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Antares rocket explosion: The question of using decades-old Soviet engines
The Washington Post ^ | 10/29/14 | Terrence McCoy

Posted on 10/29/2014 8:19:42 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway

The tale of the engines that propelled the Antares rocket, which exploded in a spectacular ball of flame in Virginia Tuesday night, begins four decades ago, thousands of miles away, in the land of communism and Sputnik. There, in the Soviet Union, rocket scientists conceived and built dozens of rocket engines meant to power Russian astronauts into the cosmos. But it didn’t work out that way. Instead, all four launches of the mighty N1 Soviet rocket, which used an earlier iteration of the first-stage engines used in Thursday’s launch, failed between 1969 and 1972. And as the Soviet Union abandoned the idea of putting cosmonauts on the moon, those engines languished in Russia “without a purpose,” reported Space Lift Now.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


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The question of using decades-old Soviet engines...? Jeez Louise!
1 posted on 10/29/2014 8:19:42 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

Thanks Obama!


2 posted on 10/29/2014 8:20:22 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

How many failures vs successes.

From there the next question is who else does the same job and what is their failure/success ratio.


3 posted on 10/29/2014 8:22:23 AM PDT by cripplecreek (You can't half ass conservatism.)
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To: cripplecreek

“Instead, all four launches of the mighty N1 Soviet rocket, which used an earlier iteration of the first-stage engines used in Thursday’s launch, failed between 1969 and 1972...”
So we use their unreliable rocket engines and blow up millions of dollars worth of equipment...


4 posted on 10/29/2014 8:25:05 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

Using decades-old Soviet engines is one way to pay for Obamacare and free cell phones.............


5 posted on 10/29/2014 8:26:11 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Vaduz

Spot on ! Obama’s space program!


6 posted on 10/29/2014 8:27:00 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

So who owns Orbital Sciences and who is connected to the Obama admin to receive the $ 1.9 billion contract to make eight supply missions to the International Space Station with outdated and useless Soviet equipment? Sounds like the Soviets quit using these rockets decades ago.

How much damage was done to Nasa (tax payer’s)equipment?


7 posted on 10/29/2014 8:27:37 AM PDT by FR_addict
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I guess they’re not exactly rocket scientists.


8 posted on 10/29/2014 8:28:29 AM PDT by Nachoman (libertyarmstx.com is now open!)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

A Cadillac with a Trabant engine


9 posted on 10/29/2014 8:29:02 AM PDT by molson209 (Blank)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway
1957-58
10 posted on 10/29/2014 8:30:48 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Doctrine doesn't change. The trick is to find a way around it.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway
And you wonder why Elon Musk probably politely declined those old NK-33 engines and developed that nine-engine cluster for the Falcon 9 rocket.
11 posted on 10/29/2014 8:32:41 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

Well, the whole program was farmed out to Orbital Sciences. And they probably got a screaming deal at the USSR Going Out of Business Sale.


12 posted on 10/29/2014 8:34:05 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I had heard it this way: The engines the Sovs developed were good engines. The problem with the N1 rocket was that the Sovs didn’t believe in using BIG engines (like the F-1’s that boosted the Saturn V’s 1st stage), but a bunch of smaller ones. They came up with a control system that they THOUGHT might work at keeping all the engines coordinated and synchronized. They found that their system didn’t work. The way they found out was by their ‘mighty’ N1’s blowing up.

Now, if they’re using engines that were manufactured in the Soviet Union 40 years ago, and have been sitting in some warehouse in Novosibirsk until we refurbished them, then yes...they’re idiots.

If they built them recently....then just chalk it up to experience.

Feces Occurs.


13 posted on 10/29/2014 8:34:12 AM PDT by hoagy62 ("Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered..."-Thomas Paine. 1776)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

My first thought was of a possible raghead on the launch crew. But with THIS additional info, that we paid untold $$$$ for a bunch of Putin’s army surplus, POS junk that didn’t even work when it was NEW, it all comes into focus. Another type of Solyndra ripoff to Obola’s credit.


14 posted on 10/29/2014 8:34:34 AM PDT by Tucker39 (Welcome to America! Now speak English; and keep to the right....In driving, in Faith, and politics.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

In the video, it looked like the engine sprang a leak and then thrust diminished followed by a couple of Big Bangs after it hit the ground.


15 posted on 10/29/2014 8:35:20 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

Putin gets the last laugh!


16 posted on 10/29/2014 8:36:19 AM PDT by refermech
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

I remembered reading about these soviet rockets NASA is using..”The RD-180 engine powers the first stage of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket, which is used almost exclusively to launch American military satellites and other government payloads.” from this article..”Russian Rocket Engine Ban on US Military Launches Could Affect NASA Spaceflight” http://www.space.com/25876-russia-rocket-engines-american-spaceflight.html


17 posted on 10/29/2014 8:40:15 AM PDT by wattsgnu
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To: molson209

18 posted on 10/29/2014 8:42:45 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Doctrine doesn't change. The trick is to find a way around it.)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway
Was this the resupply launch that was going to be seen by most of the East coast? I saw a map on freep that showed which states would be able to see the rocket.
19 posted on 10/29/2014 8:43:50 AM PDT by peeps36 (Save The Tortoise And Kill The People)
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

“..there are not many other options around the world in terms of using power plants of this size,..”

Once upon a time in America, if this sentence was read or heard, there would be an American company, one or more, which would say, “O yeh!’ And in a short time one would be in production superior to what anyone could imagine. We have lost that zeal. If a design engineer doesn’t get a fat government handout, he/she won’t do it.


20 posted on 10/29/2014 8:45:14 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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