4 ms·
As they say in the space industry... All rocket, no engines.
by fleitz 11y ago
As they say in the space industry...
All rocket, no engines.
- tgb 11y agoI don't understand. Can you explain this and the parent's comment on engines?
- danmaz74 11y agoThe ULA launchers use the Russian produced RD-180 engine
- avmich 11y agoOnly Atlas-V. Delta-IV uses American hydrogen engines (RS-68); however Delta-IV is rather more expensive than Atlas-V. Even though Atlas-IV is rather more expensive than Falcon-9 - which uses simpler, less performant but cheaper technology.
- JumpCrisscross 11y agoULA's vehicles were designed around the RD-180 rocket engine [1][2]. This is an engine built and designed in Russia. After Russia annexed Crimea, Congress banned the Pentagon from using Russian rocket engines. Russia responded by counter-banning the Pentagon from using its engines [3]. This made things complicated for ULA. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180 [2] http://www.ulalaunch.com/faqs-rd-180.aspx http://www.ulalaunch.com/faqs-rd-180.aspx [3] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-05-13/russia-bans-rocket-engine-sales-to-u-s-military http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-05-13/russia-ban...
- fleitz 11y agohttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=all%20hat%2C%20no%20cattle http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=all%20hat%2C%... So if you're a rocket company and don't make your own engines you're not really a rocket company, you're just talk.
- avmich 11y agoOr if you don't have a reliable supplier of engines. In this case world politics meddled with space rocketry, so supplier's goods became less than completely available.