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Yet they somehow beat the US to space. And for some reason the US is still buying rocket engines from Russia.
by geomark 7y ago
Yet they somehow beat the US to space. And for some reason the US is still buying rocket engines from Russia.
- jonathankoren 7y agoRocket engine purchases were/are a strategic decision to keep the rocket scientists employed rather than having them sell there wares on the black market. I thought this was common knowledge for 30 years.
- geomark 7y agoThen why all the angst among US military and government about being unable for so long to produce their own rockets?
- lightgreen 7y agoWhy produce something when you can buy it cheaper? Economy 101.
- salawat 7y agoCounterpoint: Global geopolitics and Military Logistical Strategy 101: sometimes you can't trust who you're buying that widget from when the widget in question has a significant contribution to maintaining National Security. There are also risks to having someone else manufacture a widget that incorporates technology you'd rather not spread around. This is why there will always be at least one domestic chip foundry, and most of the critical components of ICBM's /nuclear weapons are manufactured domestically as I understand it. Medical equipment also falls under that umbrella. Hell, even taps and dies do. God bless Admiral Rickover in that regard.
- jonathankoren 7y agoThis isn’t an opposing point. You want both.
- redis_mlc 7y ago> Yet they somehow beat the US to space. Somehow? With captured German rocket scientists. Same as USA.
- lightgreen 7y agoThey actually didn’t. German rocket scientists were smart people and they surrendered to US to avoid horror of dealing with NKVD. That said, there are reasons why USSR was first in space. For example, USSR deliberately ignored human life cost. In particular, they seriously considered first human flight to be a failure, so they announced it publicly only after Gagarin landed successfully.
- jjeaff 7y agoIt is well documented that some Nazi scientists worked on Russian rocket programs after ww2.
- lightgreen 7y agoSome, yes, but I think most of them went to US.
- lightgreen 7y agoThey got first to space, but people were starving, healthcare was shit, there were no freedom (including no freedom of moving within USSR), and generally quality of life was very poor. Hardly an achievement. If these rocket engines are cheaper, why not buy something from someone who is producing them below production cost? Good for US, they save money.