Pat Flannery wrote:
Looking at the LockMart CEV design with add-on living/docking area at
the back reminds me of the way Hermes slowly grew into a reusable
spaceplane with the nonreusable section hanging on the back, ruining
the
economics of the system- but at least in that case they had it going
up
on one Ariane booster; in this case it takes two launches to get to
the
same sort of configuration.
The Lockheed design can fly earth orbital missions
with just one launch. And, unlike the Russian Kliper
design, the Lockheed CEV brings its earth orbit
propulsion system home with it. That may or may not
be a good thing...
- Ed Kyle
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