Elon Musk, an American entrepreneur and founder of SpaceX, said that when creating a liquid-propellant rocket engine, the Raptor was inspired, among other things, by Russian developments.
In an interview with Everyday Astronaut published on Tuesday, August 3, the SpaceX founder revealed that he disagrees with the statement that engine design is the most difficult thing.
“I spend a lot of time studying the design of Russian rocket engines. There are wonderful Russian engines, they (Russian developers – Ed.) Have been engaged in liquid-propellant rocket engines for a long time, and I have made literally hundreds of different designs, ”Musk quotes the publication.
He noted that the Raptor’s improvements over their Russian counterparts are relatively small, with the exception of cost. So, according to him, the SpaceX engine has a higher pressure than in Russian designs, and it is also equipped with full gasification of combustion components.
“The super hard thing about the Raptor is how to make a Raptor with less than $ 1,000 per ton of thrust,” the businessman added.
According to him, it is this fundamental indicator that can make humanity a civilization living on several different planets.
Last fall, Elon Musk on Twitter praised Russian and Ukrainian rocket engines in response to a post from one of the researchers who compiled a “family tree” of power plants of the USSR and the Russian Federation.
