Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!hplabsb!dsmith
From: dsmith@hplabsb.HP.COM (David Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet shuttle
Message-ID: <4945@hplabsb.HP.COM>
Date: 11 Oct 88 22:45:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: hplabsb.4945
References: <1988Oct1.224801.11041@utzoo.uucp> <1109@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu> <1988Oct5.232401.15176@utzoo.uucp> <4938@hplabsb.UUCP> <198
Reply-To: dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Labs, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 17

In article <1988Oct7.165349.20174@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>Proton does, reportedly, give its payloads a fairly rough ride.

Do you know whether "rough ride" means high-G or vibration?  It would
seem to me that an all-liquid rocket should be pretty smooth.

>Proton's first stage *is* kind of a weird design.

I have gotten used to it.  Compared to Saturn V, yes, but with SL-4,
Titan-III, Delta, Shuttle, and Ariane-IV floating around, it doesn't
look all that much out of the ordinary.  Or is there something beyond the
cluster-look that you have in mind?
-- 

			David Smith
			HP Labs
			dsmith@hplabs.hp.com