NASA Eyes Shuttle Replacements

jonerik writes "According to this article at Space.com, NASA yesterday released a status report on the first year of NASA's Space Launch Initiative; the search for a space shuttle replacement, currently planned to begin operating ten years from now. The competing contractors - Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and a team consisting of Northrop Grumman and Orbital Sciences Corp. - have their work cut out for them. NASA is looking for both a ten-fold improvement in per-pound launch costs (from $10,000 per pound to $1,000) and massive improvements in crew survivability." In related news, Rubyflame writes: "Aviation Now has a story about four new kerosene-fueled rocket engines being developed by Aerojet, Pratt & Whitney, Rocketdyne, and TRW. These are engines that will produce a million pounds of thrust, intended to outdo Russian designs in reliability and launch cost, and one of them may power a new reusable launch vehicle. Kerosene has the advantage that it's denser than hydrogen, so the fuel tanks can be smaller."

Comments

Haiku

[MrHat]

Nasa space shuttle
Takes off like a pile of bricks
Lighter craft required

I'm really getting bored of Slashdot...

[MrHat]

There once was a man from Nantucket
Built a ship so light that he could chuck it
At c into the air
Not like Nasa did care
They poured more in to Boeing and said 'Fuck it'

Re:Just another NASA bait'n'switch

[Schlemphfer]

Note, there are probably a few naive engineers and rocket scientists.

Funny, I always thought the terms "naive" and "rocket scientists" were antithetical.

Reminds me of this:

[SkyLeach]

"Rockhound: You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?"

hehe...

Fore more quotes from that movie go here

George Bush calls on NASA to put a man on the Sun

[Caractacus Potts]

With everything that's been going on lately, you might have missed this important piece of 'news'.
Anyway, here's the link.

Re:You mean Tthey "had" a "shuttle-like" prototype

[scotch]

I don't know why people constantly bring up Buran.

Because we like to torment you. It obviously bothers you.

I also heard that France was working on a shuttle. Portugal has been flying their shuttle for years, though it's not widely publicized. Mexico scrapped their shuttle project in favor of their rail-gun / light-sail combination system with which they've manage to supply migrant workers for the asparagus farming on Venus.

Check out those concept animations.

[ilumits]

Freud would be proud.