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RangerDanger75

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This is at Auburn University's (War Eagle!) Aerospace Engineering building. I don't think they actually use it, I think it's just a display piece. I plan on going over to the building again soon, and I'll let you guys know what it is exactly.

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Damn you're good. I went back and checked, and it was indeed the RL-10

Lucky guess, maybe? ;D

It's a VERY common American turbopump-driven, liquid fuel engine, and it's about as prolific in US aerospace history as the trusty old RD-107 was for the Soviets. Plus, it looked to be about the right size, dimensions, and vintage.

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You just reminded me that in Soviet Russia, everything is backwards and upside down.

Oh, and they explode you (instead of the Kerbals).

You gotta admit, those early Russian rocket scientists deserve some respect. Tsiolkovsky, Korolev, Glushko, ALL seemed to have an edge over their Western counterparts. Back in the early '30s, Russian rocket technology was YEARS ahead of anyone else's, INCLUDING the Germans'. Then many of those brilliant minds fell victim to Stalin's purges, and progress completely halted. I'm of the belief that, if Korolev & gang hadn't been locked up, they would've been bombarding Penemunde with ballistic missiles quicker than Von Braun could even blink.

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You gotta admit, those early Russian rocket scientists deserve some respect. Tsiolkovsky, Korolev, Glushko, ALL seemed to have an edge over their Western counterparts. Back in the early '30s, Russian rocket technology was YEARS ahead of anyone else's, INCLUDING the Germans'. Then many of those brilliant minds fell victim to Stalin's purges, and progress completely halted. I'm of the belief that, if Korolev & gang hadn't been locked up, they would've been bombarding Penemunde with ballistic missiles quicker than Von Braun could even blink.

That was a joke.

They do deserve some respect, though I lost you at 'then many...'.

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Ironically, the American skill in miniaturisation was partially due to being unable to match Soviet rockets for sheer brute force. The difference in size between Sputnik 1 and the first Satellite that the Americans attempted to launch (Vanguard) was striking - Sputnik 1 was orders of magnitude larger.

One thing that I have always found ironic: the Soviet moon program fell victim to the fact that multiple bureaus were working on multiple projects, often developing nearly identical hardware without any communication with others. The Soviet system was centralised.

Conversely, the American system was very market based and decentralised; yet they had a central project (coordinated through NASA) and very strong coordinating leadership.

The American program was therefore much more organised.

Oh, and sheer business muscle was also a factor. It wasn't readily apparent until the 1980s, but even in the 60s the Soviets were starting to run out of money.

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Ironically, the American skill in miniaturisation was partially due to being unable to match Soviet rockets for sheer brute force. The difference in size between Sputnik 1 and the first Satellite that the Americans attempted to launch (Vanguard) was striking - Sputnik 1 was orders of magnitude larger.

ONE order of magnitude, if that.

And that was because the Russians lauched Sputnik from a modified R-7 ICBM (the very same rocket Soyuz is based on), while the American scientists wanted to use rockets designed for scientific purposes (i.e. puny little sounding rockets) to accomplish the feat. Although, the Americans were at somewhat stagnant at that point, with Von Braun stuck on his Redstone design and nobody else bothering to design new and revolutionary liquid-engines like Glushko was. So yes, in a sense, the American rocket program WAS unable to match the Soviets until Sputnik gave 'em a swift kick in the rear.

Then the almighty ATLAS brought America up to a competitive level with the Russians, in terms of rocket technology at least.

One thing that I have always found ironic: the Soviet moon program fell victim to the fact that multiple bureaus were working on multiple projects, often developing nearly identical hardware without any communication with others. The Soviet system was centralised.

The Soviet moon project failed because Korolev and Glushko couldn't get along.

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is at Auburn University's (War Eagle!) Aerospace Engineering building. I don't think they actually use it, I think it's just a display piece. I plan on going over to the building again soon, and I'll let you guys know what it is exactly.

I'm up in Birmingham and UAB's got a whole Space Science/Engineering center. Every so often they'd send stuff up on the shuttle for ISS work. There's a lot of cool stuff there.

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