/sci/ - Science & Math

re: the discussion in the last thread, i'm pretty sure that glushko could've had something like a hypergolic rd-170 ready to go by the late 60s if he and korolev could've reconciled. ORSC is much easier with N2O4 than LOX and energomash had a lot of experience with it from working on proton, and splitting the combustion chamber would've given it a much speedier development than the RD-270 was getting when it got nixed (and even that had several successful test fires, somehow).
It wouldn't have had the performance of the RD-170 but it probably still could get a sea level ISP in the 285-290s range like the RD-253 had. If you have 6-7 of those on the first stage and keep the NK-15Vs on the second and third stages then that might be a viable moon rocket.