#launch vehicle

[whirligig-girl]

Guz grinned at her model, as it completed the first loop around the layout of her new quarters. Guz explained the contents of the train--solid rocket boosters for the North Meridian Space Launch Facility.

"It's not really prototypical though, is it?" Rutherford asked.

"A steam engine pulling high explosives does seem illogical," T'lyn said.

Guz smiled and flapped her hands. "It is prototypical, and here's how it happened--"

Around the late 2330s, an oil crisis shocked Mellanus. It was a while before it got really bad, and the rationing had to begin, but it skyrocketed the price of gasoline and diesel and plastic products. As Omen approached, the railways identified a problem--there might not be enough oil to migrate everyone and move all the goods that need to be moved to support the migration as the climate changed. With the increasing diesel fuel shortages, railways had to start taking their old coal and wood burning steam engines out of mothballs.

This one, No.2475, was taken out of a museum. It only rarely actually ran, so it was in poor mechanical condition, but when it re-entered service its paint and brass was pristine.

The diesel locomotive that had been scheduled to take the train of SRBs ran out of fuel during the first hill climb, and the depot didn't have enough fuel to spare, so 2475 was diverted from its passenger duties to take the train the rest of the way.

Eventually most of the old timer steam engines ended up back in museums or scrapped, but as the oil crisis waxed, the railways invented Advanced Steam engines to be as fuel efficient as possible.

"--like that tank engine, Sam," Guz finished, pointing at the little yellow switcher that Rutherford and T'lyn had been inspecting.

[eaurpguz]

I made a drawing!

A launch vehicle I recall from home. I don't remember the name, but I'm sure "nuclear" was in there somewhere.

Here's what I told our friend Sofia about it.

left: overview of the entire launch vehicle. since i don't know mellanish anymore i don't know what it's called. Drawing a blank. Anyway. It's a nuclear rocket. The first stage is a cluster of solid rocket motors which gets the rocket flying fast and high and out of the thickest part of Gymnome's atmosphere, where the solid core nuclear thermal rocket can take over.

The rocket uses a water tank for propellant during stage 2A (the initial burn), because although the efficiency (Isp) is low for a waterlogged NTR, the thrust is as high as conventional hydrogen/oxygen chemical rockets but in a much smaller tank size. (this is because SCNTRs and Chemical rockets are both constrained in temperature to about the same amount, and so the thrust power is the same and all that can change is the mass flow rate.)

Once the rocket has accelerated up such that it no longer needs to worry about falling down, the vehicle can switch to Stage 2B, and start running hydrogen through the NTR. The thrust is lower, but the velocity gain per unit mass of fuel is much higher due to the fact that the hydrogen can be accelerated to a higher speed than the water. (with all that pesky oxygen).

It was noticed at some point that these rockets were really well suited for orbital refueling. This is still fairly early all things considered so that kind of infrastructre had been thought about a lot, but not actually built. The first time it was tried was in a sort of self contained way.

on the right you can see a diagram of the upper stage with a different payload, which I think was maybe used OH! I thought it was an ice giant probe or something but I bet this was from after the Zaldans left and the space program was rushing to figure out why, so they needed something to zip over to Oldsky around Omen real fast. Maybe. Point is, you need a small payload going very fast.

normally with an LH2/LO2 chemical rocket you would just build a small upper stage that can fit on top of the lower stage, and use that to kick the payload. But for whatever reason they decided to make good on the theoretical refuelability use case of the rocket stage in a goofy self-contained way.

They just added a hydrogen tank (which was actually straight off of an LH2/LO2 chemical rocket upper stage), and plumbed it into the water tank. They plumbed it into the water tank instead of the LH2 tank because, well probably partly just to show that they could. But also because of the ullage gas (shown in transparent orange in the diagram). Ullage gas, usually helium, fills up the empty part of a fuel tank to keep the propellant from boiling away as it's used. There's separate spheres of helium used for the job. With propellant still inside of the main hydrogen tank, but the water tank totally emptied (aside from the little reservoir used for cooling the reactor on startup and shutdown), it would be easier to force the hydrogen into the water tank than to simply refill the hydrogen tank.

at least, that was the theory.

it didn't work, but i don't recall why. If I had to guess, some component was overlooked when testing the water tank and associated plumbing's ability to work with frigid liquid hydrogen.

