On 10/29/2014 7:22 PM, andy pugh wrote: > On 30 October 2014 00:54, Dave Cole <linuxcncro...@gmail.com> wrote: >> I'm always looking for a bargain, but why would anyone in their right >> mind use refurbished Russian Rocket engines from the 1970's for a launch >> in 2014 ?? > Presumably they were refurbished but unused. (you don't get them back). > They were made 40 years ago regardless of cost, and probably very well. > > To phrase the question another way, why make new at huge cost when NOS > are available off the shelf?
I don't know if the engines caused the problem or not but this launch company bought up a number of these engines in order to economize on their rocket production. The Russian engine maker is distancing themselves from those engines saying that the Americans modified them. Here is an interesting article on the subject of the old Russian engines. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/10/29/antares-rocket-explosion-the-question-of-using-decades-old-soviet-engines/ Quoting this article: In May, one of its refurbished Soviet engines failed at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. "Sources claim the engine 'exploded,'" reported <http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/05/antares-aj-26-engine-fails-stennis-testing/> NASA Space Flight. "The failure is currently under evaluation." The Washington Post also said that they had to weld stress corrosion cracks in the engines after 40 years of storage....... but at least they were cheap! ;-) A Guardian article: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/29/russian-rocket-crash-virginia I am not a huge fan of SpaceX, but they have developed their own engines. I believe they can do better than 1970's technology. Things have advanced a lot since the 70's. Dave --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
