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1972: NASA hell of a year (21)
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December 20, 1972
With the return of the last Apollo yesterday, it is time to examine the future of NASA manned spaceflight program.
The year 1972 has been memorable, if not chaotic, for many reasons we won't discuss here. 1972 was a landmark year, where NASA destiny was suspended to a host of difficult decisions.
It somewhat started late 1971 with the space shuttle death.
In the future there will certainly be a lot of regrets and speculation over the lost vehicle. It should be reminded that the space shuttle was the last piece that remained from the ambitious Integrated Program Plan imagined by the Space Tak Group in 1969. As such, the shuttle cancellation forced NASA to create an entirely new manned space program from a clean sheet of paper.
After many twists and turns the space station made a spectacular come-back as NASA main project for the next decade.
NASA had to admit a space station could be build without a shuttle. Skylab was no help since it will be launched fully stuffed with anything the crew need. At the end of the day NASA had to imagine a crew and logistic system different from the shuttle. That resulted in a pair of distinct vehicles – Big Gemini and the Agena space tug.
The space station itself went through a serie of mutations; the overall space station design was ultimately frozen as a a 33-ft, S-II based (should we say, Skylab-ized ?) core with Skylab-derived, 23-ft diameter modules.
Both Big Gemini and Agena were picked up only after a fierce selection process that lasted six months. Big Gemini main competitor was obviously Apollo, but there many other interesting vehicles proposed, including lifting bodies.
The space tug was equally the subject of a rigorous competition among aerospace contractors. General Dynamics Centaur and Martin Marietta Transtage were eliminated early because they were just too big and too powerful for the space tug limited new role, that is, a space station module ferry. Lockheed Agena ultimately won a hard-fought selection process. It triumphed from a host of major competitors that are worth a detailed examination.
On one hand was Douglas Delta stage 2. The diminutive rocket body has an interesting feature: its TR-201 engine is nothing less than the plain old Lunar Module descent stage, the first throtteable rocket engine ever.
Facing Douglas was a bold Aerojet proposal. Aerojet engine is called the AJ-10, and it is pretty versatile. Two of them power the big Transtage. Just like the TR-201, the AJ-10 powers Delta second stage. Much like the TR-201 the AJ-10 is of Apollo legacy: it powered Apollo big service module.
Rockwell actually did proposed a modified Apollo service module for the space tug role; but the SM is just too heavy and bulky. It was eliminated along the Transtage and Centaur.
First round of the process had eliminated all solid-fuel candidates such as the Burner II and Star 37. The solids lacked flexibility since they couldn't restart.
Interestingly, just like the TR-201 and AJ-10 the Star 37 was of lunar legacy – it had been used to soft-land the Surveyor lunar probes.
Aerojet decided to bid of the space tug by themselves even if Martin Marietta Transtage and Rockwell Service Module used their AJ-10 too.
Aerojet space tug design cleverly borrowed elements from all three AJ-10-powered space vehicles – Delta stage 2, Transtage and Apollo SM. Somewhat ironically in the final competition Aerojet tug ranked third, well ahead of Martin Marietta and Rockwell bids.
At the end of the day however the Agena most serious competitor was the unnamed Delta stage 2 with its repurposed Lunar Module engine (note: the name Delta Transfer Stage has been proposed)
Many at NASA wanted an AJ-10 or TR-201 powered space tug to preserve a bit of Apollo knowledge. There was another, hidden argument that played against the Agena: its massive and classified utilisation by the National Reconnaissance Office.
Lee Scherer had to delicately weight pros and cons of each side; he had to pick up a space tug among the three finalists. Scherer ultimate choice, announced in late October 1972, was the Agena. It would work in tandem with Big Gemini.
These difficult decisions will certainly results in a lot of speculation in the future – beside of the lost shuttle, obviously.
Whatif NASA had been bold, and had picked up a lifting body design, either the X-24 or the HL-10 ?
Whatif NASA had stuck with Apollo, probably a block III variant with a smaller service module ?
Whatif that Block III Apollo had been paired with one of the three AJ-10 powered space tug bids ?
Whatif NASA had picked the very high performance Centaur as its space tug, and flown missions to a lunar orbit space station ?
Whatif the nuclear shuttle and the “true”, reusable chemical space tug had not been abandonned altogether ?
