Jul 072008
 

A United Technologies concept for a recoverable Titan III SRM. Nothing major needed doing, mostly just the addition of the parachute pack on the nose. This would have added weight and reduced payload performance slightly, but would have permitted recovery of the SRMs. This proposal was very similar to what has actually been done with the Shuttle SRBs; had this program gone ahead, it likely could have flown well before the end of the sixties, and could have informed the Shuttle programs decisions. Either the SRB recovery and reuse procedure would have started out from a smarter and more efficient base… or NASA could have decided on the basis of the Titan III experience that it was just too much of a headache.

The obvious alternative to the recoverable SRM approach would ahve been the flyback booster… like the Boeing 979.

srmrecov.jpg

 Posted by at 9:42 pm

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