Zentih Star was the name of a little known program to develop a space-based anti-missile laser during the Reagan SDI days. Vaguely shaped like the Hubble space telescope, it was much bigger and heavier, and could not be hauled into orbit in the Shuttle. Since the Shuttle was the biggest launch vehicle the US had, something new was needed. While several launch vehicles were proposed specifically to launch the Zenith Star, another idea was to use the proposed Shuttle C. Shuttle C was an expendable all-cargo derivative of the shuttle… stame external tank, same boosters, same “boattail” of the orbiter, but no wings, no cockpit, no recovery systems and an extended cargo bay. The Shuttle C was a NASA-MSFC idea that Martin Marietta ran with; the artwork below is likely Martin.
8 Responses to “Zenith Star Launch System: 1”
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Interesting way to make use of three reusable and expensive SSMEs.
Actually, it was. “Reusable” only goes just so far with NASA. You can run an SSME just so many times; after that, it’s considered unsafe to launch humans with… even though the engine might still be perfectly fine. So, if the engine is a total loss anyway that you are going to have to scrap… what better way to scrap it than by shooting it into orbit? Shuttle-C was supposed to use end-of-life SSMEs, and then, hopefully, lower-cost simplified SSME-derivatives. There werer also numerous ideas for making the “boattail” recoverable, though these weren’t baselined for the Shuttle C.
Like the admin states, Shuttle-C was meant as a way to discard SSMEs that were no longer servicable, never mind recycling them. Also, as stated there were ideas on how to recover the boattail, some as simple as leave it all up there in a stable orbit to be used as construction material for the space station, or make the SSME, OMS, etc… easier to remove and carried back on later shuttle missions. Never materialized, but still an interesing idea and a way to use existing hardware in a heavier lift capacity.
Don’t forget about the Titan kluge “Barbarian” that was to be a one-off to launch that thing.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/barianmm.htm
I remember Zenith Star. The idea was to launch one, test it, and incorporate improvements in the next vehicle. That it was a space laser would have been somewhat controversial but I’m sure there are all sorts of interesting things about space laser battle stations we would have leaned if the program had gone forward.
Too bad the Russians lost Polyrus… the Russkie space battle station had all sorts of features.
Scott,
Any chance I can get a copy of the manual. I’ll pay top dollar for it. I’m a fanboy of the Shuttle-C and Zenith Star projects. Thanks.
Didn’t Bill Eoff come up with the pre Ares Magnum BMDO launcher IIRC.
The shuttle-derived heavy lift crowd was always on the outside looking in with Goldin, with SLI and Venture Star sucking the oxygen out of the room.