You're forgetting that it was a solid fuel engine, and that the engine housing didn't heat evenly. It was hottest at the output, and coldest at the top of the engines. The differential would have cracked welds and the problems would have gotten worse each time a booster engine was reused. Below the rated temperature, the seals couldn't be certified to contain the exhaust gasses. There was a book covering the technical details of the designs, and their reasons. I read it years ago, I think it was called 'A Major Malfunction'.
Michael A. Terrell
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Urban <JURB6006@...>
On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 03:03 pm, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
My understanding is that there were two reasons. First of all, they had to
build the engines in sections, and secondly they had different thermal
expansion rates.
I hope not to sound too stupid here but...
Why would they use materials of different thermal expansion coefficients? Even if more heat is generated in one section than the other, I find it hard to believe that was the right choice, and I assume money was practically no object.
That is was built in sections, with limited information here I assumed it had something to do with transportation. While state law could be suspended and highways closed for such a special transport, there is still a limit as to just how large of an object can be physically transported.
I think it is a damn shame they retired those without a viable replacement. They seem to be losing the last of their brain cells. Not that the shuttle did this, but now from what I understand we buy rockets from Russia to do maintenance of our satellites ???
Is that smart from a national security standpoint ? I have my doubts to say the least, even though the pundits are overblowing the differences between the two superpowers, it is not hard to become enemies in this world of pipeline wars etc.
I am not sentimental but I see it as a bad time when they retired those craft, and I think they should have kept a few of those SR-71/YF17s around. These were some significant accomplishments in their time.
Michael A. Terrell