The status of SLS configurations, circa April, 2012. Note the combination of manned and unmanned variants, Shuttle-derived solid rocket boosters and all-new liquid rocket boosters.
Jan 132013
Jan 072013
Some ca. 2011 NASA artwork depicting the hoped-for for flight of the Exploration Flight test (EFT-1) in 2014, showing the Orion capsule and its service module attached to a Delta IV upper stage. The EFT-1 mission will be unmanned, and tossed up to 3,600 miles for two orbits.
Nov 262012
NASA rendering of the Space Launch System Block 2 concept.
Nov 252012
NASA rendering of the Block 1 Space Launch System concept.
Nov 242012
A chart from a NASA briefing from May of this year giving a quick look at three planned configurations of the Space Launch System which some/many in NASA hope to get built and flown in the coming years.
When transitioning from the Block 1 to Block 1A configurations, the plan is to replace the Shuttle-derived five segment solid rocket boosters with all-new advanced boosters, either liquid or solid. But history has shown that if what you’ve got *now* more or less works, replacing it with an expensive new rocket is a somewhat politically dubious prospect.
Nov 222012
A pretty simplistic schematic diagram of a possible Nova launch vehicle, circa 1961, very similar to the “Chemical Nova.”
Nov 162012
A photo of a NASA Nova design, in rather crude display model form.
Nov 152012
A relatively well-known and very early design for a Nova vehicle. It is interesting in that it has only a slightly more powerful first stage and seemingly smaller and heavier upper stages than the Saturn V, yet was designed to put a very heavy lander directly onto the lunar surface.
Nov 082012
A 1962 NASA graphic showing the Saturn I, Saturn V and one or the more stereotypical of the Nova configurations to scale. Note that they all show direct-landing Apollo spacecraft… an extra stage, and no LEM. The Nova is similar to the “Saturn C-8” configuration. Note that the second stage of the Nova is larger in diameter and almost as long as the first stage of the Saturn C-5, and would have made the basis of a fairly substantial launch vehicle on it’s own.
Nov 072012
A NASA-Marshall concept for a Nova launch vehicle. Nova began life as a vehicle somewhat smaller and lower-capability than the Saturn V, and quickly grew substantially larger than the Saturn V, ending its run as the “Post Saturn” launch vehicle (with designs such as ROMBUS and Nexus). This design features eight F-1 engines on the first stage, and has been, probably apocryphally, referred to as the “Saturn C-8.”
