/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14634549
just in terms of sheer good idea-ness, the 3xRD-180 + 1 J-2S launcher that was supposed to be atlas V's big brother in the access to space study in 1994. could've easily been flying HL-42s to the completed ISS in 2005 but we had to go with venturestar instead.

>>12188522
The reason I say that it wasn't that much of a boondoggle is because they at least learned from shuttle that you should demonstrate all the necessary tech before you commit your entire space program to one vehicle.

They should have run with a low-risk development like the HL-42 in the 90s and once they had a reliable fallback in place THEN they would have been in a position to start taking swings at SSTOs.

>>12160325
Weren't they originally designed for reuse as flyback boosters off of Energia?

Honestly I think the biggest mistake NASA ever made was not replacing the shuttle with a large 3xRD-180/J2-S rocket in the 90s. We would've had a pretty cheap and reliable launcher that could have quickly built the ISS and a capable spacecraft in the HL-42 to visit it. There never would have been a 10-year post-shuttle hangover. It wouldn't have been Buck Rogers but it would've been a huge improvement and it would have been easy. Instead they failed to learn the lesson of the shuttle and took another gamble on SSTOs.