What complex feature made the Soviet N1 rocket an engineering nightmare?
Answer
Its first stage featured 30 separate engines clustered together
The N1 rocket, which was the Soviet counterpart to the American Saturn V heavy-lift vehicle, was plagued by extreme technical difficulty centered on its first stage design. This stage incorporated a massive cluster of 30 separate engines. Coordinating the ignition, thrust profile, and shutdown sequence for so many individual engines simultaneously proved to be an insurmountable challenge for the engineering teams. This complexity led directly to its repeated catastrophic failures during launch attempts, unlike the Saturn V which overcame its initial hurdles more successfully.
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