Apollo service module question

"Fevric J. Glandules" wrote in message
...
Derek Lyons wrote:

"Fevric J. Glandules" wrote:

Big lump of metal like an engine bell? Sorry, not buying it.

If it were just a matter of a big lump of metal, you'd be right in not
buying it.

But changing the nozzle changes the performance of the engine, which
changes a whole raftload of things.

Fair point. But they had the time to make the changes, and reason to.

No, they really didn't. Remember this was the Space Race and the US was
determined to show the world that the Soviet Union was inferior. You don't
throw away a working engine design and start over under those circumstances.
And as history has shown, that engine was adequate and did what it was
needed to do.

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon

Jeff Findley wrote:
Prominently displayed at Downey in the Apollo days was a sign that
proclaimed "Waste anything but time".

They probably got that from the movie "When Worlds Collide" which had a
similar sign at the site where they were building their space ark.


Pat

Jeff Findley wrote:
No, they really didn't. Remember this was the Space Race and the US was
determined to show the world that the Soviet Union was inferior. You don't
throw away a working engine design and start over under those circumstances.
And as history has shown, that engine was adequate and did what it was
needed to do.

One of the engines for the LM got shifted to another company early on,
as the original contractor wasn't making progress on it at the rate NASA
wanted.
Anyone here know the details of that story?

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone...
Jeff Findley wrote:
No, they really didn't. Remember this was the Space Race and the US was
determined to show the world that the Soviet Union was inferior. You
don't throw away a working engine design and start over under those
circumstances. And as history has shown, that engine was adequate and did
what it was needed to do.

One of the engines for the LM got shifted to another company early on, as
the original contractor wasn't making progress on it at the rate NASA
wanted.
Anyone here know the details of that story?

A bit of the timeline is on Astronautix.com:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lmdlsion.htm

The above gives a good summary of what happened. I'm not sure where the
gory technical details can be found.

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon

Jeff Findley wrote:
Anyone here know the details of that story?

A bit of the timeline is on Astronautix.com:

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lmdlsion.htm

The above gives a good summary of what happened. I'm not sure where the
gory technical details can be found.


So it was Rocketdyne that got dumped?
Thanks for that link, it was a interesting read, particularly the info
about the CSM radar getting removed, which doesn't sound like a good
idea when you read the discussion on it.

Pat