|
List Of Space Launch System Designs
Even before the launch of Sputnik 1, there were various types of launch vehicle designs. The launch vehicle designs described below are either canceled or never left the drawing board. 20th century 21st century See also *Comparison of orbital launch systems *Non-rocket spacelaunch *List of orbital launch systems * List of private spaceflight companies#Crew and cargo transport vehicles *Spaceplane *List of crewed lunar lander designs Further reading * ''SP-4221 The Space Shuttle Decision'Chapter 8(NASA) * *T.A. Heppenheime(NASA, 1998) External links{cbignore, bot=medic* ttp://www.spacefuture.com/vehicles/designs.shtml Space Future - Vehicle Designsbr>Proposed or planned spacecraft (Wikimedia Commons) |
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries ran out, and continued in orbit for three months until aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958. It was a polished metal sphere in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators, and the 65° orbital inclination made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth. The satellite's unanticipated success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological and scientific developments. The word ''sputnik'' is Russian for ''satellite'' w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturn INT-20
The Saturn INT-20 was a proposed intermediate-payload follow-on from the Apollo Saturn V launch vehicle. A conical-form interstage would be fitted on top of the S-IC stage to support the S-IVB stage, so it could be considered either a retrofitted Saturn IB with a more powerful first stage, or a stubby, cut-down Saturn V without the S-II second stage. Three variants were studied, one with three F-1 engines in the first stage, one with four, and one with five. Performance Without the S-II stage, which made up a large fraction of the mass of the Saturn V, a version of the INT-20 using an unmodified five-engine version of the S-IC booster would be greatly overpowered and accelerate substantially faster than the Saturn V. This would create excessive aerodynamic stress in the low atmosphere. Several solutions to this problem were considered. Using the original five-engine S-IC would require three engines to be shut down 88 seconds after launch, with the remainder of the first-stage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturn V-D
The Saturn V-D was a conceptual booster with the ability to launch three times as much payload as the Russian Energia booster. Studied in 1968, it was considered to be the mightiest of the proposed variations of the Saturn V rocket, rehashed as one of the boosters from the Boeing 1967 Saturn studies and utilizing the stage and a half Saturn V-B, four 100 ft tall SRBs, and the ordinary second and third stages of the original Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with three stages, and powered with liquid fuel. It was flown from 196 .... This booster never flew, but if it had been manufactured it would have had the capability to launch all the necessary components for a space station in one shot. References * Lowther, Scott, ''Saturn: Development, Details, Derivatives and Descendants'', Work in progress. Available chapters may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturn V-Centaur
Studied by Marshall Space Flight Center in 1968, the Saturn V-Centaur booster would have been used for deep space missions if it had flown. It consisted of an ordinary Saturn V launch vehicle, except that the Apollo spacecraft The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth. The expendable (single-use) spacecraft ... would be replaced with a Centaur (known as the S-V in the plans) as a high-energy liquid-fueled fourth stage. This combination never flew. References Saturn (rocket family) {{rocket-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturn V-C
The Saturn V-C, was just like the Saturn V-B, studied in the same year as the V-C, except it would use a S-IVB The S-IVB (pronounced "S-four-B") was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice: first for Earth ... second stage to get a payload into a higher orbit. A Centaur third stage was optional for deep space missions. References * Lowther, Scott, ''Saturn: Development, Details, Derivatives and Descendants'', Work in progress. Available chapters may be ordered directly from Scott Lowther at web site indicated. Accessed at: https://saemobilus.sae.org/content/680358 {{Saturns Saturn (rocket family) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saturn V-A
Saturn V-A was a proposed American orbital launch vehicle. It was studied by Marshall Space Flight Center in 1968. the Saturn V-A was identical to the Saturn INT-20, except it consisted of an ordinary S-IC first stage and S-IVB The S-IVB (pronounced "S-four-B") was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice: first for Earth ... second stage. For deep-space missions, a Centaur third stage could also have been used. Details Details Saturn V-A of Saturn V-A: Gross mass: 2,478,120 kg (5,463,310 lb). Payload: 60,000 kg (132,000 lb). Height: 72.00 m (236.00 ft). Diameter: 10.06 m (33.00 ft). Thrust: 33,737.90 kN (7,584,582 lbf). Apogee: 185 km (114 mi). References {{Saturns Saturn (rocket family) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Marietta
