Re: Air Force Signs Off on SRB-CEV

Jake McGuire wrote:
> Ed Kyle wrote:
> > If you are going to argue getting rid of a launch
> > vehicle line to save money, why not get rid of the
> > more expensive (Delta IV) line, which is a duplicate
> > of the Atlas V line?
>
> Because the US Government wants two different launch vehicles for most
> of its satellites in case one of them runs into difficulties. Much
> like the Delta IV happens to have now, but much like the Atlas could
> have if (for instance) Russia becomes unwilling or unable to supply
> RD-180 engines. The Delta II cannot help in this regard, so you can't
> shut down Delta IV and use Delta II instead.

If RD-180 is the problem - the real reason that the
U.S. government wants two duplicate parallel space
launch vehicles (an unprecedented situation, BTW) -
then why not shut down Atlas V and keep Delta II
and IV? Or why not spend money to develop an RD-180
replacement? Either approach would be many, many
billions of dollars cheaper over the life of the
programs than keeping duplicate production lines
open.

Thor-based vehicles have flown far more often than
any other U.S. vehicle. They are second in total
number of flights only to Russia's R-7, which is
another medium launcher. Russia is not planning on
shutting down R-7/Soyuz production. The majority of
China's DF-5 based Long March missions are by medium
variants. Meanwhile, Europe, which already has
Ariane 5 (a better EELV than the U.S. EELVs in some
ways) is going out of its way to develop a new medium
launcher, Vega, from scratch.

It just doesn't seem sensible to throw away such a
reliable medium launcher. By trying to force
payloads onto the EELVs, the Air Force seems to be
making the same bottom-line-think mistake that NASA
made with shuttle.

I think it would be a big mistake for the U.S. to
strip itself of its valuable Thor-Delta medium
launcher capability.

- Ed Kyle

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Heavy lift: examining the requirements"
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  • Re: Air Force Signs Off on SRB-CEV
    ... why not just Delta IV? ... payloads and use Delta IV-Medium and -Heavy for higher-end payloads. ... Soyuz their new Medium launcher for Kourou. ... The Air Force has no further Delta II-class payloads on ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: "Heavy lift: examining the requirements"
    ... > article in TSR about SRBs used for a CEV launcher) the concept has ... > support of some in the astronaut office, and that strap-on SRBs would ... the Delta II during the late 90s and a Delta ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Air Force Signs Off on SRB-CEV
    ... >boosted all of NASA's recent Mars missions - is ... >launchers cost more than Delta 2, ... >Delta 2 class launcher. ... as the next two planetary missions are on EELV anyway. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
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