The idea of mid-air refueling of aircraft used to be considered scary too.~Jon
Honestly, the story is they are building a plane that can air drop a large rocket. To me the Falcon V is a place holder. What about a Falcon V first stage, a X-37 shape that is mostly a fuel tank, and a couple of seats as the second stage. See where I am going?
Wonder if the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft is capable of ferrying something like a empty 10m diameter FXX core stage? If it does, than SpaceX will probably pay for the service. Guess the 6m diameter FX core shouldn't be a problem as a ferry payload.
Quote from: jongoff on 12/13/2011 10:03 pmThe idea of mid-air refueling of aircraft used to be considered scary too.~JonIt still is, notice only some military's do it. It does not always go well... planes and sadly crews are sometimes lost. To me, remembering SpaceX's several launch aborts, lighting an air drop turbo pumped liquid engine is scary. If they switched to pressure fed...Honestly, the story is they are building a plane that can air drop a large rocket. To me the Falcon V is a place holder. What about a Falcon V first stage, a X-37 shape that is mostly a fuel tank, and a couple of seats as the second stage. See where I am going?
Like Chris said, all rockets are exciting. That said, I was really hoping, given the location, that this was going to involve Blue Origin, and funding for a two-stage fully reusable.
Well, one thing to remember is that the part of Dynetics most likely involved in this is going to be the old Orion Propulsion guys. While Dynetics is run by a lot of the old Ares-I people, the former Orion group is led by Tim Pickens--who helped with the SS1 propulsion system, and also built his daughter a hybrid rocket powered bike...I think at least that part of Dynetics isn't goint to have any problem interfacing with the SpaceX/Scaled people... :-)
What about a Falcon V first stage, a X-37 shape that is mostly a fuel tank, and a couple of seats as the second stage. See where I am going?
Its cool, but the question becomes, to where and how often?It seems to me that the smart thing for Allen and other billionaires would be to invest into Bigelow or IDC Dover and get a private space station up there along with ONE human launch company. And that needs to be ASAP.once you have at least one private space station up there along with a human launcher, then you will have loads of competition to drop the prices. Without it, then all of the various launchers are chasing the same dollars and it will not be enough.
Quote from: grr on 12/13/2011 11:58 pmIts cool, but the question becomes, to where and how often?It seems to me that the smart thing for Allen and other billionaires would be to invest into Bigelow or IDC Dover and get a private space station up there along with ONE human launch company. And that needs to be ASAP.once you have at least one private space station up there along with a human launcher, then you will have loads of competition to drop the prices. Without it, then all of the various launchers are chasing the same dollars and it will not be enough. What the hell? Why do so many refuse to address this question with government-funded "commercial" but then when someone decides to spend their own money, for something truly commercial, then everyone decides to find religion? And then people say instead how they should spend *their* money.It is as simple as this. A business case has been assessed for this concept. ROM numbers have been created to show what the ROI is (under "normal" assumptions and then "worse-case" and "best-case" assumptions) versus the investment required to bring it to fruition. The investor, Paul Allen (and maybe others), has determined this to be worth their time.
The mid-sized Delta-2-ish launch market is pretty small, as can be seen by the Delta 2 being withdrawn for lack of customers.
Excellent. The more companies working on space launch with NASA out of equation the better!
