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No more engines
Sam06
Member Posts: 21,244 ✭✭✭✭
Russia says we can ride a broomstick to space now because they are not going to sell up the rocket motors we use to boost some of our rockets.
I didn't know we used their engines in our Rockets.................man oh man there are a lot of old timer space guys rolling in the grave.
Is this a result of Barry and Joe turning NASA into a organization to teach math to muslims? Remember when he traveled around the world apologizing and bowing to all the tin pot dictators and lefty PM's. It was just before the arab spring. He told the fuzy wuzzies he was going to direct NASA to have more outreach to the muslims........
RLTW
Comments
Yes.
The Atlas V, which is the current workhorse for United Launch Alliance uses Russian RD-180 propulsion.
Obama destroyed NASA. They are nothing more than a program mgmt. entity now.
Lockheed Martin spent the last year trying to buy/rescue Aerojet Rockedyne. The Biden administration recently sued Lockheed to block that acquisition and Aerojet is now, quite literally imploding as a result.
It is worse than you think. ULA has enough RD-180 engines for the remainder of all scheduled Atlas V flights. BUT, their follow-on vehicle (the Vulcan) is designed to use Blue Origin's BE-4 engines, which are now almost three years late, and have no firm delivery date for even the first Vulcan flight. ULA and Blue Origin are both in deep trouble as a result.
Meanwhile, Northrup-Grumman's Antares booster used to fly resupply mission to the ISS uses Russian RD-181 engines, and the first stage of the booster is made in Ukraine. That's a double whammy.
We started using Russian engines because they are powerful and cheap. We gave sole-source contracts to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin which so far has delivered nothing but promises and vaporware.
Boeing's Starliner crew capsule failed its first test flight, and is now years behind. It may not fly its repeat test flight until late this year because of multiple and ongoing screwups.
We are down to SpaceX for both satellite and crewed launches. They are the best rocket company on the planet but they cannot do it all. Their follow-on rocket to the Falcon 9 is being hogtied by the FAA and may not be allowed to launch from south Texas after years of work and billions of dollars invested there.
The one vehicle that NASA is developing is years behind, and will cost way over a billion dollars for each launch.
good old America way find the cheapest source usually another country with dirt cheap labor is always a good bet
Biden has killed this country
l hear they make pretty good fireworks in MEXICO🚭️
Most of this began before Biden. In some instances, long before. This Russia/Ukraine catastrophe is merely the capstone.
The advantage to the RD-180, as well as the NK33 and NK43 engines is that they are re-usable and the LOX- Kerosene propellant is stable.
When on the Titan ll, lll, and lV programs at Aerojet, the re-building entailed critical level cleaning because the propellants were a Nitrogen Tetroxide and Hydrazine UDMH mix. Being a hypergolic mix, the Hydrazine could ignite when it came into contact with any rust or oxidation, so much of the feed system, turbopump assemblies, injectors and combustion chambers were subject to boroscope inspection. This was pre-Rocketdyne days in the 80s and 90s. We had a good safety and launch record.
We should just pull a “China.” Take one of the engines we have, reverse engineer it, and make it ourselves. Boom! Problem solved. The Amazon guy could probably get it done in a couple of weeks.
If you have Amazon Prime, 3 days.
As far as rockets coming out of the Ukraine- I think they used the monster Antonov cargo plane to move those. The one that is all shot to hell on the runway
The EPA has just about shut down manufacture of the rockets in the US.
Let us never forget come this November, Election Day.