IMO Senator Nelson sees value in near term (2012 ?), continued test launches of 5-seg, single stick, first stage powered flight only - configuration(s).
I do not believe Sen. Nelson is pushing for a Shuttle derived HLV, I think he knows that the window of opportunity for such a vehicle has passed.
IMO when Senator Nelson talks about the continued testing of monster rocket (or rocket X) and saving jobs at KSC, he is not looking at a quasi-complete Ares I config that given the funding requested could not fly soon enough to save any jobs.
It seems to me that a flight test program of the Ares 1 5 Segment Solids is transferable to the J-241SH(Stretched Heavy). T
Quote from: simonth on 04/22/2010 09:38 am I do not believe Sen. Nelson is pushing for a Shuttle derived HLV, I think he knows that the window of opportunity for such a vehicle has passed.Not while the Shuttle remains flying and the personnel are all still employed.
He said, in part: “You have allowed in this the flexibility of continuing the testing for that big solid rocket motor called the Ares 1-X, which will not only be important to the future of us getting out of low Earth orbit by building a heavy-lift vehicle for NASA, but is going to be critical to the solid rocket motors that protect this country’s national security.”
second- Nelson's referance to the Ares I-X, although some may find puzzeling is not, nor is it an error if you place it into a context where he is speaking of the of I-X not in terms of last October's launch of a single vehicle, but rather as that configuration becoming a project to be used for testing large SRBs.
There is no point in "flight testing" large SRB's.
Quote from: Jim on 04/22/2010 03:39 pmThere is no point in "flight testing" large SRB's. Especially since there are only three more flights planned using big segmented solid boosters in the United States. By the end of the year, big throat segmented solids will likely be history in this country.IMO - Ed Kyle
Quote from: edkyle99 on 04/22/2010 04:15 pmQuote from: Jim on 04/22/2010 03:39 pmThere is no point in "flight testing" large SRB's. Especially since there are only three more flights planned using big segmented solid boosters in the United States. By the end of the year, big throat segmented solids will likely be history in this country.IMO - Ed KyleAnd is that a loss? Russians never used them.
The big solids could live on in an Athena III. You'd have to find the payloads for it. Hmm, what kind of payloads are cheap and easily divisible?
At the moment and in the near future? Nothing really.
Anything further away would turn the segmented/large-bore solid production line into a years-long corporate welfare system for a program that might emerge.
I don't know about cheap, but rocket fuel is easily divisible right?
Quote from: mmeijeri on 04/22/2010 04:24 pmThe big solids could live on in an Athena III. You'd have to find the payloads for it. Hmm, what kind of payloads are cheap and easily divisible?I don't know about cheap, but rocket fuel is easily divisible right?