Aerospace Ephemera

 aircraft, history, Hmm..., projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 022019
 

I found a few things that might be of interest. Not selling them (unless you want to offer me ten grand each… then I suppose I could entertain the notion), just thought them interesting:

1: A Boeing property tag from the SST program.

2: A thank-you card printed up for Werner von Braun. Sadly, not signed. Came tucked into the Spivak archive a year or two back. Seems he might’ve had a 60th birthday party or something and either handed these out or mailed them to attendees or well-wishers or some such.

3: The invitation that was mailed to me back in April of ’96 to go witness the first public launch of the Delta Clipper. I was invited due to my activity within the Iowa State (University) Space Society. We put on the Mid Continent Space Development Conference every year and repeatedly had Bill Gaubatz of McDonnell Douglas come and give a presentation on the Delta Clipper program.

 

 Posted by at 10:52 pm

Who wants a Black Horse?

 art, history, models, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 022019
 

Better part of 20 years ago I started building a 1/24 scale model of the Black Horse SSTO spaceplane. This USAF design was a purely rocket powered vehicle, with engines that burned kerosene-based fuel with hydrogen peroxide oxidizer; it would take off horizontally from a runway with the H2O2 tanks prit near empty, rendezvous at altitude with a tanker aircraft and bring aboard all the H2O2 it needed, then blast off for orbit. It was a cool concept, and it *might* have even worked. So for reasons of my own I decided that what the world needed was a ridiculously large model of the Black Horse. I got as far as a fiberglass shell of the main wing/body, missing only control surfaces, wingtip fins, rocket engines and surface detailing. And then… life intervened, the model got set aside and put out of the way, out of sight and out of mind.

So… anyone want it? As is, with a light dusting of genuine artisanal Utah dust. No reasonable offer refused. Shipping cost is on the buyer; I expect it’ll cost a fair amount, but it is pretty rugged since it’s fiberglass (the original was made of foam and plaster, a fiberglass mold made and a fiberglass shell cast for the final finishing which I never got to). If nobody wants it, no sweat… off to the trash. I’ll give it a day or so.

   

 Posted by at 11:33 am

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Next Generation Shuttle

 history, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Launch Vehicle Projects  No Responses »
Oct 012019
 

Continuing…

In 1985, the Space Shuttle program was already about a decade and a half old, the shuttles themselves were already starting to show themselves as “old tech.” It was clear that they would need replacing with a next generation of vehicle, and of course Rockwell wanted to build whatever “Shuttle II” came along… if for no other reason, a Shuttle II would make the Shuttle instantly obsolete and wipe out Rockwell’s Shuttle-based income. It was obvious that such a system would enter service sometime after the year 2000. Not, of course, very long after 2000. That would be nuts.

Interestingly, the illustration Rockwell used for the Next Generation Shuttle was not a Rockwell design, but a NASA-Langley concept for a small “Orbit-on-Demand” vehicle. If you’d like more information on this exact design, boy, have I got a deal for you: it was described and illustrated in US Launch Vehicles Projects #03.

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 7:23 pm

Giggity

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., news, photography, projects, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Sep 282019
 

Homina.

The Starship program will be updated during a livestream later today:

 

Forget about the design specifics; the thing that will impress me the most *if* the Starship prototypes work is the fact they were built not in a robotic factory in cleanroom conditions, but basically on a beach.

 Posted by at 3:16 pm

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Large Unmanned Space Launcher

 history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 232019
 

Continuing…

In 1985 Rockwell pondered the business case for a brand-new Saturn V-class expendable booster specifically for the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) program. The heavy payload capability coupled with large diameter payloads would allow the launch of sizable space-based lasers and similar systems. In order for the booster to warrant the high development cost, there would have had to have been a need for the capability, and obviously the USAF hasn’t filed the sky with orbital laser systems.

The launcher illustrated is not one I’ve seen elsewhere. It has three Shuttle boosters, a core seemingly larger in diameter than the Shuttle ET, and a propulsion module (presumably recoverable) with five or six engines, presumably SSMEs.

 Posted by at 10:36 pm

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Small Unmanned Space Launcher

 history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 212019
 

Continuing…

Rockwell in 1985 considered the business case of small unmanned launchers of 15,000 pounds payload capability. The goal would be low cost ($100/lb of payload delivered to orbit). It’s not clear, at least from this report, if Rockwell had a design of their own under consideration; the illustration included shows only non-Rockwell commercial designs… the “Dolphin” and “Conestoga II” from Space Services, Inc; the “Phoenix” SSTO from Pacific American Launch Systems; the “Space Van” from Transpace Inc. (though what’s shown is just the standard orbiter atop the 747 SCA); the “Constellation” from Star Struck Inc.; the Delta from Transpace Carriers Inc (which appears to be a standard Delta II); the Atlas from Convair; and the “Excalibur” from Truax Engineering, a reduced-scale version of the Aerojet Sea Dragon of two decades earlier.

 Posted by at 12:24 am

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Small Manned Space Launch Vehicle

 history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 162019
 

Continuing…

Moving away from the Space Shuttle, Rockwell looked towards the next generation of manned space vehicle. In this case, a small vehicle with about 10% the payload of the Space Shuttle. The general configuration was used by Rockwell for several small space launch vehicles at about this time, mostly military vehicles. While the payload was nowhere near the STS’s, it would- if it worked as advertised – potentially wreck the business model for the STS program by providing a far cheaper means of getting crew into space.

 

 Posted by at 10:03 pm

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle

 history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 142019
 

Continuing…

The OMV survived for a number of years as a number of generally similar concepts: an unmanned vehicle designed to shove satellites around Earth orbit. Several companies proposed vehicles such as this with varying degrees of capability. Some were designed to stay in space and be refueled; others were designed to go up with the Shuttle and then come back down with it for refurb and refueling. I believe the OMV shown here was of that kind.

 

 Posted by at 8:19 pm
 Older Entries  Newer Entries