Washington (AFP) – The Orbital Sciences rocket that exploded after launch was powered by a pair of rocket engines that were made during the Soviet era and refurbished, experts said.The Ukrainian-designed AJ-26 engines date back to the 1960s and 1970s, and Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California has a stockpile that it refurbishes for Orbital Sciences. Orbital described the AJ-26 engine on its web site as “a commercial derivative of the engine that was first developed for the Russian moon rocket that would have taken cosmonauts to the moon.”In 2010, the company announced it would use the engines for its Taurus …read more
Source: Business Insider
