Orbital Sciences Had Slated Its Soviet Rocket Engines for Retirement - Businessweek

Orbital Sciences Had Slated Its Soviet Rocket Engines for Retirement - Businessweek: "Even before the launch destruction of an Orbital Sciences (ORB) Antares rocket, the commercial space company was planning to retire the half-century-old Russian engines suspected as a potential cause of the failure.

The Soviet-era AJ-26 engine was designed in the 1960s as part of Russia’s space race with the U.S., originally envisioned as a way to propel cosmonauts to the moon. The engines are “refurbished and Americanized,” Frank Culbertson, the Orbital Sciences executive in charge of the NASA program, said Tuesday night in a news conference, defending the AJ-26 as “very robust and rugged” and with a successful track record."

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