[AR] Re: APCP properties, was Re: Re: starship abort?

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2023 23:16:37 -0400 (EDT)

On Fri, 28 Apr 2023, John Dom wrote:

Ariane 5 APCP boosters have been unsegmented. Cast in one piece. Saw the vertical casting setup in France which proved big...

Sure you're not thinking of the P80 first stage for Vega? The Ariane 5 boosters are segmented -- three segments, joined at the launch site (originally bolted together, although midway through the program I believe they switched to welding them together). Vega's P80 is basically a single Ariane 5 segment, although with a composite casing instead of a steel one, and for quite a while it was the world's largest (operational) unsegmented solid motor.

I do not know about coming Ariane 6's fabrication details. Nor about their internal geometries.

The Ariane 6 solids are identical to the P120C enlarged first stage built for the Vega C upgrade of Vega (and since it flew last summer, it now holds the largest-unsegmented record).

The Shuttle  boosters were segmented for ship transportation (size!) I read at the time.

Not ship, rail -- an SRB segment is about the largest load that can be carried on the US rail network. (Long ago I visited the Cape, and while going from one place to another nearby, happened to see a railroad siding full of the special railcars used to carry the SRB segments. They looked like tank cars at first glance, until you noticed the NASA logos and the labels...)

Henry

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