KHIMKI. (Moscow region). Dec 31 (Interfax-AVN) - Insufficient funding of the RD-191 liquid-fuel booster program hinders its firing tests, Vladimir Sudakov, head of the Energomash Scientific Industrial Association information department, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
"Firing tests of the RD-191, designed to be fitted on new Angara carrier rockets, are funded insufficiently. For this reason Energomash has carried out only ten firing tests of the booster in the past two years," he said.
Sudakov said that at the present time three RD-191 booster prototypes, being tested at various fire pulse modes, have been manufactured. At the same time he noted that when the RD-180 booster, designed to be fitted on the US Atlas carrier rocket, was tested, a total of 10 prototypes were manufactured.
"We carried out eight to ten firing tests on each of them, i.e. the RD-191 development program envisions 80-100 firing tests," Sudakov said.
Energomash carries out firing tests of the new RD-191 liquid- fuel booster at its own test bench, situated in Khimki, outside Moscow. Sudakov noted that the RD-191 booster had been ordered by the Khrunichev Space Center, which had already received to full- size mock-ups of the new booster. The first operational RD-191 was built and submitted for firing tests in 2001.
The RD-191 is a liquid fuel and oxidant single-chamber booster with a thrust of about 200 tons. It features a high power- to-weight ratio. The thrust vector is controlled by swaying the combustion chamber in two planes. The booster weighs 2.2 tons.
The new Angara carrier rocket is a modular design one. There are three modifications of the rocket (light, medium, and heavy), and each of them will be fitted with the RD-191 booster, designed and manufactured by Energomash.