Comments on: Hagel: Defense Department plans “review” of dependence on RD-180

By: DocM

DocM — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 20:10:22 +0000

How hard would it be to reconfigure Atlas V to use two AJ26-500’s if Aerojet and Teledyne Brown got the go-ahead?

If Russia moves into eastern Ukraine and cuts the source of Antares cores Aerojet and ULA could solve each others problems.

By: vulture4

vulture4 — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 04:05:42 +0000

Sorry, it was a joke. But what you say could be important. If we could get DOD to oppose SLS on the grounds that some of the NASA SLS funds could be redirected to get US production of the RD-180 and launches of the Falcon Heavy that would get it certified as an EELV…. maybe DOD would help persuade Congress that SLS is not long for this world.

By: Dave Klingler

Dave Klingler — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 03:32:49 +0000

“And the fact that they performed perfectly 25 years on the Space Shuttle means nothing? I think it is frugal to use the good hardware that we already have.”

The SLS SRB bears only superficial resemblance to the Shuttle SRB. The new one is a clean sheet design with a different core. The frugality exists only in the minds of those who haven’t been following the SLS (or Constellation) very closely.

By: Dave Klingler

Dave Klingler — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 01:53:05 +0000

“Glad to see this administrationâ€™s visions of unicorns vanishing. ”

????

“Lockmart deserves all of the criticism they get for relying on a Russian engine. They stand to lose.”

And they sure do get a lot of criticism…uh, don’t they? They put together a cost-effective and extremely reliable launch vehicle that makes a ton of money. They stockpiled engines and did some due diligence to allay fears about availability. They could switch over to DIV if the RD180 ever became a problem. What’s not to criticize?

There are times, Windy, when I think you might say these things just to try to rile everybody up. Surely this is caricature?

By: Neil Shipley

Neil Shipley — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:30:58 +0000

1M lb vacuum thrust. Yep, 9 on a single core. A repowered F9 with thrust around or exceeding Saturn V.

By: Andrew Swallow

Andrew Swallow — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 22:51:42 +0000

That’s life.

By: Ben Russell-Gough

Ben Russell-Gough — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 22:03:53 +0000

Yeah, funny that SLS is the ONLY HLV idea that uses them. All others use clusters of liquid-fuelled rockets. I wonder why?

By: Malmesbury

Malmesbury — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 21:04:39 +0000

DOD will tell “their” congress criters to say “Hell no” to SLS.

Better Red than a NASA rocket is their motto after the shuttle fun….

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 18:37:55 +0000

The US should be moving towards cleaner carbon neutral fuels for its rockets in the long run anyway.

Nonsense. To the degree that carbon is a problem (it’s a negligible one, IMO), rocket launches are such a tiny part of it that’s it’s not worth a dime to try to fix it.

By: vulture4

vulture4 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:46:33 +0000

Here’s the answer. Congress will order the DOD to launch all its payloads on SLS.