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It's also (I think) the first flight to orbit for an NK-33 engine since they were built 40 years ago!
by tjmc 13y ago
It's also (I think) the first flight to orbit for an NK-33 engine since they were built 40 years ago!
- InclinedPlane 13y agoYup. Soviet moon rocket engines! 120 of those suckers have been lit and running on rockets but none of the engines have ever put anything in orbit, until now!
- anovikov 13y agoNope. N-1 which have flown 4 times with 30 engines on each first stage didn't use NK-33. It used NK-15, a very different engine with similar thrust. N-1 never flown with NK-33, having been scrapped before NK-33 were ready to fly.
- InclinedPlane 13y agoThe NK-33 is enormously similar to the NK-15. It's basically the same engine with modifications for higher chamber pressure which slightly increase thrust and Isp. Also, technically the Antares uses the Aerojet AJ26-58, if you want to get persnickity. Here's a photo comparison of the NK-15 and the NK-33 or AJ26-58: http://i.imgur.com/vwYIwFd.jpg http://i.imgur.com/vwYIwFd.jpg
- anovikov 13y agoYes and no. NK-33 was developed from NK-15 but had a lot of difference. Mainly, NK-15 could not be restarted (i don't mean in flight, but at all: it could be lighted only once, then it went to the scrapyard). So, it couldn't be TESTED. That's why N-1 had 100% failure rate (another reason was a buggy engine-out management system, which was designed to enable rocket to fly with some engines out, but in fact did the reverse, twice causing it to fail when then failed engines could be simply ignored). NK-33, on the other hand, could be restarted many times, and some copies counted a lot of time on the test stand.
- avmich 13y agoAmong other things NK-33 has completely redesigned turbopump comparing to NK-15. The pump believed to be the major cause of problems with NK-15.