(Delta stage 2)
December 20, 1972
With the return of the last Apollo yesterday, it is time to examine the future of NASA manned spaceflight program.
The year 1972 has been memorable, if not chaotic, for many reasons we won't discuss here. 1972 was a landmark year, where NASA destiny was suspended to a host of difficult decisions.
It somewhat started late 1971 with the space shuttle death.
In the future there will certainly be a lot of regrets and speculation over the lost vehicle. It should be reminded that the space shuttle was the last piece that remained from the ambitious Integrated Program Plan imagined by the Space Tak Group in 1969. As such, the shuttle cancellation forced NASA to create an entirely new manned space program from a clean sheet of paper.
After many twists and turns the space station made a spectacular come-back as NASA main project for the next decade.
NASA had to admit a space station could be build without a shuttle. Skylab was no help since it will be launched fully stuffed with anything the crew need. At the end of the day NASA had to imagine a crew and logistic system different from the shuttle. That resulted in a pair of distinct vehicles – Big Gemini and the Agena space tug.
The space station itself went through a serie of mutations; the overall space station design was ultimately frozen as a a 33-ft, S-II based (should we say, Skylab-ized ?) core with Skylab-derived, 23-ft diameter modules.
Both Big Gemini and Agena were picked up only after a fierce selection process that lasted six months. Big Gemini main competitor was obviously Apollo, but there many other interesting vehicles proposed, including lifting bodies.
The space tug was equally the subject of a rigorous competition among aerospace contractors. General Dynamics Centaur and Martin Marietta Transtage were eliminated early because they were just too big and too powerful for the space tug limited new role, that is, a space station module ferry. Lockheed Agena ultimately won a hard-fought selection process. It triumphed from a host of major competitors that are worth a detailed examination.
On one hand was Douglas Delta stage 2. The diminutive rocket body has an interesting feature: its TR-201 engine is nothing less than the plain old Lunar Module descent stage, the first throtteable rocket engine ever.
Facing Douglas was a bold Aerojet proposal. Aerojet engine is called the AJ-10, and it is pretty versatile. Two of them power the big Transtage. Just like the TR-201, the AJ-10 powers Delta second stage. Much like the TR-201 the AJ-10 is of Apollo legacy: it powered Apollo big service module.
Rockwell actually did proposed a modified Apollo service module for the space tug role; but the SM is just too heavy and bulky. It was eliminated along the Transtage and Centaur.
First round of the process had eliminated all solid-fuel candidates such as the Burner II and Star 37. The solids lacked flexibility since they couldn't restart.
Interestingly, just like the TR-201 and AJ-10 the Star 37 was of lunar legacy – it had been used to soft-land the Surveyor lunar probes.
Aerojet decided to bid of the space tug by themselves even if Martin Marietta Transtage and Rockwell Service Module used their AJ-10 too.
Aerojet space tug design cleverly borrowed elements from all three AJ-10-powered space vehicles – Delta stage 2, Transtage and Apollo SM. Somewhat ironically in the final competition Aerojet tug ranked third, well ahead of Martin Marietta and Rockwell bids.
At the end of the day however the Agena most serious competitor was the unnamed Delta stage 2 with its repurposed Lunar Module engine (note: the name Delta Transfer Stage has been proposed)
Many at NASA wanted an AJ-10 or TR-201 powered space tug to preserve a bit of Apollo knowledge. There was another, hidden argument that played against the Agena: its massive and classified utilisation by the National Reconnaissance Office.
Lee Scherer had to delicately weight pros and cons of each side; he had to pick up a space tug among the three finalists. Scherer ultimate choice, announced in late October 1972, was the Agena. It would work in tandem with Big Gemini.
These difficult decisions will certainly results in a lot of speculation in the future – beside of the lost shuttle, obviously.
Whatif NASA had been bold, and had picked up a lifting body design, either the X-24 or the HL-10 ?
Whatif NASA had stuck with Apollo, probably a block III variant with a smaller service module ?
Whatif that Block III Apollo had been paired with one of the three AJ-10 powered space tug bids ?
Whatif NASA had picked the very high performance Centaur as its space tug, and flown missions to a lunar orbit space station ?
Whatif the nuclear shuttle and the “true”, reusable chemical space tug had not been abandonned altogether ?
(Delta stage 2)
- Archibald
- Word Count: 840