Re: After the shuttle

Well, that may be true of the linear aerospike engine designed for the
X-33. But I'm speaking of an older design that is pretty well proven;

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4221/p236.htm



Pat Flannery wrote:
> William Mook wrote:
>
> >Absolutely.
> >
> >http://yarchive.net/space/rocket/aerospike.html
> >
> >A back of the envelope calculation shows that an aerospike engine
> >driven by RL10 components is interesting.
> >
> >For aobut $30 million you could have a trio of 10 metric ton thrust
> >systems that lifted a 7 metric tons each of reusable cruise missile
> >type body - made of advanced composites.
> >
> >
>
> They never did get the burning of the ejection ramp problem fixed with
> the J-2 derived linear aerospike motor for the X-33; the thing's concept
> apparently still needs some work.
>
> Pat

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