CEV to be made commercially available

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 17:51:34 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote, in part:

Of course there are.

Don't throw the hardware away, and fly a lot.

Reusability involves weight and cost penalties.

Flying a lot creates a chicken-and-egg problem.

But I do see on the Astronautix site the sad story of one attempt that
could well have been successful.

If you can't fly a lot, just build your rocket out of a lot of identical
units!

Despite clearly not being optimal in terms of overhead mass, OTRAG
apparently already demonstrated how one can significantly reduce the
costs of launching rockets into space.

John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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"John Savard" wrote in message
...

If you can't fly a lot, just build your rocket out of a lot of identical
units!

Or at least use the same system of units throughout - that helps too

In article ,
lid (John Savard) wrote:

But I do see on the Astronautix site the sad story of one attempt that
could well have been successful.

If you can't fly a lot, just build your rocket out of a lot of identical
units!

Despite clearly not being optimal in terms of overhead mass, OTRAG
apparently already demonstrated how one can significantly reduce the
costs of launching rockets into space.

That is a sad story, but perhaps it's not over:

"As of 2005, Kayser was actively searching for partners to fund an
OTRAG-type production facility in the United States and to apply his
unique low-cost technology to the requirements of the future American
space program. He founded von Braun Debus Kayser Rocket Science LLC to
transfer OTRAG's intellectual property and know-how to the United
States. Kayser, along with newer private entrepreneurs such as Musk,
Rutan, and Bezos, still dreams of achieving the goal of affordable space
transport below $ 1,000 per pound into orbit."
[http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/otrag.htm]

One can hope...
- Joe

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lid (John Savard) wrote:

OTRAG apparently already demonstrated how one can significantly
reduce the costs of launching rockets into space.

OTRAG never flew - thus they demonstrated nothing except viewgraphs.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

In article ,
Derek Lyons wrote:
OTRAG apparently already demonstrated how one can significantly
reduce the costs of launching rockets into space.

OTRAG never flew - thus they demonstrated nothing except viewgraphs.

OTRAG flew at least one sounding-rocket prototype, showing that their
hardware more or less worked, and *perhaps* establishing at least a first
guess at costs. They never did an orbital launch, but that's not the same
as being a pure-viewgraph outfit.
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