Posted on 02/13/2010 5:05:52 AM PST by saganite
“Why aren’t we designing rail guns that can launch coffin sized pods?”
Coffin is a good choice of words there.
I recall Bigelow wanted a man rated Atlas V rocket and capsule to get men and supplies to his capsules. I believe the outcome of that was that the Atlas V didn’t meet NASA’s safety profile. Something about too many G’s and a blackout period in the ascent when escape wouldn’t be possible. Why would NASA’s criteria have anything to do with what Bigelow wanted you ask? Seems a man rated version of Atlas V wouldn’t get produced without NASA approval because the manufacturer wanted to use it for NASA contracts as well.
ULA is still building and launching Atlas rockets. Not the old little Atlas, but the bigger Atlas V.
But now that NASA wants a private venture spaceship to the ISS, SpaceDev's Dream Chaser is perfect: the launcher rocket hardware is already well-proven, and unlike SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, you can land the Dream Chaser like the Space Shuttle (e.g., they can use either the Edwards AFB runway or even the Shuttle landing runway at the Kennedy Space Center). Dragon with its Apollo-style re-entry would require a fairly large support staff to recover the capsule.
It wasn’t the capsule NASA objected to but the launch profile of the Delta V rocket. Wouldn’t matter what you put on top of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.