USAF gets a Falcon Heavy

 news, rockets, spacecraft  13 Responses »
Jun 222018
 

Air Force certifies Falcon Heavy, orders satellite launch for 2020

A $130 million contract to launch the Air Force Space Command-52 satellite.That’s more than the Falcon 9 Heavy is normally supposed to cost, but the extra is due to government assurance requirements. Even with the price increase, it’s still one-third to one-half the price of a Delta IV heavy.

The falcon 9 Heavy already has flights lined up for the near future…the STP-2flight with a bunch of mini-payloads for November 2018, Arabsat in December. Inmarsat and Viasat hd prior launches scheduled with SpaceX but moved to Ariane V due to delays, but kept their agreements with SpaceX and may lunch with them in the future.

 Posted by at 3:55 am

Forthcoming

 drawings, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Launch Vehicle Projects  1 Response »
Jun 202018
 

First draft of diagrams for the next issue of US Launcher Projects. This will include concepts such as an eight-F-1 Nova, a 1962 Lockheed fully reusable spaceplane launcher, a Boeing HTOHL SSTO, a Convair VTOHL Delta Clipper competitor, a giant SPS launcher, a balloon-recovered Saturn I, an early Space Shuttle concept and an expendable SSTO.

 Posted by at 8:02 pm

AR-22

 news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  16 Responses »
Jun 192018
 

The first Aerojet-Rocketdyne AR-22 rocket engine has recently been assembled. This is a somewhat modified version of the old Space Shuttle Main Engine, meant specifically to power the first stage of the Boeing “Phantom Express” spaceplane. Thrust is 375,000 pounds and the engine is meant to be used 55 times, with servicing every 10 missions.

First Engine Assembled for DARPA and Boeing Reusable Experimental Spaceplane

The Phantom Express is meant to fly often and inexpensively… and appears to be basically an updated version of the mid-90’s Rockwell design for the X-33. It’s not clear to me that a hydrogen-burner using SSME-derived tech can compete economically with the likes of the Falcon 9, but the Phantom Express isn’t really intended to compete in the commercial market. Instead, the Phantom Express is intended as military launch system, lobbing relatively small satellites – communications and recon, with the possibility of GPS-replacements in the event that military action takes them out. Given that any future war with a major opponent will certainly involve attacks on American space infrastructure, it’s reasonable for DARPA to want to have as many rapid response launch systems as practical. The basic concept underlying the Phantom Express is simple and straightforward enough, and likely to be somewhat more rugged and reliable than the hoverslam landing system of the Falcon series… at the cost of probably weighing more.

 Posted by at 8:00 pm

Boeing entry vehicle designs

 aircraft, drawings, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  3 Responses »
Jun 102018
 

A Boeing illustration from 1964 showing a number of designs for lifting entry vehicles that Boeing had produced by that point. Most of these are manned vehicle concepts; a few of them are unfamiliar to me. The “B-3 —– B” looks like it might have been an ASSET competitor. The “Recoverable Booster” at top is one of several similar V-shaped designs that used a modestly modified Dyna Soar as the crew capsule up front. One such design was the Model 895 shown (along with competing ASP designs from other firms) in Aerospace Projects Review issue V2N5.

 

 Posted by at 12:19 am

Good news: the US Navy has a supersonic anti-ship missile…

 AARRRGH, Gah., news, rockets, ships, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  1 Response »
Jun 082018
 

Bad news: the Chinese have already pilfered it.

What Secretive Anti-Ship Missile Did China Hack From The U.S. Navy?

The “Sea Dragon” is a mysterious missile program that began in 2015 and has already resulted in flight vehicles, with new versions being prepared for launch by submarines while submerged. The article suggests several possibilities of what the “Sea Dragon” might be… but one thing it does seem to be is the next missile design the Chinese will be building, since they managed to  swipe half a terabyte of data.

It’s great that the Navy might actually be developing something new. Not helpful is letting our enemies just copy the damn thing. Somebody needs a whoopin’.

 

 Posted by at 10:51 pm

Reusable Atlas model photos

 history, models, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  4 Responses »
May 182018
 

In the 1960’s, prior to the Space Shuttle program, General Dynamics/Convair studied using the Atlas ICBM as a space launch system. no surprise there. But one concept called for a nearly fully reusable Atlas, equipped with wings, jet engines, landing gear and a cockpit to recover the booster in one reusable piece. It would be topped with either an expendable Centaur and satellite/space probe upper stage or a smallish manned lifting body spaceplane with its own built-in propulsive capability. At the time General Dynamics released sizable “educational” cards with information and photos of models of the reusable Atlas. Unlike the normal Atlas, this version did not drop the outboard “booster’ engines, but kept them throughout the mission. An inflatable, deployable afterbody was proposed to fair over the engines after burnout to reduce base drag.

I have uploaded righ-rez scans of both sides of this poster-sized card to the 2018-05 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for APR Patrons at the $4 level and up.

Additionally, a report on this concept is available as Space Doc 52.

If you are interested in these Reusable Atlas model images and a great many other “extras” and monthly aerospace history rewards, please sign up for the APR Patreon. What else are you going to spend $4 a month on?

patreon-200

 Posted by at 11:15 pm

Sold: Instant space colony collection

 books, history, projects, rockets, sales & specials, science, spacecraft  1 Response »
May 142018
 

A set of books, being sold as a lot. The prices in parentheses are what they seem to be going for on Abebooks.

“Space Colonies, a CoEvolution Book,” published in 1977 by the Whole Earth Catalog. Filled with technical information an papers, but also a lot of terribly 1970’s semi-hippie cartons and such. Paperback, in pretty good shape. ($20)

“Space Manufacturing Facilities – Space Colonies,”published in 1977 by the AIAA. Hardbound, cover’s a bit scuffed, but the book itself is quite good. ($40 to over $500… go figure)

“Space Manufacturing 5 Engineering with Lunar and Asteroidal Materials,” published in 1985 by the AIAA.Hardbound, good shape. ($25)

“Space Manufacturing 7 Space Resources to Improve Life on Earth,” published in 1989 by the AIAA. Hardbound, great shape except for some light spotting inside the front cover. ($35)

“Space Settlements A Design Study,” published by NASA in 1977. Paperback, slight scuffing on the cover but otherwise great shape. ($15)

Total, ($135). If anyone wants it, the price is $125 plus postage (media mail for cheapness, or whatever else if you want fastness). If more than one person wants the lot, I guess I’ll do a bit of an auction between interested folks. If interested, either comment below or send me an email: I’ll give it a day or so to see who’s interested.

SOLD.

 Posted by at 12:28 am

SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 to launch soon

 news, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 102018
 

This is the first launch attempt of a Block 5 Falcon 9. Assuming SpaceX gets a few of these safely under their belt, they can use them to launch NASA crews to the ISS, finally putting the US back into the manned space launch business again. This launch is sending up the first Bangladeshi geosynchronous comsat. Launch is current scheduled for 3:47 PM, Mountain time, followed by a planned recovery of the first stage on a barge.

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 Mission

 

 Posted by at 2:22 pm
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