Niska Orbita

[Zaz_pi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Yk78w__Vs

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The Shuttle Training Aircraft

 

Because of the unique and challenging flying qualities of the Space Shuttle Orbiter when it returns to Earth as a very heavy glider, NASA has had four Gulfstream II jets that have been modified to train Shuttle commanders and pilots in the complex task of bringing the Orbiter to a smooth landing after reentry. To accomplish this unique task, the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) has a number of modifications that set it apart from a standard GII business jet. The most important of these modifications is of course, internal, with the Advanced Digital Avionics System (ADAS) that replaces some of the seats (leaving nine seats) on the right side of the forward cabin. The ADAS takes in variables such as the weight of the Orbiter on return to Earth, runway and direction/elevation of the field in question and then moves the flight control surfaces and throttles of the STA to simulate how the Orbiter would respond to control inputs from its pilots.

The trainee pilot sits in the left side of the STA cockpit which has all the necessary instrumentation and heads-up display (HUD) as used on the Shuttle as well as the Orbiter's left hand stick controller. The front and side cockpit windows on the left side of the STA cockpit are also partially masked to give the pilot flying the simulation the same angular field of view as if he or she were on the Orbiter's flight deck.

The right side of the cockpit is occupied by the instructor who also has a HUD but is otherwise has stock GII instrumentation. The nosewheel steering has been relocated from the left side to the right, and there is a button that the instructor can press to exit the simulation and return the STA to the standard flight characteristics of the Gulfstream jet.

Externally, to make the Gulfstream fly like the Orbiter, the wings have been modified with three flying surfaces instead of the just two (flaps and aileron) used on the standard GII. The third surface is inboard section of the flaps and is a direct lift flap that can deflect up 30 degrees (this kills some of the wing lift and better simulates the aerodynamics of the Orbiter) and down 20 degrees as a standard flap. The ADAS also moves the flaperon (what was once the flap) and the aileron to faithfully replicate the flight characteristics of the Orbiter. The direct lift flaps are fast acting and also work in concert with the engines. Unlike a standard GII which has clamshell bucket reversers on the engines, the STA has cascade reversers installed that can be used in flight and if they fail, they automatically stow. The wings have also been structurally strengthened and the vortex generators just behind the leading edge are nearly full span to help the airflow stay attached to the wings during the extreme maneuvering performed by the STA. On the stock GII, the vortex generators are only outboard of the wing fence.

Each STA sortie consists of 10 simulated Orbiter approaches, starting from 35,000 feet. The speed is then set at 250 kts (the speed limit of the main landing gear extension) and the main landing gear is extended to create more drag for the steep approach of approximately 20-30 degrees. The ADAS also activates the thrust reversers as needed to maintain the fidelity of the simulation. The descent is flown at 300 kts at 20 degrees which translates to approximately 12,000 feet per minute descent rate. At this point, the pilots are literally hanging forward in their harnesses and only the ground fills the cockpit view. At final approach, the STA is at 250 kts and the instructor lowers the nose gear just in case the trainee pilot inadvertantly lands the STA. In the Orbiter, the point of touchdown corresponds with the STA still about 20 feet off the ground. At that point touchdown is considered to have been made the instructor exits the simulation, takes control and takes the STA back up to altitude for another simulation run.

Most STA flights take place at White Sands, New Mexico, with the aircraft based at El Paso International Airport. Three runways are marked out in the dry lakebed to simulate the runways at Edwards AFB, Kennedy Space Center, and the trans-oceanic abort landing sites at Istres AB, France, Zaragoza AB and Moron AB, both in Spain. Trainee pilots start off with a foundation of 20 STA flights and at this point become competent enough to assigned to an Orbiter crew. Once assigned to a crew, both the pilot and mission commander will fly the STA once a month. Nine months out from launch the STA flights are made every other week and then three months out the STA flights are made weekly. Previous pilots and mission commanders who have already flown to space start their every other week ramp up in the STA at six months out from launch. At three months from launch, the some of the weekly STA flights are made at Edwards AFB and at the Kennedy Space Center as well. Extra flights can also be requested by the trainee pilots.

Two weeks before launch two STAs are flown to the Kennedy Space Center and daily STA training flights are made, one of which is done in the full spacesuit for added realism. By the time a first time Shuttle mission commander blasts off, they will have made approximately 1,000 practice approaches in the STA. First time Shuttle pilots will have made a minimum of 500 STA approaches. With the Shuttle program winding down, no decisions have yet been made on the future of the STA aircraft.

Source: Air International, July 2010, Vol. 79, No.1. "NASA's Unique Approach- Space Shuttle Landing" by Dino Carrara, p82-91.

http://aviationtrivia.blogspot.com/2010/08/shuttle-training-aircraft.html

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No launch vehicle is so closely identified with the satellite communications industry than the Delta rocket. A direct descendant of the 1950s Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile and initially known as the Thor-Delta, through the 1960s the Delta rocket had firmly established its reputation as a reliable medium-lift launch vehicle that had not only orbited the first telecommunications satellites (Echo, Syncom, Telstar) but also the first weather satellites (TIROS) as well as a wide range of scientific probes (the Explorer series and the OSO solar-observation satellites). The vehicle was progressively modified for increases in capacity and performance but the real revolution launched aboard the Delta rocket would come in 1972.

