The Grand Central Rocket Co. Vehicles No. 1 & 2

[Graham2001]

In the early 1960's the Grand Central Rocket Co. was asked by NASA to look into the possibility of using Solid Rocket clusters as first stages for Saturn class launch vehicles.

They came up with two designs.

Design No. 1 was roughly equivalent to the unbuilt Saturn II rocket design. The first stage had three 3-segment SRBs. The second stage was an early version of the S-II stage with four J-2 engines. The final stage was the S-IV stage used on the Saturn I. It was estimated that it could put a 60,000 pound payload into a 300 nautical mile orbit.

Design No. 2 was NOVA class. First stage had sixteen 5-segment SRBs. The second stage was four 5-segment SRBs. The third stage was described as a 'cluster' of six J-2 engines which would carry twice the propellant of the four engine S-II stage. The fourth stage was another J-2 'cluster' this time with only two engines. Payload to the 300 nautical mile orbit was 130,000 pounds.