Why the Soviet Moon Rocket Engines Exploded in America

How did engines built for the Soviet N-1 moon rocket end up exploding under an Antares rocket at Wallops Island, Virginia, in 2014? The trail starts with four N-1 launches from Baikonur, and four failures. By most accounts, the engines were ordered destroyed, but they survived in storage on the Volga. A 1972 engine then fired again on a test stand in California. You leave knowing why two investigations into the same explosion did not agree. CHAPTERS 0:00 A Soviet Engine Explodes in Virginia 1:27 The N-1 and Its Thirty Engines 2:37 Four Launches, Four Failures 4:34 The Redesigned NK-33 5:14 Cancellation and the Hidden Warehouse 6:34 Aerojet Tests an Old Engine 7:49 Buying the Engines for America 9:21 Warning Signs at Stennis 10:02 Pad Zero A Failure 11:20 Rival Investigations and Aftermath ARCHIVE FOOTAGE Archive footage: NASA. Orb-3 launch film: Ketone16 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Soyuz-2.1v launch film: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). N-1 film (1969–72): Soviet archive footage, from the copies posted by Retro Space HD, Spektr and Space Clips; NK engine test film: faraski. MUSIC Music licensed from Epidemic Sound. PHOTOS - Ceri C — CC BY 2.0 — https://www.flickr.com/photos/63114989@N00/18894089111 - Billy Brown — CC BY 2.0 — https://www.flickr.com/photos/38168858@N00/9743030610 - Edgar Alberto Domínguez Cataño / World Economic Forum — CC BY-SA 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_John_Howard_Thompson_-_World_Economic_Forum_on_Latin_America_2010_(cropped).jpg - Вадим Кондратьев (Vadim Kondratyev) — CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Upravlenchesky_township_(Samara)_08.jpg and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NK-33_engine.jpg - Vitaly V. Kuzmin — CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MAKS_Airshow_2013_(Ramenskoye_Airport,_Russia)_(524-49).jpg and (524-50) - Abcde1248163264 — CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simplified_diagram_of_NK33_rocket_engine_,_Jan_2021_(English_verson).png - Ninara — CC BY 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baikonur_Cosmodrome_IMG_2922_Baikonur_(37291437951).jpg - Ketone16 — CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antares_Orb-3_2014-10-28_Aftermath1.jpg and Aftermath2.jpg - Stahlkocher — CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kusnezow_NK-33_engine_Mockup.jpg - Ebs08 — CC BY-SA 3.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:N1%2BSaturn5.jpg - Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation — CC BY 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlesetskRocketLaunch2019-02.jpg (and -05, -06, -07) - Public domain: NASA, US Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office, USSR Post (1967 stamp), Doomych (NK-33 at MAKS 2011) SOURCES - Wikipedia — N1 (rocket) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_(rocket) - Wikipedia — NK-33 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NK-33 - Wikipedia — Antares (rocket) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antares_(rocket) - Wikipedia — Cygnus Orb-3 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_Orb-3 - Wikipedia — Soyuz-2.1v — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz-2.1v - Wikipedia — Kistler Aerospace — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kistler_Aerospace - Anatoly Zak — RussianSpaceWeb: N1 moon rocket — https://www.russianspaceweb.com/n1.html KEYWORDS nk-33, n1 rocket, aj26 engine, antares explosion, antares orb-3, cygnus orb-3, soviet moon rocket, soviet moon rocket engines, nk-15 engine, kuznetsov nk-33, n1 rocket failure, wallops island explosion 2014, orbital sciences antares, aerojet nk-33, soviet space program, rocket engine failure, once upon an engine, failed machines, machines that failed, engineering disasters, engineering history, forgotten machines, aviation history, engineering documentary, history documentary