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Most Russian rocket engines have a name on the form of for example RD-107 (РД-107).

But apart from different engines having different numbers, how is the number chosen?

  • All RD-2xx engines appears to be N2O2/UDMH and all RD-1xx engines appear to be LOX/RG-1, but that does not explain names like RD-58
  • They are not chronological: RD-58 is almost two decades older than RD-8. Many numbers are also seemingly skipped.
  • Similar numbers are not always similar engines: RD-0120 is a LOX/LH2 engine, while RD-120 is a LOX/RG-1 engine.
  • What's the occasional leading zero, like the nuclear RD-0410?
SE - stop firing the good guys
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    I have encountered hundreds of logical, standardized naming/numbering systems in my life, and very few of them have survived as long as five years without being superseded and replaced by new, incompatible, logical standardized naming/numbering systems. – Russell Borogove Oct 31 '20 at 20:47
  • e.g. Why so many STS-61's? – uhoh Oct 31 '20 at 23:10
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    Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut has been working on a video entangling all the different engines, their naming, etc. for several weeks now. Going by what he has said in his recent live streams, an answer to your question will require about a month of research and be impossible to fit into Stack Exchange's 32000 character limit. The good thing is, he will mostly be quarantined in his hotel room for his stay at Boca Chica, so hopefully that video will answer your question soon. Until then, you will probably have to settle for "It's complicated". – Jörg W Mittag Nov 01 '20 at 02:28
  • That should read "untangling", of course :-D "Entangled" is what happens when you start researching this stuff, apparently. – Jörg W Mittag Nov 01 '20 at 22:22
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-xyXDiC92s TL;DR: some numbers make sense, others don't – Everyday Astronaut May 13 '22 at 12:06

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