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NASA Eyes Shuttle Replacements

Posted by chrisd on from the big-rubber-bands-are-not-under-consideration dept.

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."

2 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. the usual suspects...defense contractors by Sir+Elton+John · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The companies listed as possible contractors for the new project aren't incredibly surprising. When I met with Lockheed Martin executives a while back as part of a consulting gig that didn't pan out, I asked them a few questions about the industry.

    Now, I am coming from a background where I am not incredibly familiar with either U.S. capitalism or with issues of defense. Basically, there are a handful of these companies that compete for every government contract. To maintain "competition," the government will try to spread the love around, going with different companies for succesive contracts.

    But each individual contract is too big for a single company to fulfill on its own, so whomever ends up winning the contract will turn around and outsource some of the work to...the same "competitors" whose bids they beat out!

    As a retired rocketman, I am the first to support expansion and improvement of any nation's space program. I just wanted to point out that the notion of "who will build the next generation shuttle" should be taken with a grain of salt.

    --
    "I'm a rocket man / Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone." - Sir Elton John
  2. Re:Crew survivability? by Chairboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Aside from Challenger?

    Please note that during the first 2.5 minutes of every shuttle launch, there are NO abort modes that are survivable. If there are any problems with the SRBs, they cannot be turned off. If there are any catastrophic problems with the ET, it doesn't matter, you must continue your launch profile until the SRBs have stopped.

    Three engine shutdown during SRB burn? Shuttle disintegration.

    ET rupture? Shuttle disintegration.

    Pretty much anything, dead astronauts.

    The russians use 40 year old technology, but at least they have survivable aborts throughout the entire flight profile.