Thunder in a bottle: the non-use of the mighty F-1 engine

Posted on: Mar. 27th, 2006 || Source: thespacereview.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

While NASA is rethinking its selection of the space shuttle main engine for the heavy-lift launch vehicle that is one of the cornerstones of the exploration plan, one engine not being considered to replace it is the F-1 from the Saturn 5 program.
Dwayne Day studies an earlier effort to revive the F-1 engine, and the costs and challenges involved with doing so.

NASA is currently considering whether to switch its planned heavy-lift booster from Rocketdyne’s Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) to the same company’s RS-68 engine. Although the Exploration Systems Architecture Study originally indicated that the SSME would power the rocket, the shuttle engines are expensive and were never designed to be produced in bulk, which is why the RS-68 is now in play.

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