84
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
84 points (93.8% liked)
World News
32359 readers
340 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Honestly, I'm kinda okay with them spending money and resources on this. Better to spend resources doing this than building missiles and tanks. My only concern is that it may be serving a secondary purpose for testing new ICBM launch systems.
Space programs have always been part military.
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/military-rockets-launched-space-age
Luna-25 launched on a Soyuz rocket, which is actually derived from an ICBM in the R-7 family. There aren't any active ICBMs in that family anymore, and it seems like their newer liquid fueled ICBMs use different fuels and engines. They could share avionics, structures, and upper stages, but the heavy lifting is done pretty differently.
*As far as I can tell from memory and a quick Wikipedia scan
Considering the R7 ICBM that this rocket is based off was first tested in the late 1950s I kinda doubt it's of much concern