GrahamS Posted May 25, 2017 Share Posted May 25, 2017 http://news.sky.com/story/us-government-spaceplane-contract-awarded-to-boeing-10892358 Looks interesting and familiar. Graham 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oggy4624 Posted May 26, 2017 Share Posted May 26, 2017 No better way to hide massive project overruns than a nice big pie in the sky space plane. KC46 bailout on the way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted May 27, 2017 Share Posted May 27, 2017 It looks to m,e that the space plane is essentially a winged booster. It doesn't carry people and has no internal cargo carrying capacity. It's effectively a winged rocket and fuel tank. It carries its payload in an expendable module. In some ways, it's the reverse of the original Space Shuttle concept. Rather than throwing away the tank, you now recover it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 18 hours ago, Eric Mc said: It looks to me that the space plane is essentially a winged booster. It doesn't carry people and has no internal cargo carrying capacity. It's effectively a winged rocket and fuel tank. It carries its payload in an expendable module. In some ways, it's the reverse of the original Space Shuttle concept. Rather than throwing away the tank, you now recover it. So mount an X-37 on it and you've got something approaching the first space shuttle concept. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 You would indeed have something close to the Shuttle concepts of 1970./71. You would have a recoverable winged booster piggybacking a winged orbital spacecraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimB Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 12 hours ago, Eric Mc said: You would indeed have something close to the Shuttle concepts of 1970./71. You would have a recoverable winged booster piggybacking a winged orbital spacecraft. Well, if the X-37 weighs 5 tonnes (less payload adapotor and fairing), and can be launched on an Atlas 501 (payloat to LEO a bit over 8 tonnes), then a Falcon9/X-37 should be feasible as it has a revoverable payload of 9.6 tonnes. (All figures from Wikipedia) Nine out of 10 booster engines would be recovered plus the spacecraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bar side Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 Something of HOTOL about the sketch 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Mc Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 12 hours ago, TimB said: Well, if the X-37 weighs 5 tonnes (less payload adapotor and fairing), and can be launched on an Atlas 501 (payloat to LEO a bit over 8 tonnes), then a Falcon9/X-37 should be feasible as it has a revoverable payload of 9.6 tonnes. (All figures from Wikipedia) Nine out of 10 booster engines would be recovered plus the spacecraft. Just shows that there are now multiple options available to spacecraft designers for recoverability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimB Posted June 7, 2017 Share Posted June 7, 2017 And now... https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/06/06/u-s-air-force-taps-spacex-to-launch-next-x-37b-spaceplane-mission/ No announcement yet on booster recovery plans. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorheadtx Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 Meanwhile, in the Stuttgart-Vaihingen cemetery, Eugen Sänger is quietly raising a skeletal middle finger to the boys at Big B...... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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