Russia to sell China rocket engines?
The competition heats up: Russia is negotiating with China to sell them Russian rocket engines.
No deal has been made, but it appears that Russia, faced with the possibility that it might lose the U.S. as a customers, is shopping its product around.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The competition heats up: Russia is negotiating with China to sell them Russian rocket engines.
No deal has been made, but it appears that Russia, faced with the possibility that it might lose the U.S. as a customers, is shopping its product around.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I find it entirely ridiculous that the United States Of America needs to purchase rocket engines from Russia, or anyone else for that matter. And I have great respect for the Russians and their technology, that’s not my point.
What do I not understand about this? Is it purely related to cost of production per unit, or is their rocket engine technology that much more superior and or reliable than ours?
The reason ULA has been buying Russian engines is probably two-fold: One, they do cost less. Two, ULA has been lazy and not pressured to compete with anyone or innovate for decades. To save money they took the easy route, buying Russian engines, rather than find a way to make them cheaper themselves.
Russian rocket engines are good, but they don’t really have any specific advantage over anyone else. For example, SpaceX’s Merlin engine is probably superior, but SpaceX is not selling that engine to other companies.
Thank you, and you anticipated my next question: Who makes Space X’s engines? I have to believe that Musk’s investment in the design and production capability will ensure his dominance into the foreseeable future.
I think I saw the 3D printed engines for their capsule here, a beautiful piece of engineering and production. I think they use 3D laser scintering to build all of the parts for the engines.
http://3dprint.com/4740/spacex-dragon-2-3d-print/
Unlimited future potential related to shapes, simplicity in design and level of part complexity.
https://youtu.be/yKnlmfuMSgo
https://youtu.be/cRE-PzI6uZA
SpaceX makes SpaceX’s engines.