Wernher von Braun was against Shuttle, but...

Heinrich Zinndorf-Linker (zili@home) wrote:



Neutronium...okay, it may be a bit heavy, but... :-)



What about Lux or Relux?

IIRC Lux and Relux were a tad on the heavy side also: "...so Light Metal
isn't really a light metal?"

Isn't any Puppeteer around to sell us some
goodies?


That would eliminate the need for engineering viewports into the design.

Pat

cu, ZiLi aka HKZL

once did an interview with Wernher von Braun. Von Braun remarked that
the Shuttle is a bad idea. "Its the second step before the first"...


Most likely, he was thinking of a partially reusable system that would
gradually evolve toward full reusability -- either a reusable combination
upper stage / spacecraft to fly on an expendable lower stage, or more
probably, a reusable first stage with an expendable upper stage. The
latter would provide experience with reusability in a stage that faces a
less severe reentry and is less performance-critical; there had been
several proposals for recovery of Saturn first stages, all set aside
because it wasn't easy and the immediate requirements didn't justify the
added complexity.
--


I was satisfied with Henrys answer as I remembered the Saturn first
stage fly-back concept proposal. In last weeks I got another idea.
Could von Braun had an Energia/Buran concept in mind? It would still
be a Shuttle capable all of the present one. But with much less complexity
in the orbiter: No new super complex engines, no ullage links from the ET
to the orbiter and back.

The booster (probably some Saturn V derivate) could be changed and upgraded
independently of the shuttle. Any payload boost would be on the booster
side - no road block like shuttle SSMEs or SRBs today. Perhaps even an
option to reusability like Energia was intended too.
Is there a link from Energia/Buran to early NASA shuttle studies?


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Von Braun did want to have a reusable vehicle without the booster rockets for takeoff and a scramjet style engine for takeoff and a controlled landing. The shuttle is just a falling rock glider that cannot land anywhere.

The sads thing about nasa is that this idea was written out in the late 40's and we have not successfully completed this yet in 2006.

Originally Posted by

At July 4th I saw in German TV an interview with an older journalist.
Yeah, a journalist was interviewd by a journalist. The old guy said he
once did an interview with Wernher von Braun. Von Braun remarked that
the Shuttle is a bad idea. "Its the second step before the first" and
it will have reliability problems because its too complicated. I always
thought that WvB was a supporter of the shuttle. I dont know the time
of the interview or whether his remarks were off the record. The
reliability issue is a matter of course. But what did he mean by
"first step"? A space station as answer seems not to fit as it only
helps to give the shuttle a better reason to exist. For me it sounds
like he had some launch system in mind. Any idea?


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