The RD-58 (manufacturer designation 11D58 ) is a rocket engine , developed in the 1960s by OKB-1 , now RKK Energia . The project was managed by Mikhail Melnikov , and it was based on the previous S1.5400 which was the first staged combustion engine in the world. The engine was initially created to power the Block D stage of the Soviet Union 's abortive N1 rocket . Derivatives of this stage are now used as upper stages on some Proton and Zenit rockets. An alternative version of the RD-58 chamber, featuring a shorter nozzle, was used as the N1's roll-control engine.
21-586: The RD-58 uses LOX as the oxidizer and RG-1 as fuel in an oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle. It features a single gimbaled chamber, radial centrifugal pumps with auxiliary booster pumps, and an oxygen-rich preburner . Recent modifications include a lightweight carbon-composite nozzle extender developed by NPO Iskra. The Buran spacecraft used two of an evolution of the RD-58M , called 17D12 , as its main orbital correction engines. Instead of RG-1 , it burned Syntin , and could be ignited 15 times. It
42-400: A process called air separation (industrially referred to as air rectification.). Liquid air has a density of approximately 870 kg/m (870 g/L ; 0.87 g / cm ). The density of a given air sample varies depending on the composition of that sample (e.g. humidity & CO 2 concentration). Since dry gaseous air contains approximately 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon ,
63-493: Is air that has been cooled to very low temperatures ( cryogenic temperatures ), so that it has condensed into a pale blue mobile liquid. It is stored in specialized containers, such as vacuum flasks , to insulate it from room temperature . Liquid air can absorb heat rapidly and revert to its gaseous state. It is often used for condensing other substances into liquid and/or solidifying them, and as an industrial source of nitrogen , oxygen , argon , and other inert gases through
84-416: Is cryogenic with a freezing point of 54.36 K (−218.79 °C; −361.82 °F) and a boiling point of 90.19 K (−182.96 °C; −297.33 °F) at 1 bar (15 psi). Liquid oxygen has an expansion ratio of 1:861 and because of this, it is used in some commercial and military aircraft as a transportable source of breathing oxygen. Because of its cryogenic nature, liquid oxygen can cause
105-516: Is assumed that it was the base for the RD-58S , which had practically the same specifications and powered the Blok DM-2M . But the manufacturer states that the engine is compatible with both propellants. The current version of the engine is the RD-58M (manufacturer designation 11D58M), which has slightly reduced thrust, but increased isp. An even newer version is under development and is known as
126-432: Is classified as an industrial gas and is widely used for industrial and medical purposes. Liquid oxygen is obtained from the oxygen found naturally in air by fractional distillation in a cryogenic air separation plant . Air forces have long recognized the strategic importance of liquid oxygen, both as an oxidizer and as a supply of gaseous oxygen for breathing in hospitals and high-altitude aircraft flights. In 1985,
147-414: Is −194.35 °C (78.80 K ; −317.83 °F ), intermediate between the boiling points of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen . However, it can be difficult to keep at a stable temperature as the liquid boils, since the nitrogen will boil off first, leaving the mixture oxygen-rich and changing the boiling point. This may also occur in some circumstances due to the liquid air condensing oxygen out of
168-624: The RD-58MF (manufacturer designation 11D58MF). It will reduce thrust to 49.03 kilonewtons (11,020 lbf) to keep the same length but increase expansion ratio to 500:1. This will enable it to gain 20s of isp (to an expected 372s). It will eventually fly on the Blok DM-03 . This new version of the engine will be built in the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant . During a November 2014 interview, Vladimir Kolmykov,
189-633: The Deputy General Director of the Chemical Division of Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant, stated that the production of Block-DM was suspended during that year, but work on the stage and development of the RD-58MF will resume during 2015. This engine has had many versions through the years: LOX Liquid oxygen , sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen , is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen O 2 . It
210-474: The USAF started a program of building its own oxygen-generation facilities at all major consumption bases. Liquid oxygen is the most common cryogenic liquid oxidizer propellant for spacecraft rocket applications, usually in combination with liquid hydrogen , kerosene or methane . Liquid oxygen was used in the first liquid fueled rocket . The World War II V-2 missile also used liquid oxygen under
