Kosmos929

On the first N1 launch (I think it was vehicle 3L) one of the first stage engines shut down for no good reason. The engine diametrically opposite was shut down by the control system with no apparent affects on anything. The first stage failure that claimed the booster occurred c. 40 seconds later and was unrelated. So I don't think that a single engine failure would necessarily doom the rocket. This can all be blamed on whoever decided not to cough up the money to build a static test stand for the first stage.

Why not consider pulsed fission, as in Project Orion (the real one, not the one that we just killed)?

Possibly. At least there would have been a chance of that happening, instead of our looking back on the fact that it didn't. I think the Russians made a mistake dumping the N1, then made another mistake not building Vulkan, and then made another mistake when they let Energia die. Well, that's what happens when you put politicians in charge of a country. Considering our situation here in the States, we don't have much reason to feel superior.

Hello everybody from the desert Southwest, where the rockets grow!