Russia to test world's most powerful liquid-propellant rocket engine RD-171MV this year - Roscosmos
MOSCOW. May 15 (Interfax) - The world's most powerful liquid propellant engine, RD-171MV, is to be tested at the NPO Energomash facilities in 2019, Roscosmos said.
"The enterprise has been set serious tasks, and the first priority is to successfully test the RD-171MV engine created by NPO Energomash for the prospective carrier rocket Irtysh (Soyuz-5), as early as this year," the state corporation said in a statement.
Energomash is Russia's leading designer of liquid-propellant rocket engines for various classes of carrier rocket. The engines designed by its companies are installed on all Russian carrier rockets: Soyuz, Proton and Angara, on the American Atlas V and Antares launch vehicles, and on Russian spaceships, orbital stations and various satellites.
RD-171MV will be the main propulsion unit on the Soyuz-5 rocket and the possibility is being looked into of using it in the first stage of a new super-heavy-lift carrier rocket.
The first RD-171-MV engine was assembled in February of this year. The first flightworthy sample for the primary Irtysh test will be sent to the rocket makers in 2021.
The documentation for design and dynamic mock-ups of the RD-171MV engine for the Irtysh rocket was released in 2017. The engine's thrust is expected to exceed 800 tonnes, making it the most powerful in the world.