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Russia's Proton Rocket, Which Predates Apollo, Will Finally Stop Flying (arstechnica.com)
The Russian-manufactured Proton rocket that has been traveling into space since before humans landed on the Moon will finally stop flying. "In an interview with a Russian publication, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said production of the Proton booster will cease as production shifts to the new Angara booster," reports Ars Technica. "No new Proton contracts are likely to be signed." From the report: First launched in 1965, the rocket was initially conceived of as a booster to fly two-person crews around the Moon, as the Soviet Union sought to beat NASA into deep space. Indeed, some of its earliest missions launched creatures, including two turtles, to the Moon and back.
The decision will bring down the curtain on one of the longest-used and most versatile rockets in world history. As the United States developed the space shuttle in the 1970s and began flying it in the 1980s, the Russian space agency saw the opportunity to commercialize the Proton rocket, and by the end of the 1990s, the booster became a major moneymaker for the Russian space industry. With a capacity of 22.8 tons to low-Earth orbit, it became a dominant player in the commercial market for heavier satellites. An increasing rate of failures, combined with the rise of SpaceX's cheaper Falcon 9 rockets, "have caused the number of Proton launches in a given year to dwindle from eight or so to just one or two," adds Ars. "This shrinking market has opened the door to the Angara rocket, which has the advantage of not using environmentally hazardous fuel for each of its stages..."
With so many years flying even BSD canâ(TM)t match that kind of up-time!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Russia's Soyuz Rocket, Which Predates anything else, simply continues Flying
it's basically the rocket that launched the very fist satellite into orbite, just with more stages.
aaaaaaa
Angara 5 will provide them with a booster that admittedly is more expensive, but on the other hand, at least it has no significant improvement in performance...wait a minute...? How was this supposed to work?
Ezekiel 23:20
Space bunnies?
... when one of your space industry colleagues decides that the best place to continue observations is lying flat on the ground, best to take note...
Wikipedia says: "Fuel: N2O4/UDMH".
A ghastly toxic combination. Does not require cryogenic cooling, though. Also ignites on contact.
if it predates Apollo, what else it preys on?
As consolation prize for losing election against him, President Putin is pleased to offer his previous opponents commemorative flight on last Proton rocket launch. Unfortunately owing to economic uncertainty caused by too frequent elections, is only one way ticket.
First "true" Apollo (Apollo II) launch was in January 1964 (https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo.html) while the first Proton launch was in July of 1965 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Proton_launches_(1965%E2%80%9369)). There were Apollo technology test launches as early as 1961.
Proton definitely outlasted Apollo, but I don't think it's accurate to say that it predates it.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
an Anti-Proton rocket ?
That would really powerful
... rocket boosts YOU.
Wait a minute - that's ...
Never mind.
Check out my novel.
Remember Atlas? An Atlas rocket launched John Glenn into orbit as part of the US Mercury program, and was an ICBM in 1958. They are launching an Atlas rocket in August 2018.
(I know, Atlas in name only. Not the same technology).
NASA spent ~1,000,000$ on nitrogen pressurized pens so astronauts could write in space. Russia used pencils
Urban legend.
Yep. Check the snopes site here: https://www.snopes.com/fact-ch...
Or the Space Review site here: http://www.thespacereview.com/...
which ends with the conclusion "The Million Dollar Space Pen Myth is just that, a myth. The pens never cost a lot of money and were not developed by wasteful bureaucrats or overactive NASA engineers. The real story of the Space Pen is less interesting than the myth, but in many ways more inspiring. It is not a story of NASA bureaucrats versus simplistic Russians, but a story of a clever capitalist who built a superior product and conducted some innovative marketing. That story, however, is a little harder to sell to a public that believes what it wants to believe."
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
So it's turtles all the way up.
Table-ized A.I.