Robert Bradbury wrote:
> According to the quoted prices, using Energia rockets you
> could dump 7 out of 8 launches into the ocean and still get
> more material actually "in orbit" for the same cost.
> While they may be unreliable, they aren't *that* unreliable.
Thats right, they are not that unreliable. And their cost is
very low, if one can navigate the turbulent waters of Russian
bureaucracy. International Launch Services, ILS, was
formed by Lockheed Martin, Krunichev and Energia to
market Proton and Atlas rockets globally.
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/space/launchers/
> Its interesting to note that Intl. Launch Svs. (www.ilslaunch.com)
> documents that Atlas V rockets will be flying on Russian RD-180
> engines. A sad testimony to the state of engine design in the U.S.
Roger that, and furthermore, the commies are designing engines
*still* without computers, or nearly so, the same way we use to
do it way back when. This is the time of year when annual
performance evaluations take place. We are often reminded
that there are plenty of good commie rocket scientists working for
a dollar an hour. {8-[ spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:09:23 MDT