[FPSPACE] RD-8 engine - an accidental designator?

[David Woods]

Another request to forward a message
 
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Phil Clark <mailto:phillipclark at btinternet.com>
*To:* FPSPACE <mailto:fpspace at friends-partners.org>
*Sent:* Wednesday, January 31, 2007 8:12 PM
*Subject:* RD-8 engine - an accidental designator?

Way back in the middle of the 1990s I was discovering that the "RD-" 
designators were being applied to rocket motors developed by the 
Yuzhnoye bureau.   I had found that the upper stage engines and the LK 
lunar lander were using engines with the public RD-800 series designators.
 
Therefore, in a few papers and other publications I started to use the 
designator "RD-8??" for the vernier engines which were used on the 
second stage of the Zenit-2 vehicle: I knew that these were from 
Yuzhnoye and therefore it was reasonable to assume that they too would 
be assigned a public designator in the RD-800 series.
 
Soon afterwards a few sources started to quote this vernier engine 
system as being the "RD-8?" - probably not realising that my use of two 
question marks was to indicate two unknown digits, not the uncertainly 
of the engine being the RD-8.   Now, of course, all literature seems to 
call these verniers the RD-8!!!!!
 
So, I would be fascinated to learn whether the verniers were designated 
the RD-8 (which to me is very suspicious!) or whether the 
mis-interpretations of my "RD-8??" have simply now become the "official" 
designator of the engine system.
 
Any members here work for Yuzhnoye??

Phillip Clark
 
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             Phillip S Clark  -  Molniya Space Consultancy
 
           Compiler/Publisher - Worldwide Satellite Launches
 
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY
 
(1)   The only way to comprehend the deeds and utterances of
politicians is with the basic knowledge that they had their brains
surgically removed before they were allowed to enter politics: no
counter-examples to disprove this theory are known.
 
(2)   Why should the Universe be comprehensible to human beings ?
 
(3)   “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana” from Beyond
Coincidence by Martin Plimmer and Brian King, page 28.
 
(4)   “To live outside the law you must be honest” (The Zim, 1966).
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