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Questions tagged [shuttle-derived]

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Does SLS reuse any actual shuttle flight hardware besides engines? [duplicate]

Will any SLS use flown (eg. SRB casings) or unflown (eg. ET tankage) hardware built for the shuttle program besides the engines (RIP)?
Anton Hengst's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
411 views

What hardware does SLS actually share with STS?

I was thinking about it for a while and realized I really don't know. I'm guessing it's: The RS-25s The SRB segments SRB seals/joints SRB nosecone assemblies +(avionics/separation motors/housings)? ...
Anton Hengst's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
205 views

Are any more details on the September 5, 2007 "Ares-1X Steel Rod Mishap During Static Strip Test at KSC Parachute Refurbishment Facility" available?

The presentation Recurring Themes from Human Spaceflight Mishaps During Flight Tests and Early Operations contains several rather "hinty" references to a mishap that occurred in September ...
Organic Marble's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
349 views

Help me find old study of huge space shuttle with 1,000 ton payload

In the late 1970s/early 1980s I read a study about up-sizing the space shuttle to carry 1,000 tons(!) payload to earth orbit. There was a crude drawing of such a beast, and if I remember correctly, ...
catsteevens's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
524 views

Would the Space Shuttle External Tank have made orbit as a VT SSTO with 6 SSMEs?

Dropping the external boosters and also the entire 75-100 ton orbiter from the picture, would the tank all by itself have made orbit? This would require bolting at least 5, better 6, perhaps even 9 ...
Prototypist's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why will SLS Block I bring less mass to LEO than the STS shuttle system did?

The Space Transportation System (STS) could bring a fully loaded shuttle orbiter of 109 tons to orbit (or maybe empty+payload 68+25=93 tons). The Space Launch System (SLS) Block I is based on STS, but ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
34 votes
2 answers
5k views

Why is the X-37B's large nozzle offset to right from the spacecraft's mid-plane?

Perhaps I'm naive to think that the single large nozzle at the back of the X-37B is a nozzle for an engine, but regardless of the purpose, gas exiting from a nozzle will produce thrust. Is the X-37B's ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
217 views

Could the solid boosters of SLS be paired together to a rescue launcher?

The solid boosters of Shuttle/SLS fly in pairs. Could a pair of them fly without SLS, carrying a smaller second stage and payload to orbit? What capacity would it have? A rescue launcher needs to ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
267 views

Couldn't the shuttle orbiter be replaced with a cargo bay, instead of creating the SLS?

Are there any technical reasons for not simply continuing the space shuttle production, except for replacing the orbiter with a pretty simple cargo bay (a payload fairing)? Like the Russians planned ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Shuttle-C: Did we make the right move?

Shuttle, and its cousin Shuttle-C, are now history as the launch pads have been converted for use by other systems. Claims made for the Shuttle-C were that it would have taken 4 years and cost $6 ...
MercuryPlus's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
2k views

What eventually killed the Augustine Commission Report Option 4B, Directly Shuttle-Derived Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle, a.k.a. DIRECT?

Before the Space Shuttle retirement, there was a huge pressure on NASA, U.S. Administration, and everyone else directly involved in U.S. human space exploration using Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV) ...
TildalWave's user avatar
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