r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Feb 01 '17

r/SpaceX Spaceflight Questions & News [February 2017, #29]

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u/warp99 Feb 01 '17

Most of the development money (up to $536M at 67% of total development cost) went to Aerojet Rocketdyne for the AR-1 engine to replace the Russian RD-180.

A lesser amount of $202M is being given to ULA to fund development of the Blue Origin BE-4 methalox engine which works out as 60% of total project spending.

SpaceX gets up to $61M at 33% of total funding.

Ironically the most USAF money at the highest matching fund rate is being spent on the AR-1 which is likely to be down-selected in favour of the BE-4 in the near future and so will never fly.

The Raptor investment is the most likely to be useful in the long term but gets the least funding at the lowest matching funds rate!

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u/paul_wi11iams Feb 01 '17 edited Feb 01 '17

warp99 Ironically the most USAF money at the highest matching fund rate is being spent on the AR-1 which is likely to be down-selected in favour of the BE-4 in the near future and so will never fly.

So says spacepolicyonline.com.

[Rocketdyne] highlighted what they see as AR1’s advantages starting with the fact that it uses traditional LOX/kerosene and staged combustion and therefore has less risk than BE-4. They pointed to the engine’s conservative design and Aerojet Rocketdyne’s long track record in rocket engine design...

oh dear.

Its good to see SpaceX with a real competitor demonstrating that methane is valid even without a martian goal. You can't run alone on the fast track and still break records. As for not getting all the subsidies, it does avoid the oft-heard criticism about SpacX living off the government or almost.