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Why Can't we Remake the Rocketdyne F1 Engine?

Curious Droid · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Space exploration & spaceflightMechanical & precision engineering

What it is

Short Curious Droid video on why NASA could not simply rebuild the Saturn V's Rocketdyne F-1 engine for the SLS boosters. It explains that the engines were hand-tailored and that much of the know-how was never documented, so the blueprints were not enough.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Cited as the standard illustration of lost tacit knowledge and why old blueprints cannot be turned back into hardware.

  • 1 people recommended it
  • 1 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2022

What HN commenters said

  1. “TLDR: everything was handcrafted, notes were not made or lost”

    Handcrafted engines and lost notes make blueprints insufficient to rebuild the F-1.

    lmilcin, 2021-07 · Recommendation · in “SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch NASA's Europa Clipper to icy Jupiter moon”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: f-1 engine, saturn v, tacit knowledge, nasa sls, apollo

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