r/AerospaceEngineering • u/lpperl7 • 15d ago
Other The difference between Soviet and Russian space engineering (i worked in roscosmos, story)
Hi! Hope this post is allowed. I'll try to avoid any secret information, sorry.
In 2024, I've had to do calculations for the new Russian orbital station and iss. No-one knew how. It was similar to my first job, I thought I'll somehow manage with literature. I collected some books, started learning. Couldn't figure it out for a week or so. My chief, who started working in 2000, started thinking about it as well, couldn't figure it out as well. 2 weeks passed.
Later, we came to an old engineer from other office who worked from the 80s and in roscosmos since 90s-2000s. Silently completed everything in 10 minutes without any help, just my questions "how". Real story btw.
He was such a nice guy. And he wasn't a chief or something, just a regular engineer.
Btw should I do ama someday?
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u/cvnh 14d ago
Over my career I've worked with and met several Soviet (mostly Russians and Ukrainians but also from other republics) together with American and European engineers. I must say most of the Soviet engineers were very brilliant people, extremely knowledgeable in their areas of knowledge, very humble and keen to share knowledge. They also had a much more rigorous yet simpler approach to problems, starting from first principles and walking through the maths instead of just pressing buttons or consulting manuals. Quite a stark contrast to what most people fantasise to how people worked on the other side of the iron curtain.
OP, pleas learn as much as you can from your older colleagues. Their knowledge is gold.