SSTOs

Hi darkstar >Everyone here should read this [ GH Stines Halfway to Anywhere] Just a personal comment on the book. Harry Stine was a True believer about the DC-X. In my opinion, you need to take a lot of what is in the book with a grain of salt. Theres some good information in there, but some of the ways he describes some things have other explanations as well, and some of the things he describes in there are flat out wrong. The DC-X was an interesting project and it broke free around a billion dollars to be spent researching SSTOs and related technologies. But I would note that McDonnell Douglas, the company which built the DC-X was *not* a believer in the Delta Clipper (although some of the team who worked on the DC-X were). And there were some technical problems with the Delta Clipper which were quickly hidden. Its interesting to note every time McDonnell Douglas was asked to really provide a plan for the Delta Clipper (or DC-Y, or whatever to follow the DC-X), the costs kept going up and the companys commitment to the project kept going down. At first they said, they could build an orbital capable vehicle for a few hundred millions. Then it was a billion. Then it was several billions, after they built another, larger test vehicle. Then they said they wouldnt put up any of their own money until the government built an orbit-capable vehicle. And when they were asked to bid for the government-funded X-33 test vehicle to follow the DC-X they bid something that was by far the worst option of any of the other companies bidding. >[ ... ]I wanted to get info on the Delta Clipper >specifically since that seemed so promising and I wondered >why it was abandoned.[ ...] > Who was the culprit? Why no one else but NASA of >course. [ ...] Id also lay part of the blame to some of the enthusiasts who promised a lot of things to people and never delivered. While NASA did some things that I really didnt like in this debacle, Id also note there were other players in this game, including some of the enthusiasts who took the view that there is only one way of doing thing (their way!), and anyone who didnt agree with them were evil dishonorable criminals. >[ ... ] The Delta Clipper worked so well because those who >built it wanted results and a Cheap SSTO to carry >passengers and cargo into orbit. The Delta itself was a >test vehicle but it would have lead to a woring SSTO. Why >there is no DC-XA2 and why NASA sucks donkey shit is >detailed in the book. The Delta Clipper was never built. It never existed except on a few viewgraphs done by McDonnell Douglas. As a note, MD promised that if they got the DC-X contract, they would complete a preliminary design for the Delta Clipper during the DC-X program. They never did... The DC-X was an interesting and useful program. And while it did some interesting demonstrations, there were many many things it didnt demonstrate that were needed for a SSTO program. I have a copy of Halfway to Anywhere and I know personally folks on the DC-X and other SSTO teams. I've done a fair bit of work looking at SSTOs and how to structure a business case to get commercial investment for them. Harry Stines book is worth reading, but you really have to read it with a grain of salt, since it was written by a true believer in a specific way of doing it. Wales Larrison