NASA Eyes Shuttle Replacements 353
jonerik writes "According to this article at Space.com, NASA yesterday released a status report on the first year of NASA's Space Launch Initiative; the search for a space shuttle replacement, currently planned to begin operating ten years from now. The competing contractors - Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and a team consisting of Northrop Grumman and Orbital Sciences Corp. - have their work cut out for them. NASA is looking for both a ten-fold improvement in per-pound launch costs (from $10,000 per pound to $1,000) and massive improvements in crew survivability."
In related news, Rubyflame writes: "Aviation Now has a
story about four new kerosene-fueled rocket engines being developed by Aerojet, Pratt & Whitney, Rocketdyne, and TRW. These are engines that will produce a million pounds of thrust, intended to outdo Russian designs in reliability and launch cost, and one of them may power a new reusable launch vehicle. Kerosene has the advantage that it's denser than hydrogen, so the fuel tanks can be smaller."
Haiku (Score:4, Funny)
Takes off like a pile of bricks
Lighter craft required
I'm really getting bored of Slashdot... (Score:1, Funny)
Built a ship so light that he could chuck it
At c into the air
Not like Nasa did care
They poured more in to Boeing and said 'Fuck it'
Re:Just another NASA bait'n'switch (Score:3, Funny)
Note, there are probably a few naive engineers and rocket scientists.
Funny, I always thought the terms "naive" and "rocket scientists" were antithetical.
Reminds me of this: (Score:5, Funny)
hehe...
Fore more quotes from that movie go here [atlyrics.com]
George Bush calls on NASA to put a man on the Sun (Score:3, Funny)
With everything that's been going on lately, you might have missed this important piece of 'news'.
Anyway, here's the link [bobfromaccounting.com].
Re:You mean Tthey "had" a "shuttle-like" prototype (Score:5, Funny)
Because we like to torment you. It obviously bothers you.
I also heard that France was working on a shuttle. Portugal has been flying their shuttle for years, though it's not widely publicized. Mexico scrapped their shuttle project in favor of their rail-gun / light-sail combination system with which they've manage to supply migrant workers for the asparagus farming on Venus.
Check out those concept animations. (Score:2, Funny)