Oct 132010
Remember the now-bankrupt Sea Launch enterprise? It was hardly a new concept. Reproduced below is a snippet from the September 1961 issue of “Space World” magazine, showing a concept that was largely identical.. an offshore platform to be used for space launch.
8 Responses to “Sea Launch: 1961”
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“One is that the Cape’s facilities may become too crowded in a few years to accomodate all launchings. . .”
Ouch. Sigh . . .
Semi-related comment, Bob Truax passed away in September. RIP.
It looks like launch vehicle #2 will get toasted when vehicle #1 lifts off.
That’s *probably* some sort of shroud to protect the booster from weather. Otherwise… it’s *stupid.*
And then there’s the San Marco Platform that’s part of the the Italian Broglio Space Centre.
One thing you could have done if you wanted to protect the booster from bad weather is house the bottom of it in one of those multi-petaled shelters like was used on the Jupiter IRBM:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Jupiter_emplacement.jpg
http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/systems/jupiter/photos/jupiter%20in%20launch%20prep.jpg
Sea Launch is apparently not dead after all. The Russians bought it! http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Political_Obstacles_For_Sea_Launch_Overcome_999.html
The Russians might be the only folks who could give Sea Dragon a go. Money spent on Kazakh holding in Baikonur would then be sent to their shipbuilding industries, with their new nuclear icebreakers used to break the water down into propellant. No need for a pad with Sea Dragon after all. The Sea Launch command and control ships would then be used.