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The long-awaited Delta-4-Heavy test flight has just taken off -- WOW



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 21st 04, 11:06 PM
Jim Oberg
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Default The long-awaited Delta-4-Heavy test flight has just taken off -- WOW

The long-awaited Delta-4-Heavy test flight has just
blasted off from Cape Canaveral, looks good so far.

Boeing is the manufacturer -- a good day for them.

The liftoff video is mighty impressive, see
http://www.boeing.com/news/feature/l...vy_webcast.htm

This is the new rocket that is most often talked about
as the booster for NASA's new human spaceship, the
'Crew Exploration Vehicle' (CEV) of 'Project Constellation'.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...xt_launch.html

This version can carry fourteen tons into orbit -- twice the size of
Russia's 'Soyuz' rocket. It's not quite as heavy as a full payload
on the space shuttle, but is a lot cheaper.

Better -- this rocket architecture can be upgraded with more
strap-on boosters, to get to the twenty to twenty five tons.
That's a lot more than the space shuttle can deploy.

It's big enough to assemble space vehicles in orbit that can carry
astronauts back to the moon.

Still ten years before NASA puts astronauts into the new capsule
and launches them -- but it will look a lot like what we just saw.


  #2  
Old December 22nd 04, 09:56 AM
Henk Boonsma
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Default


"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...
The long-awaited Delta-4-Heavy test flight has just
blasted off from Cape Canaveral, looks good so far.

Boeing is the manufacturer -- a good day for them.

The liftoff video is mighty impressive, see
http://www.boeing.com/news/feature/l...vy_webcast.htm

This is the new rocket that is most often talked about
as the booster for NASA's new human spaceship, the
'Crew Exploration Vehicle' (CEV) of 'Project Constellation'.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...xt_launch.html

This version can carry fourteen tons into orbit -- twice the size of
Russia's 'Soyuz' rocket. It's not quite as heavy as a full payload
on the space shuttle, but is a lot cheaper.


I beg to differ. Man-rated with a CEV capsule the cost will probably exceed
$250million a flight. That's half that of a Shuttle flight which can carry
a lot more load and is a lot more flexible. OTOH a capsule wil lbe much
safer and the U.S. space program can't afford another fatal accident.


Better -- this rocket architecture can be upgraded with more
strap-on boosters, to get to the twenty to twenty five tons.
That's a lot more than the space shuttle can deploy
It's big enough to assemble space vehicles in orbit that can carry
astronauts back to the moon.


But it still falls far short of Saturn V (100 tons or so in LEO). Maybe a
new booster should be considered.



  #3  
Old December 22nd 04, 10:25 AM
Alan Erskine
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Default

"Henk Boonsma" wrote in message
news:1103705741.afb815c5f01358ea878db6b682439df9@t eranews...

But it still falls far short of Saturn V (100 tons or so in LEO). Maybe a
new booster should be considered.


The method of returning to the Moon would determine the LV requirements.
Remember that there was a short-lived concept called LSR (Lunar Surface
Rendezvous) where an automated lander would transport return propellant for
the next, 'manned' vehicle. This would have allowed a vehicle with an LEO
payload of about 37 tonnes to be used - Saturn C3 from memory.

D-IV can be scaled up to over 50 tonnes LEO payload with only a few changes
to the current design (engines, avionics would be the same, but a new core
would be needed with two engines and twice the propellant load, plus four
CBC's - I have been working on an idea which would have needed an
aproximately 8 metre diameter core, Boeing has 'confirmed' [indirectly] that
the New Booster Core would be 7.7 metres diameter). It could be done in
less than five years and total program costs would be in the order of $25
billion (five billion a year for five years), not the $170 billion NASA says
the 'Bush Plan' will cost.

--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge



  #5  
Old December 22nd 04, 05:11 PM
Rand Simberg
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Default

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 09:56:04 +0100, in a place far, far away, "Henk
Boonsma" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

the U.S. space program can't afford another fatal accident.


Nonsense.

If that's true, we've no hope of becoming a spacefaring species. Or
at least nation.
 




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