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Which one is the Space Shuttle and which one is the Falcon 9?
by miguelrochefort 6y ago
Which one is the Space Shuttle and which one is the Falcon 9?
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y agoSpace Shuttle Solid, Falcon 9 Liquid
- catalogia 6y agoThe Space Shuttle had three liquid fuel rocket engines on the orbiter (pulling fuel from the big orange tank), but used two huge solid fuel boosters as well. The Falcon 9 does not use any solid fuel boosters.
- dredmorbius 6y agoAnd for relative thrust, the SSRBs (solid boosters) developed a maximum of 14.7 MN (meganewtons) thrust each, or a total of 29.4 MN. The SSMEs (liquid fueled RS-25 engines) produced ~1.9 MN thrust each, or 5.7 MN for the three. Of the 35.1 MN of maximum total shuttle launch thrust, about 84% came from the solid boosters, only 16% from the somewhat misleadingly named "main" engines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Booster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Boo... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-25
- catalogia 6y agoPercentage of total maximum thrust is one way to look at it. Another is to consider that the SRBs get dropped when the shuttle is going about 4,000 km/h, after which the SSMEs bring the shuttle up to 28,000 km/h.