On Friday, Roscosmos announced that Russia has completed construction of the first liquid rocket engine RD-171MV for flight tests of the new Soyuz-5 launch vehicle.
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The Russian state corporation noted that it also plans to complete the assembly of the RD-171MV for the second Soyuz-5 carrier rocket and produce an engine for the third one this year.
So far, over 20 firing tests of the RD-171MV engine have been successfully conducted. When it passes interdepartmental tests, the company will start serial production.
According to Roscosmos, the thrust of the RD-171MV engine exceeds 800 tonnes, which makes it the most powerful liquid-propellant rocket engine in the world.
The Soyuz-5 two-stage medium-class carrier rocket, also known as the Irtysh, is developed in Russia for launches of automatic spacecraft into various near-Earth orbits. The rocket will be able to deliver up to 17 tons of cargo into space.
On Thursday, Roscosmos also announced that cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in September, will reach 1,000 days in space during his new mission.
The main crew of Expeditions 70 and 71 include Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara. They are due to depart for orbit in September 2023 aboard the spacecraft Soyuz MS-24.
O'Hara is scheduled to return to Earth in March 2024, while Kononenko and Chub will remain on the orbital platform until September and return on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.
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