bdewoody":35dvw02i said:
I am surprised that two days after seeing the new proposed launch stack there are no threads going. Putting liquid rocket motors from the shuttle on the bottom of an external tank with the strap on solid boosters and Orion sitting on top seems easy to do but would it work?
HEFT 2 recommends five-segment solids plus five SSME booster that will only fly nine times in 21 years at a total cost of about $55 billion. That's more than $6 billion per launch, just for the rocket! Adding the cryogenic upper stage would push the average up to $6.5 billion per launch!
*And this does not include the cost of the ground infrastructure! *Ground infrastructure adds another $18 billion to the total, pushing the per-HLV launch cost up to - are you ready? - *$8.5 billion per launch*!
NASA needs a better mission requiring more launches if it wants to justify the cost. NEOs don't provide enough mission. The Moon, on the other hand, is right there, looking over our shoulders.
- Ed Kyle