Space Forum / Space Flight / August 2005

I've thought about what a reasonable, achievable, less expensive
earth-to-orbit launch vehicle would look like.
I keep coming back to a two-stage-to-orbit vehicle that reuses both
stages.  The first stage is a LOX/RP1 powered 'big cheap booster' -

The shuttle-derived heavy-lift vehicles under discussion would for the
most part be powered by the SSME.  Why use the expensive SSME on an
expendable vehicle when the cheaper RS-68 is available?
As a bonus, the RS-68 provides more thrust.  It's true that it's

I was wondering if someone could confirm that the masses of the
following fictional, upper stage spaceplane (VTHL) was realistic given
current aerospace technology.
The spaceplane's fueled mass is 200 metric tons, while in orbit (with

I recently read of the plan to sell commerical seats to the moon via a
Soyuz flyby. Of course, the Soyuz was originally designed to go to the
moon during the 1960's space race, but what I am wondering about is the
capability of the Soyuz to withstand the much greater re-entry ...

As far as I can determine, all U.S. capsule splashdowns have been in
the South Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. Are there any reasons why the
Gulf of Mexico has never been used for water recovery of manned
spacecraft? I ask because, if a commercially developed space capsule

I think I understand why objects heat up when going through the
atmosphere and therefore why re-entry vehicles need heat shielding.  My
question is why we don't need heat shielding when launching.  Aren't we
going through the same atmosphere?

Story Musgraves' description of the Shuttle at the recent IICA2005
Conference in Melbourne, Australia, last week...
Story gave two slide-shows from his time in space - one at the dinner on the
Tuesday night, and another on Thursday on his work on the Hubble telescope.

If one wanted to have a wall between vacuum and .15 Oxygen atm (or 1
atm air if you wish), what material will after a micro-meteor passes
through patch itself??? This is rather than the thick wall or shield
defense against micro-meteors.