Press How did a decades-old Russian engine become the bar against which America’s best rocket scientists measure themselves?
If you want to understand what made the RD-180 such a good engine, it helps to understand that there is a great deal of craft involved. Though hundreds of people collaborate on rocket engines, having someone with an instinct for good design in charge is vital: the trade-offs are too complex to be figured out by brute force or by committee.
Source: Can SpaceX and Blue Origin best a decades-old Russian rocket engine design? | MIT Technology Review
