S5.4

S5.4

S5.4

Russian liquid rocket engine


The S5.4 (AKA TDU-1, GRAU Index 8D66), was a Russian liquid rocket engine burning TG-02 and AK20F in the gas generator cycle. It was originally used as the braking (deorbit) engine of the Vostok, Voskhod, and Zenit spacecraft, which later switched to solid engines.[citation needed]

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The engine produced 15.83 kilonewtons (3,560 lbf) of thrust with a specific impulse of 266 seconds in vacuum, and burned for 45 seconds, enough for the deorbit. It had a main fixed combustion chamber and four small verniers to supply vector control. It was housed in the service module and had two toroidal tanks for pressurization.[4][5][6]

It was designed by OKB-2, the Design Bureau led by Aleksei Isaev, for the Vostok program. The braking engine for the first manned spacecraft was a difficult task that no design bureau wanted to take.[citation needed] It was considered critical, as a failure would have left a cosmonaut stranded in space. A solid engine was considered, but the ballistic experts predicted a 500-kilometer (270-nautical-mile) landing error, versus a tenth of that for a liquid engine. It took the coordinated efforts of Boris Chertok and Sergei Korolev to convince Isaev to accept the task.[7]


References

  1. Brügge, Norbert. "Spacecraft-propulsion blocks (KDU) from Isayev's design bureau (now Khimmash)". B14643.de. Archived from the original on 2015-06-02. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  2. "S5.4". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on August 27, 2002. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
  3. Pillet, Nicolas. "Le vaisseau Vostok" [The Vostk spacecraft] (in French). Kosmonavtika.com. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
  4. Zak, Anatoly. "Origin of the Vostok spacecraft". RussianSpaceWeb. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
  5. LePage, Andrew J. "Vostok: an aerospace classic". The Space Review. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  6. Turner, Martin J. L. (2008). "Section 9.2 Crewed launchers and re-entry vehicles". Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion: Principles, Practice and New Developments. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 314. ISBN 978-3540692034. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  7. Chertok, Boris (May 2009). "Chapter 2 Preparation for Piloted Flights". Rockets and People Vol. 3 Hot Days of the Cold War (PDF). Vol. 3 (NASA SP-2006-4110). NASA. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-16-081733-5. Retrieved 2015-07-15.



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