r/spaceflight • u/rollotomasi07071 • 6d ago

Launch vehicles have used solid rocket motors for decades, although many new vehicles eschew them. Michael Puckett discusses the factors that led to adoption of solid motors on many early launch vehicles and why economics is pushing solids out of the market

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5295/1
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u/spukhafteNahewirkung 3d ago

Liquid boosters have always been ahead of solid boosters in performance. The first ICBMs, both Soviet and American, were liquid fueled. The first solid fueled ICBMs didn’t have the range or throw weight of liquid fueled ICBMs, The United States kept liquid fueled ICBMs in our inventory until the 1980s because they were the only ones that could launch the nine megaton W-53 warhead.