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Next NASA Vehicles To Resemble Shuttles

Posted by Zonk on from the stick-with-a-good-thing dept.

ausoleil writes "Spaceref.com has an internal NASA memo outlining potential plans for the next generation of launch vehicles. They will closely resemble the current Shuttle and use some of the same hardware. Of course, they plan to leave the exploding parts out of their next versions. From the article: 'NASA has decided to build two new launch systems - both of which will draw upon existing Space Shuttle hardware. One vehicle will be a cargo-only heavy lifter, the other will be used to launch the Crew Exploration Vehicle.'"

1 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Exploding parts? by georgewilliamherbert · · Score: 5, Interesting
    without "exploding parts", how will the shuttle take off? Isn't the ignition of the bosters and kind of explosion?
    No, not explosives.

    The solid boosters ignition starts with a small Nasa Standard Initiator (NSI) http://www.hstc.com/pdf/nsi.pdf.

    That then ignites a small pellet of boron / potassium nitrate.

    Which ignites a small rocket motor which is about 4 inches long.

    Which ignites a medium sized rocket motor about three feet long.

    Which fires a jet of flame for about a tenth of a second, all the way down the whole inside length of the solid boosters, which ignites the whole inside at the same time.