LIQUID OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN: FROM TSIOLKOVSKY'S ROCKET TO THE «ENERGY-BURAN» SPACE ROCKET COMPLEX

Abstract

K.E. Tsiolkovsky, an outstanding scientist in the field of aeronautics, aviation and astronautics, in 1903, i.e. 110 years ago, suggested and justified the use of a rocket for space flights with the liquid-fuel rocket engine (LFRE) which ran on hydrogen and oxygen as a fuel. This promising suggestion was not accepted for many years. Liquid hydrogen as an efficient fuel for rockets began to be dealt with in the USSR only in 60s' of the last century. As a result a heavy «Energy» rocket carrier which ran on a hydrogen/oxygen mixture was designed. For the manufacturing purposes a huge infrastructure was created, the production of the necessary equipment was organized. The «Energy» two-stage rocket was designed as a carrier for the orbital reusable spaceship «Buran» which represented the third stage of the space rocket complex «Energy-Buran». Twenty five years ago, on November, 15th, 1988, the rocket «Energy» having started from the Baikonur cosmodrome carried into orbit the 100-ton «Buran»orbital ship. The ship was operated from the Earth and successfully made the flight without a crew in an automatic mode. The content of difficult and demanding job on designing special equipment and developing specific technologies for use of hydrogen-oxygen fuel both in LFRE of the «Energy» rocket carrier and in the energy supply system of «Buran» ship is described. The unique cryogenic systems providing fueling with overcooled liquid hydrogen and oxygen the fuel tanks of the rocket carrier and the orbital ship with subsequent thermostating of them are considered. Many of the applied solutions are still topical nowadays. At the same time there are also modern developments on which basis it is possible to design more perfect space rocket complexes.