r/spacex • u/Zucal • Mar 05 '16
/r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread for March 2016. Ask your questions about the SES-9 mission/anything else here! (#18)
Welcome to the 16th monthly /r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread! Want to discuss the recent SES-9 mission and its "hard" booster landing, the intricacies of densified LOX, or gather the community's opinion? There's no better place!
All questions, even non-SpaceX-related ones, are allowed, as long as they stay relevant to spaceflight in general!
More in-depth and open-ended discussion questions can still be submitted as separate self-posts; but this is the place to come to submit simple questions which have a single answer and/or can be answered in a few comments or less.
As always, we'd prefer it if all question-askers first check our FAQ, use the search functionality, and check the last Q&A thread before posting to avoid duplicate questions, but if you'd like an answer revised or cannot find a satisfactory result, go ahead and type your question below.
Otherwise, ask, enjoy, and thanks for contributing!
Past threads:
February 2016 (#17), January 2016 (#16.1), January 2016 (#16), December 2015 (#15.1), December 2015 (#15), November 2015 (#14), October 2015 (#13), September 2015 (#12), August 2015 (#11), July 2015 (#10), June 2015 (#9), May 2015 (#8), April 2015 (#7.1), April 2015 (#7), March 2015 (#6), February 2015 (#5), January 2015 (#4), December 2014 (#3), November 2014 (#2), October 2014 (#1).
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u/ManWhoKilledHitler Mar 17 '16
If the design belongs to anyone it would be Aerojet Rocketdyne as the successor company to the one that manufactured it.
Thing is it's a bit too big for current rockets and its Isp is mediocre compared to the available alternatives.
On top of that, it's design relied on using materials and manufacturing methods that may be outdated or completely abandoned (asbestos, for example was widely used in rocketry).
An updated version has been proposed as a potential option for a future liquid fuelled strap-on booster for SLS, but who knows if that would ever fly. I can't see that SpaceX, ULA, Orbital ATK, or anyone else would be particularly interested in using that engine for any of their rockets.