Atlas 5 Launches

Rubyflame writes "As I write this, the Atlas 5 is just about to take off. Spaceflight Now for Mission Status. Atlas 5 is be the biggest Atlas rocket yet, and the first next-generation expendable launch vehicle."

RD-180

[Kesha]

Well, since I am Russian, I would like
to take the opportunity to mention that
Atlas 5 is powered by RD-180 engines,
derived from the Russian RD-170 engines.
I am proud.

Paul.

Re:RD-180

[waldo2020]

Well, I'm German, and all the rockets the Americans AND Russians ever made were based on ones stolen from Germany- Werner Von Braun's V2 designs;) Even the yanks admit this was the major prize of WW2, on which their whole space programme, moonshot and nuke launchers were based. V2s are still around - as Russian/Iraqi SCUDS;) And I'm proud! As an aside, I caught a show on a few nights ago on PBS that claimed the paranoid yanks were buying up all the fine Russian engines to keep them off the black market and away from you know who in Iraq ;) These engines are more powerful than anything ever made stateside, and are picked up for a few million dollars a pop! NASA can't wipe it's shiny ass for a million dollars;) Despite poor workmanship and shoddy Russian materials, the engines are overdesigned and very reliable, moreso after cleanup and refurnbishment by the American aerospace contractor Pratt & Whitney... see http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launcher-russia-00j .html

Re:RD-180

[spike hay]

I am USian. It would be safe to say that the U.S. would have been far behind Russia in our space program if it wasn't for German rocket scientists and the many captured V2's.

Although the Russians did get some German scientists, we got the bulk and we got almost all of the V2's.

The Russians were ahead of the U.S. in most technological areas and still are in some areas. (e.g. aerospace; The latest MiGs can go Mach 3, faster than our air superiority fighters. The next gen of MiGs will have plasma stealth and drag reduction technology)

Re:RD-180

[foobar104]

Best example of this: during the 60's, NASA contracted with the Fisher pen company to design and build a pressurized ball-point pen that could work in zero-gravity. See, ball-point pens rely on gravity for ink flow. Try writing with a ball-point pen upside down to see what I mean. Obviously a zero-gravity environment would be bad for traditional ball-point pens. So the Fisher company designed, at great cost, a fairly complex pressurized ball-point pen that could work in zero-gravity, as well as upside down. NASA sent them into orbit with the Apollo astronauts.

The Russians, meanwhile, used pencils.

Re:RD-180

[L.J. Hanson]

Urban Legend try again. Plus a pencil creates graphite dust which you don't want in equipment.

Re:RD-180

[dmadole]

Actually, NASA paid $2.95 each for the pens they bought and paid none of the development costs. Fisher Pen paid all the costs of development. And Fisher Pen approached and offered it to NASA, not the other way around.

The story of this used to be on the Fisher Pen company web site but it got shorted very substantially sometime in the last couple of years.

The original story and some other background are at:

http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.h tm

Re:RD-180

[foobar104]

Whether it's true or not has nothing to do with whether it's a good story. So nyaah. ;-)

Re:RD-180

[Kesha]

Plasma stealth is nothing more than a rumor. The latest MiG is prototype I.42. As far as I know it is an underfunded and already obsolete design that is nowhere near Mach 3 capable. It is unclear how the plasma shield can be maintained in the air currents over the fuselage. It is unclear how the plasma shield defeats the radar. It is also unclear how plasma (hot ion gas), can be concealed from the infrared heat seekers.

The only MiG that is Mach 3 "capable", is MiG-25, only due to the fact that the engines did not have an RPM speed limiter and tended accelerate uncontrollably when the plane exceeded Mach 2.83. As a result, a short flight at Mach 3 rendered the engines unusable, so I would not call this an operational Mach 3 capability, more like a last-hope capability.

Anyway, if you are looking for a Russian airplane design to be impressed by, try Su-37 Super Flanker, or the S-37 prototype (newly dubbed Su-47), also known as "Golden Eagle". S-37 looks like a klingon bird of prey ;-)

Re:RD-180

[spike hay]

Plasma stealth isn't a rumor. It's even been reported on by Jane's.

Take a look at this Russian aeronautics article:here [aeronautics.ru]

The super flanker looks impressive!

successful

[boarder]

I was able to watch the launch live at my company in
Los Angeles. It was successful and without incident.
The onboard camera kept a live feed from the rocket
to the ground... watching the first stage seperate in
space was spectacular.