re: #213 Targetpractice

Yeah, no shocker there. Trying to undercut the competition by finding the least expensive parts possible, ends up pulling relics out of the garage on the promise that they can be reconditioned cheaper than a fresh-built engine.

The irony of it all? The NK-33 hasn’t been built since the 70s and Orbital only has a limited number left. The alternative engine’s supply is devoted to ULA’s launchers and so Orbital is practically begging Kuznetsov to restart NK-33 production.

Orbital faces the obstacle that the expertise for designing and building large liquid fueled engines has all but melted away in the U.S. The specialist job shops that made most of the parts are almost all gone, the engineers who knew the work best are retired or deceased, the people who knew how to assemble and test the things the same.