Sea dragon and Big Dumb Booster.

In the Early 1960's, Aerojet designed a BDB (sea dragon) capable of putting
550 tonnes into LEO
http://www.friends-partners.org/mwade/lvs/searagon.htm

I have been looking at various designs and BDB concepts. If we were to
design a BDB today, how would we design for minimum cost? I suppose that we
could use fibre-glass for much of the upper stage design. With a 550 tonne
to LEO booster, we could assemble something like the ISS on the ground and
fire it into orbit in one piece. This would surely be much cheaper than
carting 30 different pieces up on the ultra-expensive shuttle and trying to
assemble them in a vacuum.
The BDB that I had in mind would have a lift capacity closer to 1000
tonnes to LEO. Something like this, would be capable of putting 200 tonnes
of men and materials on the lunar surface or alternatively, 500 tonnes in
HEO or 450 tonnes on a NEA.

Tony

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