FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 10 289
FIGURE 1.—Propellant tanks for Rocket 07.
to be undertaken by the second team. The engine
of this rocket operated on liquid oxygen/kerosene.
The propellant tanks were located in stabilizers
with the rocket engine between them (Figures 1 and
2). The fuel was fed into the engine by oxygen
pressure. However, development of the 07 rocket
and its engine were not completed in GIRD. The
project was passed on to RNII where the rocket
was completed and later flown.
The next flight rocket for the second team was
the 09 (Figure 3). It's engine operated on liquid
oxygen and a semisolid (hybrid) fuel called "condensed
benzine." This "condensed benzine," prepared
in Baku, was a solution of colophony, a
natural resin, in benzine. Under normal conditions,
the condensed benzine had the consistency of grease
and burned in successive layers. The heat of combustion
of colophony is about 9,000 kg-cal/kg. The
09 rocket engine had a sheet-brass combustion
FIGURE 3.—Drawing of Rocket 09.
FIGURE 2.—Rocket 07 mounted on test stand.
chamber with a bronze injector head and a bronze
socket for the exit nozzle. The nozzle was of steel.
The inlet valve was screwed into the injector head
and was directly connected with the oxygen tank,
made from a duraluminum tube. The oxygen was
fed into the combustion chamber by its own vapor
pressure. A pressure gauge was fitted to the tank.
The condensed benzine entered the combustion
chamber between a special cylindrical metal grid