#shuttle saturn

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of the fully reusable Space Shuttle using Saturn V S-IC stage.

Date: 1972

NASA ID: S72-456-X

SDASM Archives: 08_01044

[lonestarflight]

“To minimize development costs, NASA evaluated variations of the proven Saturn launch vehicle as booster for the Shuttle. Here the external tank is mounted on an unpiloted rocket stage, neither of them reusable. The operational cost of this concept was judged to be too high.”

Date: 1971-72

NASA ID: NASA-S-71-3878-X

San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive: 08_01045

[lonestarflight]

"American orbital launch vehicle. A winged recoverable Saturn S-IC stage was considered instead of solid rocket boosters after the final shuttle design was selected.

Status: Study 1972. Thrust: 33,737.90 kN (7,584,582 lbf). Gross mass: 3,161,710 kg (6,970,370 lb). Height: 107.00 m (351.00 ft). Diameter: 10.06 m (33.00 ft).

In yet another iteration of shuttle design studies, $ 2.8 million contracts were given in November 1971 to Grumman/Boeing, Lockheed, McDonnell-Douglas/Martin Marietta, and North American Rockwell. The development costs for the Phase B Prime contracts had still been over the Nixon administration's budget cap, and still further ways to reduce development cost had to be found. The studies were to run through 15 March 1972 and study lower cost booster concepts, one of them a Saturn V first stage modified to serve as a flyback booster. The study concluded that a Saturn S-IC flyback booster would need a wing with at least a 700 sq m area, would be powered by five F-1 engines and have a gross mass of 1.6 million kg. Staging would take place at 6450 kph. The vehicle would be reusable, except for the F-1 engines. The use of expendable engines was considered a drawback. The study assumed a series burn, with the shuttle orbiter igniting at altitude.

Flyaway Unit Cost $1985: 1,020.500 million."

source

[lonestarflight]

Grumman Aerospace Corporation shuttle

"NASA studied this Grumman concept for a partially reusable space transportation system during the Shuttle research effort in 1969-1972. This two-stage system featured a reusable orbiter and disposable external fuel tank attached to a recoverable booster similar to the Saturn V launch vehicle used to send astronauts to the Moon. After the booster burned out and was jettisoned, the orbiter's engines, fed from the attached disposable tank, would ignite for final ascent into orbit. The booster would land in the ocean and be retrieved; the orbiter would return from space to a runway landing. This concept sought to reduce cost by making use of proven, existing booster technology rather than developing a new launch vehicle for the orbiter. NASA transferred a variety of concept models to the Museum after settling on the final Space Shuttle design."

Smithsonian Institution: A19740734000