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Who invented/designed the Space Shuttle?
by
Launch Fan
on 02 Jun, 2008 13:32
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Was there a Von Braun type engineer behind the design and development of the Space Shuttle vehicle?
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#1
by
Jim
on 02 Jun, 2008 13:51
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Was there a Von Braun type engineer behind the design and development of the Space Shuttle vehicle?
Urban legend.
Von Braun did not invent or designed the Saturn vehicles. he was just a team leader of the group that did and was a charismatic speaker.
However the designer of the Mercury capsule, Max Faget did produce some shuttle designs and had patents on them. But the current shuttle was a industry designed vehicle.
Some say Faget was closer to a Korolyov type leader than von Braun.
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#2
by
edkyle99
on 02 Jun, 2008 14:22
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Urban legend.
Von Braun did not invent or designed the Saturn vehicles. he was just a team leader of the group that did and was a charismatic speaker.
However the designer of the Mercury capsule, Max Faget did produce some shuttle designs and had patents on them. But the current shuttle was a industry designed vehicle.
Some say Faget was closer to a Korolyov type leader than von Braun.
H.H. Koelle was the leader of Von Braun's Preliminary Design Section (later called something like the Advanced Design Group or the Future Projects Office, etc.). He, more than any other person I can identify, was the one responsible for the hundreds of design concepts that eventually coalesced to Saturn I, Saturn IB, and Saturn V. Von Braun was deeply involved, of course, but at a "hands-on" managerial review level.
Saturn became a "design-by-committee" type machine after ABMA was folded into NASA. The Silverstein Committee decided on a liquid hydrogen second stage, for example, even though Von Braun favored a kerosene second stage. MSFC was, of course, the final arbiter of detailed designs.
Max Faget may have been the H.H. Koelle of the early Shuttle development effort, but a lot of ideas came from industrial contractors. Grumman and Lockheed, for example, came up with the expendable tank idea to reduce development cost. Grumman was also an early promoter of jettison-able boosters.
- Ed Kyle
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#3
by
Gene DiGennaro
on 02 Jun, 2008 14:41
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The smart alek in me says the space shuttle was designed by the Office of Management and Budget and its predecessor the Bureau of the Budget.
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#4
by
edkyle99
on 02 Jun, 2008 20:12
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The smart alek in me says the space shuttle was designed by the Office of Management and Budget and its predecessor the Bureau of the Budget.
The history with first Saturn and then Shuttle shows that both of NASA's human launch vehicle designs departed substantially from the original engineering concepts when they met higher decision levels. Saturn was altered first by Silverstein and then, for all practical purposes, by John F. Kennedy's "end of decade" call (prior to JFK's speech, NASA's Apollo plan involved Saturn C-1 and C-2). NASA's Faget proposed a relatively small orbiter to be launch with a flyback booster, but that concept was quickly lost in the long bureaucratic struggle that led to what we see flying today.
It makes me wonder how Ares I and V will turn out. Who will be remembered as the "designer" of these launch vehicles?
- Ed Kyle
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#5
by
Antares
on 02 Jun, 2008 22:38
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Does anyone remember the designer of X-30 or VentureStar?
Exactly. People don't remember the names of ones that don't get built.
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#6
by
vt_hokie
on 04 Jun, 2008 17:58
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Does anyone remember the designer of X-30 or VentureStar?
David Urie for the latter? (I don't know...that's just a guess off the top of my head.)
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#7
by
edkyle99
on 04 Jun, 2008 20:41
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Does anyone remember the designer of X-30 or VentureStar?
Exactly. People don't remember the names of ones that don't get built.
NASA is going to have an Ares I. There's no precedent for a NASA human space project like Ares I/Orion being canceled this far (three years) into the effort.
- Ed Kyle
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#8
by
Jim
on 04 Jun, 2008 20:58
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NASA is going to have an Ares I. There's no precedent for a NASA human space project like Ares I/Orion being canceled this far (three years) into the effort.
- Ed Kyle
X-33 is a perfect example. Orion is not tied to Ares I.
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#9
by
Antares
on 04 Jun, 2008 21:09
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Regarding precedent: tell that to the folks at Stennis and MAF who used to say "Well, it survived Camille" before Katrina came through.
Or to the folks who said liberated ET foam was never a problem before STS-107. I'd go further, but we're OT and retreading.
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#10
by
edkyle99
on 04 Jun, 2008 21:26
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X-33 is a perfect example. Orion is not tied to Ares I.
X-33 was an R&D program. Orion/Ares I is a development program for a human launch system. Precedent is Mercury/Atlas, Gemini/Titan, Apollo/Saturn, and Shuttle.
It appears that Orion could sport some features specific to Ares I. There is talk of specific mods to dampen Ares I thrust oscillation, for example.
- Ed Kyle
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#11
by
khallow
on 04 Jun, 2008 22:34
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Regarding precedent: tell that to the folks at Stennis and MAF who used to say "Well, it survived Camille" before Katrina came through.
Or to the folks who said liberated ET foam was never a problem before STS-107. I'd go further, but we're OT and retreading.
I agree. There's always precedent for precedent.
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#12
by
overby
on 05 Jun, 2008 01:27
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#13
by
Launch Fan
on 05 Jun, 2008 01:30
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Thanks for all the answers!
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#14
by
phardacre
on 19 Jul, 2008 01:49
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Was there a Von Braun type engineer behind the design and development of the Space Shuttle vehicle?
down load the university pod casts and all will be revealed
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#15
by
Danny Dot
on 19 Jul, 2008 03:03
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Does anyone remember the designer of X-30 or VentureStar?
Exactly. People don't remember the names of ones that don't get built.
NASA is going to have an Ares I. There's no precedent for a NASA human space project like Ares I/Orion being canceled this far (three years) into the effort.
- Ed Kyle
I agree with this. The US Congress is not going to have this nation operate without a manned space program when two other countries have manned programs.
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#16
by
Orbiter
on 19 Jul, 2008 04:35
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No one 'invented' the Space Shuttle. My Grandfather helped design the Hatch for the Space Shuttle. Many contractors and teams and idea's invented the Space Shuttle.
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#17
by
Orbiter
on 19 Jul, 2008 04:39
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Infact, the Space Shuttle Desgin changed a lot, from something that would have most likely never worked, to the Space Shuttle.
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#18
by
CFE
on 19 Jul, 2008 05:40
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In terms of coining the word "shuttle" for a reusable space vehicle, that honor probably belongs to Phil Bono. He conducted a number of VTOL studies for Douglas Aircraft during the 60's, the largest of which was ROMBUS (Reusable Orbital Module Booster Utility Shuttle.) They weren't truly single-stage because the hydrogen propellant was carried in drop tanks. And they were clearly a far cry from the Space Shuttle we eventually got.