231-471: The atmosphere. Liquid air starts to freeze at approximately 60 K (−213.2 °C; −351.7 °F), precipitating nitrogen-rich solid (but with appreciable amount of oxygen in solid solution). Unless the oxygen is previously accommodated in the solid solution, the eutectic freezes at 50 K. The constituents of air were once known as "permanent gases", as they could not be liquified solely by compression at room temperature. A compression process will raise
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#1732797723450252-480: The density of liquid air at standard composition is calculated by the percentage of the components and their respective liquid densities (see liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen ). Although air contains trace amounts of carbon dioxide (about 0.03%), carbon dioxide solidifies from the gas phase without passing through the intermediate liquid phase, and hence will not be present in liquid air at pressures less than 5.1 atm (520 kPa ). The boiling point of air
273-468: The first time by Polish scientists Karol Olszewski and Zygmunt Wróblewski in 1883. Devices for the production of liquid air are not commercially available, and not easily fabricated. The most common process for the preparation of liquid air is the two-column Hampson–Linde cycle using the Joule–Thomson effect . Air is fed at high pressure (>75 atm (7,600 kPa ; 1,100 psi )) into
294-501: The liquid air product is typically fractionated into its constituent gases in either liquid or gaseous form, as the oxygen is especially useful for fuel gas welding and cutting and for medical use, and the argon is useful as an oxygen-excluding shielding gas in gas tungsten arc welding . Liquid nitrogen is useful in various low-temperature applications, being nonreactive at normal temperatures (unlike oxygen), and boiling at 77 K (−196 °C; −321 °F). Between 1899 and 1902,
315-590: The lower column, in which it is separated into pure nitrogen and oxygen-rich liquid. The rich liquid and some of the nitrogen are fed as reflux into the upper column, which operates at low pressure (<25 atm (2,500 kPa; 370 psi)), where the final separation into pure nitrogen and oxygen occurs. A raw argon product can be removed from the middle of the upper column for further purification. Air can also be liquefied by Claude's process , which combines cooling by Joule–Thomson effect , isentropic expansion and regenerative cooling. In manufacturing processes,
336-493: The materials it touches to become extremely brittle. Liquid oxygen is also a very powerful oxidizing agent: organic materials will burn rapidly and energetically in liquid oxygen. Further, if soaked in liquid oxygen , some materials such as coal briquettes, carbon black , etc., can detonate unpredictably from sources of ignition such as flames, sparks or impact from light blows. Petrochemicals , including asphalt , often exhibit this behavior. The tetraoxygen molecule (O 4 )
357-720: The name A-Stoff and Sauerstoff . In the 1950s, during the Cold War both the United States' Redstone and Atlas rockets, and the Soviet R-7 Semyorka used liquid oxygen. Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, the ascent stages of the Apollo Saturn rockets , and the Space Shuttle main engines used liquid oxygen. As of 2024, many active rockets use liquid oxygen: Liquid air Liquid air
378-440: The nitrogen has evaporated from such a vessel, there is a risk that liquid oxygen remaining can react violently with organic material. Conversely, liquid nitrogen or liquid air can be oxygen-enriched by letting it stand in open air; atmospheric oxygen dissolves in it, while nitrogen evaporates preferentially. The surface tension of liquid oxygen at its normal pressure boiling point is 13.2 dyn/cm. In commerce, liquid oxygen
399-543: The temperature of the gas. This heat is removed by cooling to the ambient temperature in a heat exchanger, and then expanding by venting into a chamber. The expansion causes a lowering of the temperature, and by counter-flow heat exchange of the expanded air, the pressurized air entering the expander is further cooled. With sufficient compression, flow, and heat removal, eventually droplets of liquid air will form, which may then be employed directly for low temperature demonstrations. The main constituents of air were liquefied for
420-528: Was first predicted in 1924 by Gilbert N. Lewis , who proposed it to explain why liquid oxygen defied Curie's law . Modern computer simulations indicate that, although there are no stable O 4 molecules in liquid oxygen, O 2 molecules do tend to associate in pairs with antiparallel spins , forming transient O 4 units. Liquid nitrogen has a lower boiling point at −196 °C (77 K) than oxygen's −183 °C (90 K), and vessels containing liquid nitrogen can condense oxygen from air: when most of
441-404: Was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard , an application which has continued to the present. Liquid oxygen has a clear cyan color and is strongly paramagnetic : it can be suspended between the poles of a powerful horseshoe magnet . Liquid oxygen has a density of 1.141 kg/L (1.141 g/ml), slightly denser than liquid water, and
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