On 31 Jan 2004 20:10:20 -0800, (ed kyle) wrote:

Now I understand why Orbital Sciences has become so involved
in the DoD suborbital business.


Aside from the fact OSC has been involved in that for a few years now,
it's worth remembering that the Space Shuttle and the Saturn series
are the only US oribital boosters (does Scout count?) not derived from
ICBMs. The Atlast V is a descendant of the Altas ICBM; Delta came
from the Thor IRBM. And the Titan 3 is obviously a titan ICBM with
strap-on solids. For a few years, the USAF used leftover Atlas and
Titan ICBMs to lauch small satellites; Clemintine was launched on a
Titan 2 out of Vandenberg AFB IIRC. OSC's plan for the OSP
Peacekeeper booster (
http://www.orbital.com/SpaceLaunch/OSP2/index.html ) continues the
trend, which this SLV/ICBM idea follows.

So what else is new?



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