Anyway investigating Oldsky to figure out the disappearance of the Zaldans had to wait for the next Omen apparition.

[astronauticalaspirations]

SpaceX launches 450th Falcon 9 rocket, breaks booster turnaround record on NRO mission

From Spaceflight Now:

The National Reconnaissance Office launched its eighth batch of satellites to support its proliferated architecture constellation. The mission includes a number of notable milestones for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket program, including a record-fast turnaround time for its booster. The rocket carried an unspecified number of satellites that are believed to be Starshield, a government variant of the Starlink satellites that are built by SpaceX in partnership with Northrop Grumman. This was SpaceX’s 450th Falcon 9 launch to date. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base happened on March 20 at 11:49 p.m. PDT (2:49 a.m. EDT, 0649 UTC on March 21). This was the second launch this year supporting the architecture, following NROL-153 in January. SpaceX used the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1088. This was its fourth launch after previously supporting the flights of NROL-126, a combination of Starlink and Starshield satellites; the Transporter-12 smallsat ride-share mission, which included 131 satellites and NASA’s SPHEREx and PUNCH ride-share mission. The last of those lifted off on March 12, just nine days before the launch of NROL-57 on Thursday night. With this launch, SpaceX handily beat the former record for turnaround of a Falcon 9 first stage booster, which was set by B1080 at 13.5 days.

Emphasis mine. The Falcon 9 is rapidly approaching the most optimistic reusability projections ever made for the space shuttle. Whether this will ultimately translate to cost reductions still remains to be seen, but the rapid increase in number of satellites launched over the past few years is highly suggestive.

[nocternalrandomness]

Apollo 11 Roll-Out - KSC - 20 May 1969

[gemini-enthusiast]

While the vehicle didn't make it to orbit, Isar's first Spectrum flight was a good first try!

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

The Martian (2015, Ridley Scott)

01/05/2025

[aakhirtak]

ISRO Semicryogenic Engine: Key Hot Test Milestone Achieved

Aakhir Tak – In Shorts ISRO Semicryogenic Engine project hit a significant milestone recently. ISRO successfully conducted a short-duration hot test at Mahendragiri. This marks the second major success in the engine testing program. The test validated the engine’s start-up sequence and stability at 60% power. This technology is crucial for future powerful launch vehicles. Aakhir Tak – In…

[astronauticalaspirations]

First propane-fueled orbital launch vehicle, and first orbital launch attempt from Norway. Exciting developments to see in the European launch market!

The launch of the first Isar Spectrum rocket at Andøya Spaceport in Norway expected between 20 and 30 March.

[lonestarflight]

Double exposure photo of the Gemini-Titan VIII (SC8/62-12563) and Atlas-Agena rocket launch.

Date: March 16, 1966

Science Photo Library: C007/4354

NASA ID: 66-H-113

[phantomrose96]

I think the unused land in the middle of traffic roundabouts should be turned into off-leash dog parks

Look I appreciate your vision but actual humans don’t even understand right of way in a traffic circle. I guarantee dogs do not either.

[scoots-canoe]

[stone-cold-groove]

Astronauts. Golden Funtime Punch-0ut Book. Golden Press - 1961.

[wikipediapictures]

Vehicle Assembly Building

“Complex 39 reflection shot of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) under construction with the Launch Control Center (LCC) and Service Towers as seen from across the Turning Basin.” - via Wikimedia Commons

[nocternalrandomness]

NASA's Space Launch System

[gemini-enthusiast]

Beautiful sight, isn't it? The @nasa Vehicle Assembly Building with the Artemis II SLS under construction inside. The core stage in the blue scaffolding will carry liquid fuel for the rocket, and the solid rocket boosters utilize solid fuel to push the rocket into orbit.

On the Artemis II mission, humans will orbit the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program. This rocket will help get them there. Literally the coolest thing ever.

[unpopularwobbly]

this has got to be the dumbest launch vehicle ive built