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A comment on Musk explains why SpaceX prefers clusters of small engines. Parent comment

Re:Musk explains why SpaceX prefers clusters of small engines by avmich on Thursday February 08, 2018 @12:16PM (#16333707)
> When you're landing a rocket, you need to be able to throttle down quite low.

When R-7 was developed in 1950-s, as a weapon, one of requirements was the precision of attained speed at the moment of engine cut-off. It was solved by shutting down main chambers on the upper (second) stage, powered by RD-108 - 4 chambers about 20 tons of thrust each - and maintaining thrust from steering chamber, 4 of them, 3 tons of thrust each.

This is another example of deep throttling.

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Re:Musk explains why SpaceX prefers clusters of small engines by Gravityloss on Thursday February 08, 2018 @03:24PM (#16335287)
That'd be quite something, improving the Soyuz to do powered landings. Talk about getting mileage from your design.

On the other hand, it can't even stand on the pad fully fueled, it's hanging from an arm...

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