Volga program
Volga is a joint French-Russian program to develop a new-generation, high-thrust, reusable rocket engine. It was launched in 2001 by Snecma, in conjunction with French space agency CNES and Russian counterpart Roskosmos. The program is being conducted by Snecma (along with several European partners), the Russian companies NPO Energomash, Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (KBKhA), and the Keldysh Research Center (KeRC). By 2020, the program aims to develop key enabling technologies for a reusable rocket engine. A first phase has been focused on an increase in engine life cycles, reliability and safety, as well as preliminary development of combustion technologies for liquid oxygen/methane propellants. Since 2005, Volga is a part of the “Oural program”, the long-term Russian-French collaboration agreement.
Oural program
Snecma is taking an active role in the Oural program to prepare future-generation launch vehicles. Started in 2005 through a joint CNES-Roskosmos working group, Oural aims to set up long-term Russian-French collaboration, particularly concerning liquid-propellant propulsion. Experiments are being carried out on a new rocket engine using a mixture of liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas (methane). Snecma is in charge of computer modeling for these tests and analyzing results. Its partner, the Russian company KBKhM, specialist in upper-stage launcher engines, built a test engine and carried out tests.
