designation is derived from the initials of chief designer Nikolay Kuznetsov. The NK-33 was among the most powerful LOX/RP-1 rocket engines when it was built, with a high specific impulse and low structural mass. They were intended for the ill-fated Soviet N1F Moon rocket, which was an upgraded version of the N1. The NK-33A rocket engine is now used on the first stage of the Soyuz-2-1v launch vehicle. When the supply of the NK-33 engines are exhausted, Russia will supply the new RD-193 rocket engine. It used to be the first stage engines of the Antares 100 rocket series, although those engines are rebranded the AJ-26 and the newer Antares 200 and Antares 200+ rocket series uses the RD-181 for the first stage engines, which is a modified RD-191, but shares some properties like a single combustion chamber unlike the two combustion chambers used in the RD-180 of the Atlas V and the four combustion chambers used in the RD-170 of the Energia and Zenit rocket families, and the RD-107, RD-108, RD-117, and RD-118 rocket engines used on all of the variants of the Soyuz rocket.
The RD-8 is a Soviet / Ukrainian liquid propellant rocket engine burning LOX and RG-1 in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. It has a four combustion chambers that provide thrust vector control by gimbaling each of the nozzles in a single axis ±33°. It was designed in Dnipropetrovsk by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau as the vernier thruster of the Zenit second stage. As such, it has always been paired with the RD-120 engine for main propulsion.
Soyuz-2 is a modernised version of the Soviet Soyuz rocket. In its basic form, it is a three-stage launch vehicle for placing payloads into low Earth orbit. Compared to the previous versions of the Soyuz, the first-stage boosters and two core stages feature uprated engines with improved injection systems. Digital flight control and telemetry systems allow the rocket to be launched from a fixed launch platform, whereas the launch platforms for earlier Soyuz rockets had to be rotated as the rocket could not perform a roll to change its heading in flight.
NPO Energomash "V. P. Glushko" is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and produces liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the Soviet design bureau OKB-456, which was founded in 1946. NPO Energomash acquired its current name on May 15, 1991, in honor of its former chief designer Valentin Glushko.
The RD-191 is a high-performance single-combustion chamber rocket engine, developed in Russia and sold by Roscosmos. It is derived from the RD-180 dual-combustion chamber engine, which itself was derived in turn from the four-chamber RD-170 originally used in the Energia launcher.
The RD-0124 is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle, developed by the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau in Voronezh. RD-0124 engines are used on the Soyuz-2.1b and Soyuz-2-1v. A variant of the engine, the RD-0124A, is used on the Angara rocket family's URM-2 upper stage.
The Soyuz was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed in the 1960s by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Kuybyshev, Soviet Union. It was commissioned to launch Soyuz spacecraft as part of the Soviet human spaceflight program, first with 8 uncrewed test flights, followed by the first 19 crewed launches. The original Soyuz also propelled four test flights of the improved Soyuz 7K-T capsule between 1972 and 1974. In total it flew 30 successful missions over 10 years and suffered two failures.
The RD-253 ( Russian: Раке́тный дви́гатель 253, Rocket Engine 253) and its later variants, the RD-275and RD-275M, are liquid-propellant rocket engines developed in the Soviet Union by Energomash. The engines are used on the first stage of the Proton launch vehicle and use an oxidizer-rich staged combustion cycle to power the turbopumps. The engine burns UDMH/N2O4, which are highly toxic but hypergolic and storable at room temperature, simplifying the engine's design.
Russia's space industry comprises more than 100 companies and employs 250,000 people. Most of the companies are descendants of Soviet design bureaux and state production companies. The industry entered a deep crisis following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with its fullest effect occurring in the last years of the 1990s. Funding of the space program declined by 80% and the industry lost a large part of its work force before recovery began in the early 2000s. Many companies survived by creating joint-ventures with foreign firms and marketing their products abroad.
Syntin is a hydrocarbon with the molecular formula C10H16 used as a rocket fuel. It is a mixture of four stereoisomers (see below). It has a density of 0.851 g/mL, and a boiling point of 158 °C. Due to the presence of three strained cyclopropane rings, the molecule has a highly positive enthalpy of formation: ΔfH°(l)= 133 kJ/mol (980 kJ/kg, the average value for the isomeric mixture), bringing additional energy into the combustion process. It has advantages over the traditional hydrocarbon fuels, such as RP-1, due to higher density, lower viscosity and higher specific heat of oxidation.
The RD-120 is a liquid upper stage rocket engine burning RG-1 and LOX in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle with an O/F ratio of 2.6. It is used in the second stage of the Zenit family of launch vehicles. It has a single, fixed combustion chamber and thus on the Zenit it is paired with the RD-8 vernier engine. The engine was developed from 1976 to 1985 by NPO Energomash with V.P. Radovsky leading the development. It is manufactured by, among others, Yuzhmash in Ukraine.
The RD-0110 is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has four fixed nozzles and the output of the gas generator is directed to four secondary vernier nozzles to supply vector control of the stage. It has an extensive flight history with its initial versions having flown more than 57 years ago.
The RD-263 (GRAU Index 15D117) is a liquid rocket engine, burning N2O4 and UDMH in the oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. Four RD-263 engines form a propulsion module RD-264 (GRAU Index 15D119). For the R-36M KB Yuzhnoye only ordered the first stage propulsion to Energomash, instead of both stages, arguing that they were overworked with the RD-270 development. By April 1970 Yuzhnoye was getting the engine documentation. By the end of 1972 Energomash started to test fire the engines in its own test stand. And by September 1973 the engine was certified for flight. While the engine is out of production, the ICBM as well as the Dnepr remain operational as of 2015.
The RD-214 (GRAU Index 8D59) was a liquid rocket engine, burning AK-27I (a mixture of 73% nitric acid and 27% N2O4 + iodine passivant and TM-185 (a kerosene and gasoline mix) in the gas generator cycle. As was the case with many V-2 influenced engines, the single turbine was driven by steam generated by catalytic decomposition of H2O2. It also had four combustion chambers and vector control was achieved by refractory vanes protruding into the nozzle's exhaust.
RD-0169 - is a Russian oxygen-methane fueled rocket engine being developed by KBKhA. Liquefied natural gas (methane) is used as fuel, while liquid oxygen is used as an oxidizer. Designed for use in reusable launch vehicles.
Soviet Union, later Russia 
