From: utzoo!decvax!cca!David.Smith@CMU-10A@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: rating rockes in horsepower
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.1459
Posted: Thu May 13 23:32:09 1982
Received: Fri May 14 05:34:12 1982

From: David.Smith at CMU-10A (C410DS30)
Rating rockets in horsepower is mainly useful for producing impressive
numbers.  The horsepower equivalent of a pound of thrust is directly
proportional to the velocity.  When the SSMEs are firing on the pad with
the holddowns on, the SSMEs produce zero horsepower.  But 3 x 430,000
pounds applied at 17,000 mph comes to 58,480,000 horsepower.