launch vehicles – Page 43 – Aerospace Projects Review Blog

NASP PR Card #5

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Apr 102012

This card shows an early (late 1980’s) McDonnell-Douglas design for NASP. A relatively fat lifting body design, this has many similarities to hypothetical “Aurora” hypersonic spyplane designs bandied about at the same time. This is not surprising… this NASP design is similar to any of a number of hypersonic configurations tested in NASA wind tunnels and shown publicly.

Note that the text on the back of the card describes a vehicle somewhat different than what NASP was supposed to be. The claim is made that the scramjets could power the vehicle Mach 25, orbital velocity… of they could allow the vehicle to cruise at Mach 6 for long range hypersonic transport. Early on in the program, the “Orient Express” was touted as a logical result of NASP work, but that quickly faded.

You can download 5.3 and 2.5 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

Lockheed Star Clipper model photo

launch vehicles, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Apr 082012

Another one from Lockheed Horizons, a rare color photo of a later STAR Clipper configuration. This one-and-a-half-stage-to-orbit design dates from the early days of the Space Shuttle program. Much, much more on the STAR Clipper and its Shuttle descendants can be read about in issue V3N2 of Aerospace Projects Review.

METEOR: 1956

launch vehicles, rockets, space shuttle, space station, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Apr 062012

One of the pleasant surprises from my recent trip to D.C. was obtaining a scan of a color version of an illustration I’ve only ever seen in B&W… the Goodyear “METEOR” spaceplane design from about 1956. This was part of a truly audacious plan put forward by Goodyear’s Darrel Romick and others to develop a “city in space,” a giant space station with artificial gravity and giant hangars for spacecraft.

The color seems to be off, due, likely, to the fading effects of half a century. But even after some “fade correction” processing, it’s clear that the spaceplane was painted red… an interesting choice.

And it’s a little difficult to tell, but a closeup focusing on the crew seems to either show that the heads were pasted on, or are surrounded by some sort of bubble helmets.

Much more on the METEOR plan is available HERE.

Saturns Vehicles for Apollo

launch vehicles No Responses »

Apr 012012

A piece of NASA promo art, dating to around 1964 (plus or minus), showing the Saturn I, Saturn Ib and Saturn V to scale.

A high rez of this can be downloaded here:

APR Corner: Phoenix E

launch vehicles, rockets, spacecraft, VTOL No Responses »

Mar 202012

The latest AIAA-Houston newsletter Horizons, January/February 2012, has a brief article by me on the Phoenix-E tourism SSTO. Free to download!

STAR Clipper artwork

launch vehicles, rockets, space shuttle, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Mar 172012

A painting from an old issue of “Lockheed horizons” depicts a STAR Clipper 1.5-stage-to-orbit early Space Shuttle design lifting off from a desert launch facility (probably White Sands or Vandenberg).

Much, much more on the STAR Clipper can be found in issue V3N2 of Aerospace Projects Review.

NASP PR Card #4: high-rez

hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, spaceplane No Responses »

Mar 102012

A Rockwell handout card (late 1980’s to 1990 or so) showing an artists impression of their early NASP configuration. This is the same design as shown HERE, but in painting rather than model form.

You can download 7.9 and 1.1 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

Atlas Times Three

launch vehicles, spacecraft No Responses »

Mar 082012

A late 1950’s NASA concept for utilizing Atlas launch vehicle systems to send a sizable payload to the moon and the planets. While this never came close to being built, it was vaguely similar in concept to the actual Saturn I.

NASP PR Card #3

hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, spacecraft, spaceplane No Responses »

Feb 282012

Another PR card showing an X-30 NASP configuration, this being a 1990 Rockwell configuration. It’s similar to but noticeably fatter than the earlier generic configuration (shown HERE).

You can download 6.7 and 2.2 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

NASP PR Card #2

hi-rez, hypersonic, launch vehicles, spaceplane No Responses »

Feb 242012

Another PR card showing an X-30 NASP configuration, this being an early design modeled off of the original du Pont configuration.

You can download 3.15 and 2.2 megabyte JPG files of the illustrations. The links to the JPG files are HERE and HERE. To access them, you will need to enter a username and password. The username: the first word in the body of the text on page 5 of APR issue V1N1. The password: the first word in the body of the text on page 11 of the same issue. Note that both are case sensitive.

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