“You constantly make claims that turn out to be bogus as well. You respond to every thread that is about any technical subject. About 1/3 of the time you turn out to be completely wrong.”
Cite?
“Why would you put a low ISP stage after a higher ISP stage? There is no technical reason to do this.”
Solid propellant motors are commonly used in upper stage and kick motor applications where simplicity and reliability are desired above pure performance. See the Inertial Upper Stage, Payload Assist Modules, Star and Orbus family of upper stage kick motors, et cetera.
“Why would you use an engine designed and made 40 years ago? You get zero benefit from any subsequent advances in technology.”
The SLS is using engines designed in the same era (RS-25). The AJ-26 actually updates the NK-33 with modern avionics and thrust vector control systems; it isn’t just some engine pulled out of a junkpile somewhere and bolted up to a thrust structure. It has gone through extensive qualification testing (~5000 s hot fire time) for reuse applications.
“Why would you use engineers from Ukraine instead of California’s best and brightest? It’s pretty well established who the best engineers on the planet are, and where they come from.”
Soviet-era quality control in high volume manufacturing may be for shit, but anyone who has ever worked with good Russian and Ukrainian mathematicians, programmers, and aerospace engineers can attest to how solid both their technical fundamentals and general knowledge are. I’ve personally taken apart a number of systems designed by Russians and assembled in various East Bloc nations, and while the build quality is always crude and sometimes questionable, the absolute cleverness and innovativeness of the engineering behind it is often stunning. Unlike the Germans (also good engineers but who like to build everything to clockwork precision regardless that it takes a horologist to service it) and Americans (who like to optimize for absolute minimum margins above all else even when totally nonsensical and exceedingly costly), the Russian engineering shows an attention to practicality in assembly, maintenance, and field service that is stunning in its combination of simplicity and elegance. Plus, they can quote Pushkin and Chekov precisely while stumbling drunk, and almost all have a curious affection for all things American but especially Levi’s jeans (“My dah-tah want me to bring back as many as feet in my suitcase”, tract housing (“Bee-eu-tee-fool!”), and Bruce Springsteen (“The Boosss!”). They work fourteen hour days for six days a week like it’s a vacation (“Wvee get Soonday oof? Thees ees a wvonderfool coin-tree!”) and their detail drawings and specs are always correct, because even though the Soviet Union is gone, the thought of being sent to the gulag for making even a single error is somewhere in the back of their minds, always.
Not to spit on American engineers–after all, I’m one of them–and companies like Orbital and SpaceX have many bright and hardworking people, but let’s not perpetuate the nonsensical slur that Russians and Ukrainians are all lazy, ignorant peasants who can’t count past ten without taking off their shoes. After all, we owe pretty much all of basic rocket theory and orbital mechanics to Russian mathematicians and engineers.
But please, go on with all that I don’t know and am wrong about. By all means, let’s hear about your superior knowledge and expertise, and your intimate knowledge of the propulsion industry and aerospace technology.
Stranger