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]
Country of origin | USSR |
---|---|
Date | 1959-1961 |
First flight | 1959 |
Designer | OKB-2, A.M. Isaev |
Application | Spacecraft breaking engine |
Successor | S5.35 |
Status | Retired |
Liquid-fuel engine | |
Propellant | AK20F / TG-02 |
Mixture ratio | 3.07 |
Cycle | Gas Generator |
Configuration | |
Chamber | 1 main + 4 vernier |
Performance | |
Thrust, vacuum | 15.83 kilonewtons (3,560 lbf) |
Chamber pressure | 5.6 megapascals (810 psi) |
Specific impulse, vacuum | 266 seconds |
Burn time | 45 seconds |
Propellant capacity | 250 kilograms (550 lb) |
Dimensions | |
Length | 1.13 metres (44 in) |
Diameter | 0.95 metres (37 in) |
Dry mass | 98 kilograms (216 lb) |
Used in | |
Vostok, Voskhod and Zenit | |
References | |
References | [1][2][3] |
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 crewed 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]