( The hardware would be launched using
improved versions of the Saturn V. When Congress finally definitively
rejected further Saturn V production, on 29 July 1970, a stop-work order
went out to NASA's space-station-design group the same day.)
The concept of a Shuttle piggybacking on a Saturn 5 was the most
sensible approach using mostly OTS hardware
but the solid rocket lobbyist killed that idea.
Alas, politics superseding sound engineering.That was the beginning of the
end of NASA's practical and sensible heavy lift launch vehicle designs.
Ken
On Thu, Apr 20, 2023 at 8:24 PM Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Fri, 21 Apr 2023, John Dom wrote:
Your mention there was ever considered an F5 concept in the 60ies
surprised me. Yes there were so many gargantuan rockets considered...
The launcher-design chapter in "Lunar Missions and Explorations", Leondes
& Vance eds., 1964, has a number of plots of various characteristics
against launcher size. The X-axis, launcher size, is usually measured as
number of F-1s in the first stage, typically running from 1 to 20...!
F5s could maybe have made the shuttle unnecessary to build the ISS and
an early moon base.
The shuttle originally was not meant for *building* those things -- it was
just supposed to be the supply ship. The hardware would be launched using
improved versions of the Saturn V. (When Congress finally definitively
rejected further Saturn V production, on 29 July 1970, a stop-work order
went out to NASA's space-station-design group the same day.)
Henry