The Antares rocket that blew up on the launchpad on its way to the International Space Station last night was using a 40-year-old Russian engine of a similar design to those used during the Soviets' disastrous attempts to beat America to the moon in the 1960s, it has emerged.
Dulles-based Orbital Sciences, which has a $1.9 billion contract to make eight supply missions to the international space station, purchased a number of the engines which had been mothballed by Russia in the 1970s, the Washington Post reports.
Earlier incarnations of the engines had been designed to power Russia's enormous N1 rockets into orbit - however all four launches of the N1, which took place between 1969 and 1972, failed, leading the Soviet space programme to abandon attempts to put a cosmonaut on the moon.
Orbital Sciences, which used a refurbished Russian engine in the doomed Antares rocket, insists that the technology is sound and that there are no better modern alternatives.
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15 comments:
The irony here is that Russia launched the back-up vessel within hours to resupply the space station. We failed and they succeeded. The old America is no more. It's been all downhill since Reagan.
NASA needs to stick with communication satellites.They are attempting to impress the federal government with a huge saving of money.That is a no brainer.By the time the next rocket is launched to replace this one the expense to taxpayers will be more than double the original estimate.
We have "starved the beast" enough. Now we are buying junk from Russia to save money?
What else COULD they say?
Did you think they would come out and say their "campaign contributions" got them a 2 BILLION dollar contract that they used to buy 8 engines the Soviet Union refused to use (real cheap, too!) and the 200 million dollar loss is entirely our fault?
Don't forget to vote.
Hell, vote three or four times.
Orbital Science pays NASA to deliver supplies to ISS. This is huge for both NASA and the local economy.
The engines will be the source of examination. Yes using soviet era hardware is risky. Orbital modified them, so it is more likely that they are responsible if the engines caused the explosion. Space X builds their own engines. They basically build the entire system in house.
No thanks y'all, I'll listen to the rocket scientists before any of you!
2:23
There is no such thing as a rocket scientist. Aerospace and Astronautical engineers are NOT scientists.
2:23 - intelligent man!
Shame it did not hit DC
Sounds like 3:01 is bitter that they weren't smart enough to be either of those things!
They were old Italian engines.
I dont think any engine can operate at 108%
well 420 I am smart enough to know the difference between an engineer and a scientist.
Obviously, you aren't..
Way too many special interest groups involved to expect an objective investigation.Where there is huge money there is huge corruption.
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