Energia (1:20 model)
Super-heavy launch vehicle
On display
Unlike Saturn V and the N-1, Energia was built as a universal launcher: the payload attached to the side rather than the top, so the rocket could lift a spacecraft, a station module or a heavy satellite. The core stage burned oxygen and hydrogen — a first at that scale in Soviet practice.
The four strap-on boosters with RD-170 engines were designed to be recoverable, but the recovery system was never implemented. The programme was closed after two successful launches; the RD-170 and its derivatives remain the most powerful liquid engines in the world.
On display is a 1:20 scale model in the stacked configuration with Buran.
