[AR] Re: Air Launch Reference
- From: Bill Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 09:19:27 -0500
As a general rule of thumb, 4000 lbs mass per person, all in. Mercury and
Soyuz did/do a little better, Apollo and Gemini about that number.
This includes the crewed spacrcraft only: no service module, fairing, escape
tower, etc.
Above that fixed "cost" would be consumables.
Bill
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 16, 2015, at 9:03 PM, Chris Jones <clj@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 3:42 PM, Rand Simberg <simberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> But, as Bill also said, the primary benefit of air launch is insertion
>> flexibility and single-orbit rendezvous. This is currently driven by
>> military requirements, but in the future, it could be attractive for space
>> passengers who want to minimize the time to reach an orbital facility.
>
> What is the mass of a passenger and crew and life support to orbit for
> a (say) one day flight? To my knowledge, it's well beyond any current
> air launch system, and Stratolaunch, which seems to be promising the
> ability, has yet to prove any of their hardware. So, TBD at best,
> vapor very likely.
>
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