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How SpaceX streamlined the Raptor engine

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-spacex-streamlined-the-raptor
80•JumpCrisscross•23h ago

Comments

avmich•18h ago
The thrust vector control (TVC) subsystem is usually considered a part of the engine. The major change the Soviet NK-33 underwent for a USA model was the addition of TVC, and the engine was named differently, so there are two engines, named differently, which mostly differ by the presence of TVC.

Raptors can be used without TVC. Be that by using differential thrust, or just not needing that - because rocket is controlled using other means, or other engines - it's possible. Tory Bruno specifically explained that he meant - among other things - that absence.

A picture of the engine working on the test stand can be that for the engine - or for the chamber, a significant component of the engine, with or without turbopumps involved.

w8vY7ER•7h ago
Oh yeah, Tory Bruno made that gaffe of a comment publicly, and completely unprompted, before he abruptly quit. I had forgotten, but you’re right of course.
fragmede•15h ago
3d printing metal has come a long way!
ecshafer•32m ago
I find it mind boggling that you can 3d print rocket engines. I thought that the standard line is that 3d printing metal wasn't developed enough for anything serious. Not a mechanical/materials engineer, but if you can 3d print rockets what's off the table? Jet Engines and that's about it I think?

From the article links, I am amused that SpaceX uses cybertrucks to tow their rocket engines around the grounds and not a normal cheaper truck. They also do it in a totally uncovered trailer, which must be good for the guys taking pictures for forums. But isn't that also good for guys taking pictures for competitors / Russians/ China?

jackmott42•27m ago
3d printing metal has some strength downsides, I'm not sure what it is for the raptor engines, but I've heard other space companies claim ~5% less strength that traditional methods for aluminum structures, but that can be worth it in cases where you are able to make shapes that wouldn't be possible with traditional methods, or if you save enough money by printing it. Rocket engines often can benefit from intricate internal channels and shapes that you can 3d print as once piece with no way to do it via subtractive manufacturing.
fbd_0100•13m ago
It has mild strength downsides, but very severe fatigue and damage tolerance downsides. Knowing this, it makes sense that 3d printing tech would make headway in space industry but not (yet) in aviation
naasking•12m ago
What's the current theory for why this is?

Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117282080803799576
130•theanonymousone•1h ago•52 comments

Cloudflare Quick Tunnels

https://try.cloudflare.com/
413•jcbhmr•6h ago•187 comments

Apple releases iPhone Duo simulator and Xcode 27.1 beta

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-27_1-release-notes
49•CameronBanga•1h ago•14 comments

Saving another 100TB of RAM with math (and Rust)

https://blog.cloudflare.com/saving-100-tb-of-ram-with-math/
52•f311a•1h ago•7 comments

Photon-Emission-Guided Laser Fault Injection Enables RP2350 Secure Debug

https://donjon.ledger.com/blog/rp2350-secure-debug-laser-fault-injection/
111•synack•3h ago•33 comments

Cache-to-Cache: Direct Semantic Communication Between Large Language Models

https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03215
21•rochansinha•1h ago•3 comments

Show HN: Cactus Needle 3: 8-29MB automation models can match DeepSeek V4 Flash

https://cactuscompute.com/needle
108•HenryNdubuaku•20h ago•56 comments

The Implications of Linguistic Illegibility for LLM Security

https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.02852
18•tomjakubowski•1h ago•6 comments

OpenJev

https://openjev.com/
473•ilreb•10h ago•231 comments

C++26: Trivial infinite loops are no longer undefined behaviour

https://www.sandordargo.com/blog/2026/09/16/cpp26-trivial-infinite-loops
107•ibobev•23h ago•137 comments

North Korean nuclear test sets off years of earthquakes

https://www.science.org/content/article/north-korean-nuclear-test-sets-years-earthquakes
147•rbanffy•5h ago•122 comments

Our brain evolved from two primitive nervous systems that merged: Study

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2589739-our-brain-evolved-from-two-primitive-nervous-systems...
50•Jimmc414•5h ago•28 comments

I vibed a proof of Conway's conjecture

https://overreacted.io/how-i-vibed-a-proof-of-conways-conjecture/
163•m-hodges•5h ago•155 comments

The first new cat species discovered in 100 years

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/meet-the-first-new-cat-species-discovered-in-1...
47•ohjeez•1d ago•13 comments

US Military had close call after using AI for hallucinated intelligence report

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship
253•realsarm•2h ago•189 comments

Border agents can search cellphones without a warrant or reasonable suspicion

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/the-government-was-entitled-trumps-border-agents-can-now-sea...
79•mmh0000•2h ago•52 comments

A heap overflow and SSO misconfiguration to compromise OpenAI internal repos

https://www.hacktron.ai/blog/hacking-openai
456•Handy-Man•17h ago•192 comments

Inside ZCode: Silently uploading your Git history to the cloud

https://blog.ferstar.org/en/posts/zcode-silent-workspace-snapshot-upload/
209•csmantle•14h ago•83 comments

Show HN: Ax-check.com – Can agents use your product?

https://www.ax-check.com/
19•0x63_Problems•1d ago•20 comments

Minimal Phone 2

https://minimalcompany.com/
93•nashashmi•18h ago•91 comments

How SpaceX streamlined the Raptor engine

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/how-spacex-streamlined-the-raptor
82•JumpCrisscross•23h ago•9 comments

A search-and-inference database from scratch in pure Zig

https://antfly.io/research/antfly-zig
26•kingcauchy•3d ago•5 comments

Cekura (YC F24) Is Hiring

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/cekura-ai/jobs/AiWwUxI-forward-deployed-engineer-us
1•atarus•8h ago

Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy (2021)

https://archive.org/details/b904a8eb-9c98-4bb1-bf25-3cb9d075b157
46•succinct_ideas•17h ago•5 comments

Show HN: Scry, programmable internet search w/ congestion pricing

https://scry.io/
30•Xyra•21h ago•12 comments

How to Write with an LLM

https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/09/17/how-to-write-with-an-llm/
299•joeriddles•22h ago•210 comments

Mathematicians Build Long-Awaited Graph Sandwich

https://www.quantamagazine.org/mathematicians-build-long-awaited-graph-sandwich-20260918/
49•ibobev•5h ago•13 comments

Jemalloc 5.4.0

https://github.com/jemalloc/jemalloc/releases/tag/5.4.0
309•gkfasdfasdf•15h ago•81 comments

I don't like passkeys

https://hawksley.dev/blog/i-dont-like-passkeys
668•ethanhawksley•8h ago•654 comments

The scourge of x86 emulation

https://fex-emu.com/Scourge-of-emulation/
260•dagmx•16h ago•73 comments