Orion On Track But Overweight; Funding Crunch Could Hit In '07

Orion On Track But Overweight; Funding Crunch Could Hit In '07
http://www.avweek.com/avnow/news/cha...s/ORI12206.xml

Quote: Orion went about 3,000 pounds over the 62,000 pounds it is planned to
weigh when it takes off with a crew of four to rendezvous with its lunar
injection stage in Earth orbit. That figure includes the standard weight
growth allowances for every subsystem.

Not terribly surprising.



An interesting quote about Ares I: By extending the adaptor over the
propellant tanks, engines and other systems in the Orion service module so
that it reaches almost to the command module on top of that, the project
would gain some load-carrying structure that could be jettisoned during
ascent rather than taken all the way to orbit. "It would be almost like a
shroud," Hatfield said. "As you go to orbit, once you're at the point of the
second stage engine lighting, when you're above most of the atmosphere, you
could kick the aerodynamic panels off of the thing, and it saves somewhere
between 500 and 1,000 effective mass to orbit."

Didn't someone mention in these groups recently that the Soyuz launcher does
something very similar?

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)

Jeff Findley wrote:

Didn't someone mention in these groups recently that the Soyuz launcher does
something very similar?



Yeah, me.
Soyuz has two shrouds associated with its upper stage; a aerodynamic
shroud that covers the spacecraft itself and incorporates the escape
tower and four flip-out grid fins for stability if the escape sequence
is fired, and a separate three piece shroud that sits under the LOX
tankage and around the upper stage engine, these lower shroud is
jettisoned to save weight once upper stage separation has occurred. They
are the section that's orange in this photo:
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/soyuz-rocket-02.jpg
What makes this funny is that Ares I already looked freakishly like a
Soyuz core and upper stage, and now it's going to look even more like it.
Then they may hang strap-ons on its first stage, and then it's _really_
going to look like we've rebuilt a Semyorka with solid fuel technology. :-D

Pat