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I’d argue the Shuttle failed because it wasn’t conservative enough. What we needed was more cost effective versions of the Saturn rockets. Instead they got inf
by valuearb 6y ago
I’d argue the Shuttle failed because it wasn’t conservative enough. What we needed was more cost effective versions of the Saturn rockets.
Instead they got infected with the SSTO fantasy, which can never work well. But it boxed them in a corner with the wrong fuel, wrong engines and forced-them to add super expensive SSRBs, which required putting the Shuttle on the side, which led to two disasters and a “reusable” launch system that had to be totally rebuilt between launches.
We’d still have Skylab if they had focused on manufacturing efficiencies for Saturn rockets instead.
- pfdietz 6y agoIn an alternate universe, the Saturn IB could have been evolved to something like the Falcon 9. The H1 engines are in a similar thrust class as the Merlin, although with lower performance.
- Breza 6y agoI've thought about this as I've read the book Coming Home: Reentry and Recovery from Space. The fixation on a space plane probably set back the US space program by decades whereas a more boring evolutionary tree descended from the Saturn program would have been interesting.