The Engines That Came In From The Cold

[turbo917k]

A great documentary about Russian rocket engines. Goes into great detail about fuel pumping and flow issues, very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZnYr94aa9E

Enjoy,

T

[Shuttle]

Yeah, it is a very good documentary movie, made me feel so proud of my country. I really like Mishin's answer at 21:44:

"Nu chto, ploho sebya chuvstvoval?/Of course I felt bad. Do you think you would feel good if your engine blew up with a thrust of 4.5 thousand tons?" I also made a gif with Korolev from this video:)

Edited January 17, 2014 by Shuttle

[Motokid600]

Loved that documentary. Probably the most detail you'll ever get about the Russian space program and the N1. It's ashame that rocket never reached orbit.

[tavert]

But hey, its engines live on, propelling Cygnus to the ISS in 2014. These engines are half as old as "liquid fuel rocket engine" being a thing, and they're still useful!

[MaverickSawyer]

And my dad gets to work on those engines, down at Aerojet.

[turbo917k]

The shot with the warehouse full of engines… 100%

P.S. Great gif

[Specialist290]

Huh. I was discussing this very documentary in another thread a while back, but I forgot what it was called or where I could find it. Glad to see it's still around!

[Motokid600]

What do you think would've happened if Korolev hadnt died?

[Mulkari]

Interesting that Soviets managed to develop relatively cheap staged combustion engines. US made SSME which also uses staged combustion is so expensive it would never be profitable to use in expandable rockets.

[Albert VDS]

What do you think would've happened if Korolev hadnt died?

Then they would have given the Americans a run for their money.

[kiwiak]

N1 looks so exotic, its shape, number of engines, these fins..

Also, Korolew vs Von Braun - who wins?

[John FX]

N1 looks so exotic, its shape, number of engines, these fins..

Also, Korolew vs Von Braun - who wins?

Creator, innovator. Apples to oranges.

Very good film.

[Virtualgenius]

If you where to give both countries the same budgets the Russians would have have beaten the Americans hands down the way they approached things was different there technology was years ahead of the Americans in every step of the space race they where ahead its there economy which could not support the huge budget required to manage a space program. I am Australian and have a huge respect for both countries and there achievments I just wish they had persisted with the Buran or at least revive it.

[DerekL1963]

What do you think would've happened if Korolev hadnt died?

Pretty much what happened IRL. The Soviet Lunar program failed not because Korolev died, or because they didn't have enough budget, or didn't have the right technology... It failed because the Soviet space program went into something of a decline after rabbiting out of the gate as they thought they had proved their point and they didn't take Project Apollo seriously. Internal politics further hampered their efforts and slowed their programs. By the time they figured that we actually intended to go through with it (which was something of a fluke itself) and put a man on the moon and that they needed to get serious, it was far too late to catch up. They had no time to put the necessary technological and industrial base in place.

On the other hand, it's not clear that even had they taken the challenge seriously what would have happened because the US had an enormous lead out of the gate - the F1 was already well along in development, as was the Saturn series of boosters and the Apollo CSM. One thing people don't generally realize is that President Kennedy choose the goal a lunar landing over other options not just because it was hard or audacious, but because so many of the important puzzle pieces were already on the board. It would probably have been a close race, and more dependent on who caught the fewest bad breaks or who was the luckiest more than anything else.