RD-107
Strap-on booster engine of the R-7
On display
The problem could not be solved head-on: a single chamber of the required thrust threatened high-frequency combustion instability. Valentin Glushko split it into four smaller chambers sharing one turbopump — the layout that shaped all subsequent Soviet rocketry.
The engine burns liquid oxygen and T-1 kerosene, is ignited on the pad by a starter fuel and runs until booster separation. The RD-107 and its central counterpart the RD-108 launched Sputnik, Gagarin and every Soyuz since.
On display is a flight unit with four chambers and vernier nozzles, taken from production tooling.
