THis is just my own opinion, but I think that adding a new upperstage to either lv with a J-2X would be a preferred option (to maintain jobs and infrastructure from Ares in Huntsville) and would be a large boost, anyone run numbers of Atlas V( 1 or 2) or Delta IV with a J-2x powered upperstage?
Both current EELV uppers are under powered and sized for EELV Heavy LEO missions. The J-2X might be the wrong engine but there are RL-10 options. They just need $$$ and a mission that has the $$$ and justification (... Cough .... Orion ... Cough ...)
Can you expand on this? CxP is saying the current upper stages are not good for Orion to LOE, but you are saying they are sized for a heavy LOE mission -- and Orion is a heavy LOE mission.Danny Deger
Quote from: Danny Dot on 04/22/2009 01:03 pmCan you expand on this? CxP is saying the current upper stages are not good for Orion to LOE, but you are saying they are sized for a heavy LOE mission -- and Orion is a heavy LOE mission.Danny DegerI was saying they are undersized for LEO on a Heavy. Might just be a play on how the words came out in my above post. That or the cofee hasn't kicked in yet snip
Quote from: ugordan on 04/22/2009 01:08 pmFrom the Atlas V User Guide for example it can be seen the Centaur has a significantly shorter burn to LEO in the Heavy variant than what it usually does.I'm curious; did the mission profile make use of Dual Engine Centaur (DEC)? That could explain the difference.
From the Atlas V User Guide for example it can be seen the Centaur has a significantly shorter burn to LEO in the Heavy variant than what it usually does.
Quote from: someone on 04/22/2009 04:08 pmQuote from: ugordan on 04/22/2009 01:08 pmFrom the Atlas V User Guide for example it can be seen the Centaur has a significantly shorter burn to LEO in the Heavy variant than what it usually does.I'm curious; did the mission profile make use of Dual Engine Centaur (DEC)? That could explain the difference.I just checked the table with typical mission profiles and it doesn't specify that, but it does say it's a GSO transfer so probably a single engine Centaur and my assumption above is hence invalid.
Can one of them please repost the .pdf's on both WBC and ACES?
Given the amount of work needed to produce these 70-100t launchers, are there any bones that could be thrown to MSFC with regards to development and production of such new launchers? It might smooth things over with the honourable gentlemen for Alabama and Florida if this were not simply a boon to ULA's constituent companies and their workforces.
Don't forget ULA has that new super state of the art production facility that boeing built when they thought they would be pumping EELVs out as fast as toyota pumps out cars.