Shuttle-C revived?

Let's hope they do the sensible thing -kill the Shuttle orbiter NOW!- and
redirect funding and manpower to this as well as the OSP/CEV and Lunar and
Mars dreams.
The Shuttle-C could probably be designed & built and the first cargo flown
to the ISS to be met by a crewed Soyuz for assembly by the end of the decade
if the immense amount of money we spend on the Shuttle -mainly the orbiter-
were used responsibly, and not to fund the Shuttle cult (according to Homer
Hickham)
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http://www.spacedaily.com/news/launchers-04f.htm

ROCKET SCIENCE

NASA Studies New Booster
by Frank Sietzen
Washington (UPI) - Mar 02, 2004
(snipped)
...
Early signs indicate some version of Earth Orbit Rendezvous might be
selected for Bush's Project Constellation program. Existing U.S. space
boosters large enough to lift the Constellation manned capsules are the
Boeing Delta IV heavy and the Lockheed Martin Atlas V heavy. Both rockets,
in their largest versions, can lift about 50,000 pounds into a low Earth
orbit.

The Apollo capsule in the 1960s and its service unit weighed about 30,000
pounds but for the other elements of the Constellation plan, such as landing
vehicles, surface equipment, and shelters for astronauts, heavy lifting
rockets likely will be needed.

The Apollo Saturn V could insert 250,000 pounds into low orbit and dispatch
100,000 pounds to the moon. No rocket in the U.S. arsenal is capable of
lifting such large weights into space today. To meet the need, and to keep
costs low, space planners are looking closely at an unmanned version of the
space shuttle. Replacing the winged shuttle orbiter with a cargo unit, such
a vehicle could lift 100,00 pounds or more into orbit while still using the
launching facilities, hangars and trained workforce now employed in the
piloted shuttles.

Several versions of a shuttle cargo ship are being studied by NASA and its
industry teams. One version would convert the Boeing-built winged orbiters
Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour into robot ships that do not carry people.
With the life support and other human-sustaining equipment removed, the
converted shuttlecraft would carry an additional 25,000 pounds or more than
the current limit of 55,000 pounds. The robotic shuttles also would be
capable of carrying the current craft's robot arm for moving cargo about,
and docking with the International Space Station.

Other design versions would continue to fly the shuttle's Lockheed external
fuel tank and ATK-Thiokol-made solid booster rockets but would add an
additional segment to the boosters, increasing their lifting power.

In place of the orbiters, designers are looking at different shapes and
sizes of cargo pods. Some would use the current cluster of the orbiter's
three liquid engines in its tail, which would separate and be recovered at
sea in a small capsule.

Another idea would be to replace the orbiter's liquid engines under the
proposed payload pod with engines now flown on the Deltas or Atlases. These
more powerful engines could boost the craft's lifting ability to 200,000
pounds or more.

As space planners move through their design studies, it would appear that
some combination of Delta, Atlas and Shuttle-evolved heavy cargo rockets
will be the rocketships that power Bush's moon and Mars dreams.

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Shuttle-C info
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/shuttlec.htm
http://www.orbit6.com/rockets/shuttlec.htm