Launch System #1 Shuttles

 



Space Habitats and Hazardous Environments Design and Development
Robert Cole
yakiba@sho-shin.com

NOTE: At this time, there are endless media fantasy images purporting large spacecraft. All do not accord the momenta of mass and would pull themselves apart. All designs on this site are viable.


Launch System #1: Many light-weight Shuttles ferry scores from airborne launch platforms. This is one of many systems I planned out in 1980, however Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites has designed a perfectly similar plane for Paul Allen and Stratolaunch.

Courtesy Stratolaunch Systems Corp. - Wikimeia Commons 2018

The Space Shuttle weighed 4.4 million lb. Most of that weight was fuel to lift itself above five miles. Many lighter Shuttles could launch constantly from a fleet of twin fuselage heavy-lift planes. Potentially, hundreds of personnel could go into space in a single day.

What's up with Shuttles?

The Shuttle has one, big orange Fuel-tank that it throws away. It's out of gas before even getting to space. What if...








yakiba@sho-shin.com