Basic requirements for main engines of advanced liquid-propelled super-heavy launch vehicles

The paper presents the results of design studies conducted by RSC Energia on the subject of selecting main engines for an advanced super-heavy launch vehicle intended for manned missions to the Moon from the Vostochny launch site. Adopted as the prime criterion for the main engines selection was the concept of assuring the required level of reliability for the super-heavy rocket starting with its first launch through the use of engines developed on the basis of the tried-and-true reusable oxygen/kerosene liquid-propulsion rocket engines - NK-170 and starting the flight testing of the first stage of the rocket ahead of time by means of integrating it into a medium-lift launch vehicle. The paper discusses the efficiency of providing redundancy for propulsion systems of rocket stages from the standpoint of operational reliability and safety of the launch vehicle as a whole taking into account actual characteristics of emergency protection equipment.