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Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 7th 11, 07:59 PM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

"Lockheed Martin has been selected by the U.S.
Air Force for a contract award to support the
Reusable Booster System (RBS) Flight and
Ground Experiments program.

The value of the first task order is $2 million, with
a contract ordering value of up to $250 million over
the five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity
contract period.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and
the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center
are developing the RBS as the next generation
launch vehicle that will significantly improve the
affordability, operability, and responsiveness of
future spacelift capabilities over current expendable
launchers."

See:

http://www.defencetalk.com/lockheed-...-system-38735/
  #3  
Old December 11th 11, 02:29 AM posted to sci.space.policy
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Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

"Andrews Space, Boeing and Lockheed Martin have been awarded
contracts
to design, fabricate and test systems under the reusable booster
system
flight and ground experiments (RBS-FGE) programme. The contracts,
awarded by the US Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, are
worth
up to $250 million each.

RBS-FGE is meant to mature technologies for a fully reusable vertical
take-off,
horizontal landing first stage booster system, using a liquid oxygen-
fuelled
combined cycle engine. The winged booster will loft the launch vehicle
to the
point where a second, expendable stage can fire and put the payload in
orbit,
while the first stage booster will return and land on a runway.

Limited flight testing is due to begin by 2015."

See:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...tracts-365835/
  #4  
Old December 11th 11, 04:51 AM posted to sci.space.policy
J. Clarke[_2_]
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Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

In article ea22bd34-57cc-44cd-a27e-3a981c23b5f9
@l19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com, says...
365835


Good. This is what those losers at NASA should have been doing in the
'70s instead of wasting huge amounts trying to "save" manned
spaceflight. Thank the Powers That Be that the Air Force has finally
been unleashed again.
  #5  
Old December 11th 11, 07:41 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Brian Thorn[_2_]
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Posts: 2,266
Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:10:38 -0700, Fred J. McCall
wrote:


Good. This is what those losers at NASA should have been doing in the
'70s instead of wasting huge amounts trying to "save" manned
spaceflight. Thank the Powers That Be that the Air Force has finally
been unleashed again.


Yeah, because there are no cuts to the USAF budget in the offing....


And pay no attention to the catastrophic performance of USAF in
meeting budget, schedule or spec with big projects in recent history.

This thing will be quietly killed before the end of 2012.

Brian
  #6  
Old December 11th 11, 07:48 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Brian Thorn[_2_]
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Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:51:07 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:


Good. This is what those losers at NASA should have been doing in the
'70s instead of wasting huge amounts trying to "save" manned
spaceflight.


Careful, that's not too far removed from how Shuttle got started.

Thank the Powers That Be that the Air Force has finally
been unleashed again.


Yeah, right. Is this the same Air Force that screwed up Future Imaging
Architecture and National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite
System so badly they were both killed off by an outraged Congress in
the last decade? The same Air Force that is vastly behind schedule and
overbudget on its prized new F-35 fighter? The same Air Force that
went down the EELV path in the name of lowering costs, but screwed up
things so badly they now cost us more than their predecessors? The
same Air Force that seems inexplicably unable to fairly choose a
replacement tanker or Search and Rescue helicopter?

This is a cool idea, but the chance of it seeing the light of day from
our incompetent Air Force in the upcoming years of drastic budgets
cuts is about nil.

Brian
  #7  
Old December 12th 11, 04:55 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_2_]
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Posts: 1,388
Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

In article ,
says...

"J. Clarke" wrote:


Good. This is what those losers at NASA should have been doing in the
'70s instead of wasting huge amounts trying to "save" manned
spaceflight. Thank the Powers That Be that the Air Force has finally
been unleashed again.


Yeah, because there are no cuts to the USAF budget in the offing....


But if you look at what the Air Force wants to spend on this, it isn't
much. From the article (
http://www.defencetalk.com/lockheed-martin-to-
demo-air-force-reusable-booster-system-38735/ ):

The value of the first task order is $2 million, with a
contract ordering value of up to $250 million over the
five-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract
period.

What's a quarter of a billion over five years to the Air Force?

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker
  #8  
Old December 12th 11, 05:08 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_2_]
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Posts: 1,388
Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

In article , bthorn64
@suddenlink.net says...

On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:51:07 -0500, "J. Clarke"
wrote:


Good. This is what those losers at NASA should have been doing in the
'70s instead of wasting huge amounts trying to "save" manned
spaceflight.


Careful, that's not too far removed from how Shuttle got started.

Thank the Powers That Be that the Air Force has finally
been unleashed again.


Yeah, right. Is this the same Air Force that screwed up Future Imaging
Architecture and National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite
System so badly they were both killed off by an outraged Congress in
the last decade? The same Air Force that is vastly behind schedule and
overbudget on its prized new F-35 fighter? The same Air Force that
went down the EELV path in the name of lowering costs, but screwed up
things so badly they now cost us more than their predecessors? The
same Air Force that seems inexplicably unable to fairly choose a
replacement tanker or Search and Rescue helicopter?

This is a cool idea, but the chance of it seeing the light of day from
our incompetent Air Force in the upcoming years of drastic budgets
cuts is about nil.


Apples and oranges. You're giving examples of programs which are
intended to become operational, but this project is clearly R&D along
the lines of X-37B. Too bad the budget for the X-37B is classified.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
- tinker
  #9  
Old December 13th 11, 03:34 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Brian Thorn[_2_]
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Posts: 2,266
Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

On Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:08:23 -0500, Jeff Findley
wrote:


This is a cool idea, but the chance of it seeing the light of day from
our incompetent Air Force in the upcoming years of drastic budgets
cuts is about nil.


Apples and oranges. You're giving examples of programs which are
intended to become operational, but this project is clearly R&D along
the lines of X-37B. Too bad the budget for the X-37B is classified.


Okay, but if they can't pull off the high-profile programs, what makes
you think they'll pull off a relatively low-profile program?

And they picked up X-37B from NASA, so they don't even really get
credit for *that*.

Anyway, I hope this bucks the trend.

Brian
  #10  
Old December 13th 11, 01:11 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Bob Haller
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Posts: 3,197
Default Lockheed Martin To Demo Air Force Reusable Booster System

On Dec 12, 9:34*pm, Brian Thorn wrote:
On Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:08:23 -0500, Jeff Findley

wrote:
This is a cool idea, but the chance of it seeing the light of day from
our incompetent Air Force in the upcoming years of drastic budgets
cuts is about nil.


Apples and oranges. *You're giving examples of programs which are
intended to become operational, but this project is clearly R&D along
the lines of X-37B. *Too bad the budget for the X-37B is classified.


Okay, but if they can't pull off the high-profile programs, what makes
you think they'll pull off a relatively low-profile program?

And they picked up X-37B from NASA, so they don't even really get
credit for *that*.

Anyway, I hope this bucks the trend.

Brian


air force knows big budgets are ending, this might give them the
incentive to do more affordable operations
 




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