The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin Marietta formed in 1961 by the merger of the Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. Martin, based in Baltimore, was primarily an aerospace concern with a recent focus on missiles, namely its Titan program. American-Marietta was headquartered in Chicago and produced paints, dyes, metallurgical products, construction materials, and other goods. In 1982, Martin Marietta was subject to a hostile takeover bid by the Bendix Corporation, headed by William Agee. Bendix bought the majority of Martin Marietta shares and in effect owned the company. However, Martin Marietta's management used the short time separating ownership and control to sell non-core businesses and launch its own hostile takeover of Bendix (known as the Pac-Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Marietta Spacemaster
The Martin Marietta Spacemaster was a proposed configuration for what became the Space Shuttle, which featured an X-24-derived orbiter, and an unusual " catamaran style" booster stage. During launch and ascent, the orbiter would be located in a recess in the booster. The booster's 14 engines would be located in clusters of seven, at the bottom of both halves of the booster. Unlike the final design for the Space Shuttle, the Spacemaster would lack an external tank, and the boosters would be joined, by means of connecting struts which would also serve as the mounting for the orbiter. The concept was evaluated in 1967, but was rejected. Martin Marietta went on to produce the Space Shuttle external tank (ET) for the final STS Space Shuttle design (by Lockheed Martin after a merger with Lockheed). A model of the Martin Marietta Spacemaster is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. See also *List of space launch system designs *Space Shuttle program ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Bono
Philip Bono (13 January 1921 – 23 May 1993) was a Douglas Aircraft Company engineer. He was a pioneer of reusable launch system, reusable vertical landing single-stage to orbit launch vehicles. As a visionary designer, he is credited with inventing the first version of a recoverable single-stage spacecraft booster, and his contributions influenced spacecraft design. Bono pursued single-stage space launch as simpler and cheaper. He realized to do this he would need to use high specific impulse liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen rocket engines. Afterwards he proposed to make these vehicles reusable. From his ROOST design onwards Bono advocated space launch vehicles without wings, usually using rocket assisted vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL). According to his estimates, wings consisted mostly of dead weight that decreased launch payload mass. He patented a reusable plug nozzle rocket engine which had dual use as a heat shield for atmospheric reentry. His early 1960s concepts infl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas SASSTO
Douglas Aircraft's SASSTO, short for "Saturn Application Single Stage to Orbit", was a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) reusable launch system designed by Philip Bono's team in 1967. SASSTO was a study in minimalist designs, a launcher with the specific intent of repeatedly placing a Gemini capsule in orbit for the lowest possible cost. The SASSTO booster was based on the layout of the S-IVB upper stage from the Saturn family, modified with a plug nozzle. Although the SASSTO design was never followed up at Douglas, it is widely referred to in newer studies for SSTO launchers, notably the MBB "Beta" (Ballistisches Einstufiges Träger-Aggregat) design, which was largely an updated version of SASSTO. History In 1962 NASA sent out a series of studies on post-Apollo launch needs, which generally assumed very large launchers for a manned mission to Mars. At Douglas, makers of the S-IVB, Philip Bono led a team that studied a number of very large liquid-fueled boosters as a way to lower the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Truax
Captain Robert C. Truax (USN) (September 3, 1917 – September 17, 2010) was an American rocket engineer in the United States Navy, and companies such as Aerojet and Truax Engineering, which he founded. Truax was a proponent of low-cost rocket engine and vehicle designs. Life As a teenager, Truax was inspired by Robert Goddard articles in ''Popular Mechanics'' magazine to build his own rockets while residing in Alameda, California. From 1936 to 1939, midshipman Truax tested liquid-fuel rocket motors and published a February 1939 report in Astronautics. In 1938, he showed a thrust chamber that he had constructed to the British Interplanetary Society and wrote technical reports published by the American Rocket Society. Following two years' sea duty, first on and then a destroyer, then-Lieutenant Commander Truax worked at the Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis in the Bureau of Aeronautics Ship Installations Division under Commander C. A. Bolster. Truax headed the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Dragon (rocket)
The Sea Dragon was a 1962 conceptualized design study for a two-stage sea-launched orbital super heavy-lift launch vehicle. The project was led by Robert Truax while working at Aerojet, one of a number of designs he created that were to be launched by floating the rocket in the ocean. Although there was some interest at both NASA and Todd Shipyards, the project was not implemented. With dimensions of long and in diameter, Sea Dragon would have been the largest rocket ever built. , among rockets that have been fully conceived but not built, it is by far the largest ever and, in terms of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO), equaled only by the Interplanetary Transport System concept (the predecessor to SpaceX Starship) in the latter's expendable configuration with both designed for 550 tonnes. Design Truax's basic idea was to produce a low-cost heavy launcher, a concept now called "big dumb booster." To lower the cost of operation, the rocket itself was launched from the ocean, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
