Possibilities of New Business Growth: Orbital Transfer Vehicles

 history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Oct 082019
 

Continuing…

In 1985 Rockwell considered the business possibilities of a range of Orbital Transfer Vehicles. The OTV, in its various forms, was a reusable upper stage designed to move sizable payloads from LEO to higher orbits such s geosynchronous. To facilitate reusability, some designs included aerobrakes to reduce the need to burn fuel when returning from high orbit to low. Some OTVs included manned options. The men were not needed for piloting the OTVs, but to perform missions such as satellite servicing in GEO.

 

 Posted by at 1:54 am

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

SOLD: Military Manuals

 books, history, Hmm..., rockets, weapons  No Responses »
Sep 302019
 

Have I got a deal for you. Shown here is a rather eclectic collection of 36 military manuals. Some are big, some are small. Some might interest you; some might be incredibly dullsville for you. I’ve no idea what each one is worth, but I’d guesstimate that the average would go for something like five bucks each, or $180 for all of them. But if anyone would like the whole pile all at once… $125 plus shipping and they’re yours. Send me an email, first come, first served.

SOLD.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 3:44 pm

Book sale: “Space Planners Guide” and “Handbook of Astronautical Engineering”

 awesomeness, books, history, news, rockets, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 292019
 

I have two books for sale. Interestingly, I have a few copies of each book. The two books:

1: “Space Planners Guide,” put out by the USAF, Air Force System Command, 1 July 1965. This large format hardcover book is intended to help someone plan pretty much every aspect of a space mission, at least to first order, including the design of space vehicles. Today this would of course all be done on a computer. This books comes with a big pile of transparencies in pockets inside both the front and back covers that include many graphs for use in working out the whichness of the why of all aspects of space planning. The book itself is not classified, but there is a warning inside it telling users to not scribble their findings in the margins because the book can be used to *design* classified vehicles and missions. These are hard to come by; there weren’t that many in the first place. Most of my copies are in very good condition, but one has some damage to the front cover (though none to the interior of the book itself). All come with the transparencies.

Intact copies: $150 each plus postage SOLD OUT

The slightly damaged copy: $135 plus postage SOLD

2: “Handbook of Astronautical Engineering” a massive tome published in 1961, edited by H. H. Koelle, director of the Future Projects Office at NASA-Marshall. This also covers nearly all aspects of space mission and vehicle design, but in much greater detail. It’s a classic.

The Handbooks are $150 each plus postage. I have more of those than the Planners Guides. TWO LEFT

As always, if you are interested, send me an email letting me know which book(s) you want and what your mailing address is. These can be sent via low-cost media mail, but if you want something fast, let me know in the email. As always, it’s first come, first served, but people who want a copy of *both* books go to the head of the line.

 

A big mess of photos of these books have been uploaded to Dropbox here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wdhstvjbgaxk527/AAAFBubce_AtrmvVyR5BhREMa?dl=0

 

 Posted by at 11:17 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
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