14 thoughts on “Frankenrocket”

  1. Ugh. The Ares zombie… I just won’t die.

    Great points in that link… though it’s a certainty the 5 seg wouldn’t automatically meet certification, as it’s an entirely different beast from the 4 seg SER (hence the many pillions it would take to develop).

    Hrmmm, I’m shocked, shocked I say, that the airstart issue is being raised by that post… surely, a rocket engine that requires sea level air pressure and complex, massive launchpad ignition systems can’t be difficult to start in flight in a vacuum? Heck, just weld the lauchpad to the tail end of the rocket and launch it too, so it’d be there to provide ignition whenever needed (this would also solve the altitude issue by keeping the rocket at ground level).

  2. The Liberty rocket could deliver 44,500 pounds to the International Space Station’s orbit, enough capacity to lift any crew vehicle in development, according to Kent Rominger, ATK’s vice president of advanced programs.

    Now there’s an unbiased source.

    Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of ATK space launch systems, also touted Liberty’s reuse of existing rocket designs and proven flight experience. “The Liberty initiative provides tremendous value because it builds on European Ariane 5 launcher heritage, while allowing NASA to leverage the mature first stage,” Precourt said in an ATK press release.

    Oh, well, if it’s in an ATK press release, it must be true.

    “We will provide unmatched payload performance at a fraction of the cost, and we will launch it from the Kennedy Space Center using facilities that have already been built,” Precourt said. “This approach allows NASA to utilize the investments that have already been made in our nation’s ground infrastructure and propulsion systems for the space exploration program.”

    Translation: Dear Congress, please, please, please don’t close the pork valves.

    If NASA chooses to fund the Liberty program, it will bring 400 jobs to ATK’s Utah solid motor factory and 300 launch site positions in Florida.

    OINK OINK OINK

    Source

  4. You think that’s bad, the United Space Alliance wants to try to continue the Shuttle for a mere $1.5 billion a year.

  5. Well, it’s hard to beat the Ares design. The first stage used the SRB’s (with an extra joint for some more O-rings) while its second stage, of all the components and technologies in the Shuttle’s external tank, only used the foam. As an engineering manager, how do you top that? Well, by adding an Arianne, complete with political hairballs and language barriers. What do you bet that buried somewhere in the proposal is a requirement for a couple of specially built Airbus A-380’s to fly the upper stage across the Atlantic?

  6. (Not representing my employer)

    Best comments about this latest brain-fart over at Clark’s site:

    – Bestowing of the title “super-corndog” for the proposed stack

    – Gary Hudson asking for some of what the designers are smoking

    – Trent Waddington asking that Clark not delete Gaetano’s trollmeistering, in order to prove for all to see how stupid an idea the super-corndog actually is …

    This thing could best serve humanity by being a top ten on Letterman … 🙂

  9. I have no idea what to say to this. If anything it firmly cements the notion that the people at the top of the traditional aerospace companies are designing things not with engineering expertise but with powerpoint.

    I assume that ATK is so desperate to keep its gravy train going they will resort to any manner of hijinx to avoid having to face reality.

  10. “Can I take your order?”
    “Yeah, I’d like a super-sized corndog with bacon and cheese please…”

  11. Hey, they have been proposing the SRB’s for heavy spacelift since SDI.

    From 1987 🙂

    http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/baranmdd.htm

    Barbarian MDD

    [[[It would consist of 3 Shuttle SRM’s, attached around a ring of six Delta RS-27 first stage boosters, which in turn clustered around a single Delta first stage booster that was the last stage of the launch vehicle.]]]

    Talk about a real Frankenrocket…

    Why should they stop now?

  12. You know that that US Big Space is getting desperate when large-scale cooperation with the French space industry is its preferred course of action!

  13. Naive curiosity prompts me to ask:

    How much are ATK’s “improved” five-segment boosters supposedly going to cost? How much do Shuttle SRBs cost?

    If ATK wants to sell solid boosters for launching crews into orbit, then why haven’t they backed a configuration consisting of two ordinary four-segment SRBs and an appropriately sized liquid-fueled stage between them? (Similar to the Direct Launcher proposals, but without something based on the Shuttle fuel tank and/or SSME as the liquid-fueled component.) Too expensive? Inefficient flight profile? Something else?

    Ariane V as a second stage for the Stick. The mind boggles.

  14. Comment seen at NASA Spaceflight Forum:

    Ares 1, chop off it’s head, stake though heart, burn it, drop it to bottom of ocean, douse in holy water, shot with silver bullet, it doesn’t matter.

    It will not die.

    I need a drink.

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