I had never heard of it before. Barely worth a review.
Yeah the Silbervogel and Dynasoar were not lifting bodies either and the Shuttle design from Rockwell was reasonably similar. The Dynasoar even had a delta wing albeit with a different tail.
For varying degrees of similar anyway. The Shuttle was and probably will remain its own thing. It was a prototype and should have been treated as such. I think it was a grave mistake to make it of that size and turn it into the mandatory orbital launch vehicle.
We may discuss architectures but the Shuttle’s original TSTO VTHL was certainly feasible. Even if I personally prefer VTVL architectures probably even HTHL would be feasible given current technology.
What NASA needs is to fund higher performance upper stages for launching large satellites, inner solar system missions, propellant depots, tugs, etc. As I keep saying where is the RL-60?
With good enough propulsion technology any reusable configuration is possible. They were discussing using slush LH2 in the 1960s for Christ’s sake. What happened to propulsion technology?
The SLS program reveals quite clearly that the Shuttle wasn’t the problem with post-Apollo NASA manned spaceflight it was merely the symptom of a disease. Politics dictating engineering and a bureaucratic organization eager to take whatever the congressional money train has on offer this year.
It’s insane when you think about it. Each Shuttle launch cost about 3/4 of what it cost to build a new orbiter from scratch. Add in the ISS to the mess and you start to wonder if the folks at NASA manned spaceflight are capable of getting anything done without spending tens of billions of dollars and at least a decade on a problem. But, of course, the track record has been that they can’t. The system is so broken it’s a wonder we’ve ever managed to get anything done.
Personally I’m just holding out hope that private enterprise ends up embarrassing the SLS and Orion programs enough to get them cancelled and gut the money trough that has been torturing NASA manned spaceflight for almost half a century. Even if the budget is cut sharply it will be worth it to get free.
Not quite new. Publication date is July 2008.
I had never heard of it before. Barely worth a review.
Yeah the Silbervogel and Dynasoar were not lifting bodies either and the Shuttle design from Rockwell was reasonably similar. The Dynasoar even had a delta wing albeit with a different tail.
For varying degrees of similar anyway. The Shuttle was and probably will remain its own thing. It was a prototype and should have been treated as such. I think it was a grave mistake to make it of that size and turn it into the mandatory orbital launch vehicle.
We may discuss architectures but the Shuttle’s original TSTO VTHL was certainly feasible. Even if I personally prefer VTVL architectures probably even HTHL would be feasible given current technology.
What NASA needs is to fund higher performance upper stages for launching large satellites, inner solar system missions, propellant depots, tugs, etc. As I keep saying where is the RL-60?
With good enough propulsion technology any reusable configuration is possible. They were discussing using slush LH2 in the 1960s for Christ’s sake. What happened to propulsion technology?
The SLS program reveals quite clearly that the Shuttle wasn’t the problem with post-Apollo NASA manned spaceflight it was merely the symptom of a disease. Politics dictating engineering and a bureaucratic organization eager to take whatever the congressional money train has on offer this year.
It’s insane when you think about it. Each Shuttle launch cost about 3/4 of what it cost to build a new orbiter from scratch. Add in the ISS to the mess and you start to wonder if the folks at NASA manned spaceflight are capable of getting anything done without spending tens of billions of dollars and at least a decade on a problem. But, of course, the track record has been that they can’t. The system is so broken it’s a wonder we’ve ever managed to get anything done.
Personally I’m just holding out hope that private enterprise ends up embarrassing the SLS and Orion programs enough to get them cancelled and gut the money trough that has been torturing NASA manned spaceflight for almost half a century. Even if the budget is cut sharply it will be worth it to get free.