Kimera Industries Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 (edited) After the X-15 program ended and the shuttle was being designed, there were a few proposals for manned hypersonic aircraft to test materials and aerodynamics of winged bodies at high speeds. One of them was a miniature version of the orbiter, with room for a single person, which would go up to Mach 8 on rockets derived from the X-15. It would have been shaped like the space shuttle in order to test its handling. A lack of data is partly the reason why the space shuttle wasn't as efficient as it wanted to be, IMO. And all the data gathered during the hundreds of STS flights is invaluable to Starship, which is partly why it's going so much better, again, IMO. Edited September 5 by Kimera Industries New thread for me, new page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted September 9 Share Posted September 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDE Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 IS-7 is alive https://t.me/WalkingDustSW/5159 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 22 hours ago, tater said: This was that the starship engine in KSP 2 was based on. RIP Also something who would require orbital shipyards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted September 16 Share Posted September 16 (edited) Found an interesting nugget of history: John Garvey talking about Delta Clipper - Experimental Advanced (DC-XA), its roots and its seeds i.e. reusable boosters, vertical landing, composite cryogenic tanks, and more: Given he was CEO of Vector Aerospace and they went bankrupt in December 2019, just a month after this went live, it's a reminder that rockets need money to live, no matter how interesting their engineering. (Vector-R was proposing propylene/LOX, which I don't think any other rocket fired.) Edited September 16 by AckSed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted September 16 Share Posted September 16 18 minutes ago, AckSed said: Found an interesting nugget of history: John Garvey talking about Delta Clipper - Experimental Advanced (DC-XA), its roots and its seeds i.e. reusable boosters, vertical landing, composite cryogenic tanks, and more: Given he was CEO of Vector Aerospace and they went bankrupt in December 2019, just a month after this went live, it's a reminder that rockets need money to live, no matter how interesting their engineering. (Vector-R was proposing propylene/LOX, which I don't think any other rocket fired.) Delta clipper main mistake was SSTO, it does not work, yes theoretical but not economical with chemical rocket engines. More looking at current designs. How many decades did we loose? Take something like Superheavy or new Glen first stage but RP1, then using Stoke's hydrogen powered and cooled upper stage. And this is why we are canceling the Apollo program. 30-50 ton to LEO with rapid reuse of both stages on first version. Yes computers was very primitive back then. But pretty accurate ICBM was an thing and you get back control outside of the plasma window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted September 16 Share Posted September 16 Had the ability to launch nanosats in the 50s and 60s. He learned how the S4B internal LH2 tank foam insulation and propylene liner was installed from Carl Lyman, the then 80-year-old engineer who helped make the stage, and went on to use it in the DC-XA's LH2 tank. He also said that Carl Lyman cheated by putting cork around the fittings: "Yeah, but we had to make it work." Fittings were from Ace Hardware. Also early appearance by Tim Mueller as he helped with the small Kimbo test rocket Garvey built with the techs to test composite tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted September 24 Share Posted September 24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sr8RMRBkdQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted October 30 Share Posted October 30 New Hazegrayart: Space Station Freedom: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted October 31 Share Posted October 31 (edited) I always liked this Shuttle launch concept better Edited October 31 by darthgently Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted October 31 Share Posted October 31 9 minutes ago, darthgently said: I always liked this Shuttle launch concept better I liked most of the other shuttles better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted October 31 Share Posted October 31 17 hours ago, darthgently said: I always liked this Shuttle launch concept better I like it to, now the cargo bay on the shuttle looks large, this shuttle is its own upper stage like starship and I assume they use hydrogen here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgently Posted October 31 Share Posted October 31 (edited) 1 hour ago, magnemoe said: I like it to, now the cargo bay on the shuttle looks large, this shuttle is its own upper stage like starship and I assume they use hydrogen here? Yes, looks like all liquid and no SRBs, as it should be. Orange insulated tanks makes me think hydrolox Edited October 31 by darthgently Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnemoe Posted October 31 Share Posted October 31 2 minutes ago, darthgently said: Yes, looks like all liquid and no SRBs, as it should be Agree, just that the shuttle payload bay was optimistic large. Now it could be optimized for large low mass space station parts. Else shuttle is fine, it has more wing for mass I think so reentry could be a bit easier, might have the real shuttle issues however but it only has an second stage engine The first stage looks cool and using the connector as an wing is smart. But designing this for suborbital reentry, supersonic flight and then the slow ferry flight back on jet engines is an serious challenge I think as it never was developed. Until Musk thought, we have rocket engines on rockets lets use them to land. Yes it was other designs thinking about this, but for use on earth all focus was on SSTO it looked like, and it don't work with rocket engines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AckSed Posted December 1 Share Posted December 1 New Hazegrayart, and it's a doozy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.