[link|http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0309/24rd180/|http://spaceflightno...ws/n0309/24rd180/]

These are the direct descendants of the motors developed for the Soviet moonshot. The originals were ordered destroyed, but a naughty scientist just sealed the lab instead. They were rediscovered sometime in the 90's. So the leading edge tech the article mentions is 40 years old.