 

The early Delta rockets used the Rocketdyne MB-3 liquid fuel engine for the first stage, the MB-3 being derived from the MA-3 engine that Rocketdyne built for the Atlas ICBM. Rocketdyne began work on a successor engine called the H-1 that would be used on the Saturn IB rocket for NASA. Having progressively tweaked the design to a nearly 50% increase in thrust, Rocketdyne built 322 H-1 engines for NASA and it was a relatively easy task to adopt the proven H-1 to be the new Delta first stage engine as the RS-27.

At the same time the Delta got a new, more powerful engine, in June 1972 the Federal Communications Commission decided to allow private companies to compete for domestic satellite communications. Prior to this, only international communications had any competition. RCA Global Communications was the first out of the gate by leasing transponder space on Canada's Anik 1 satellite. Anik followed the trend of communications satellites of they day- it was drum shaped and spin-stabilized, with solar cells on the drum and the antennas atop the drum on a de-spun mount that pointed to Earth from geostationary orbit. On 13 April 1974, Western Union's Westar 1 was launched aboard the Delta to become the first American domestic communications satellite after the 1972 FCC decision. Westar 2 soon followed into orbit.

But for RCA, this wasn't enough just to use rented transponders on other companies' satellites. RCA developed its own line of satellites, the RCA Satcom series, but unlike the spin-stabilized designs of the day, RCA Satcom 1 was three-axis stabilized with long solar panel "wings" that could be pointed to the sun for optimum efficiency which meant more power for the communications transponders and more importantly, the ability to power more transponders than was possible on a spin-stabilized satellite.

Unfortunately, Satcom 1 and its family were too heavy for the existing Delta rockets but were too light for the next vehicle up, the Atlas-Centaur. In negotiations with NASA and the Delta's builder, McDonnell Douglas, RCA signed a unique contract with McDonnell Douglas paying for a portion of the development of a new, more capable Delta rocket that used the RS-27 engine and added three Castor IV solid rocket boosters built by Thiokol to increase the lift capacity of the rocket. It was the first time in history that a private company funded launch vehicle development.

On 13 December 1975 a Delta 3914 rocket launched RCA Satcom 1 into geostationary orbit, making it the first three-axis stabilized communications satellite in space and the first satellite launched on a rocket that was partly funded by a private company, RCA.

The success of the new Delta versions was immediate and the rocket would dominate the telecommunications satellite market until the arrival of the European Ariane launcher in the 1980s.

There's an interesting historical sidenote to RCA Satcom 1- Sid Topol, the president of a communications company called Scientific Atlanta, brought together a small Pennsylvania-based cable TV provider that had only 8,000 subscribers. The cable company also showed unedited commercial free movies and pay-per-view boxing matches and was having trouble expanding, having to rely on a costly network of microwave relay towers. On the heels of the 1972 FCC decision, Topol proposed that his company would build ground stations that would allow the cable TV provider to use RCA Satcom 1 to broadcast its content to other cable providers around the nation. A cable TV provider in Vero Beach, Florida, agreed to be a test market with its network of 10,000 subscribers for this innovative service that was an instant success.

The name of that small, struggling, Pennsylvania cable TV provider? Home Box Office. That's right, HBO. You all know the rest of the story from there!

Source: To Reach the High Frontier- A History of US Launch Vehicles, edited by Roger D. Launius and Dennis Jenkins. The University Press of Kentucky, 2002, p128-130. Additional information from http://kevinforsyth.net/delta/backgrnd.htm.

 

http://aviationtrivia.blogspot.com/2010/05/no-launch-vehicle-is-so-closely.html

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jedan od roditelja šatla, X-23

 

 

 

As early as 1957 NACA (NASA's predecessor) was already conducting lifting body research started by Dr. Alfred Eggers of the Ames Research Laboratory. His pioneering work on lifting body applications to re-entry vehicles for spacecraft and missiles led the US Air Force to initiate START- Spacecraft Technology and Advanced Reentry Test. By 1960 Dr. Eggers' work was taken up by several aerospace firms, most notably Martin Aircraft and Northrop to a lesser extent. Within two years, Martin's engineers had come up with their own designs for a reentry vehicle based on a lifting body design. The USAF considered the Martin designs to be possible foundations for either a maneuverable ICBM warhead that could evade Soviet anti-ballistic missile defenses or for a data/film return vehicle for a spy satellite that could maneuver on reentry to a more favorable recovery point. At the time, the first of the Corona spy satellites were operational and used a ballistic reentry capsule to return the film images to Earth. The timing of the return had to coincide with a point in the Corona's orbit that the capsule would hit a predesignated recovery point. A maneuverable lifting body capsule could be ejected on short notice from less favorable orbits and be maneuvered to a recovery point.

In August of 1964 Martin got the contract for the SV-5D PRIME (Precision Recovery Including Maneuvering Entry). Interestingly, it was assigned the X-23 designation after the completion of the program. Research work by USAF historians demonstrated that all contemporary documents of the day used the SV-5D designation.

Only about six and a half feet in length, the X-23/SV-5D had the same lifting body configuration as the later manned Martin X-24 aircraft. With a lightweight and high-temperature tolerant structure of titanium and beryllium, the craft with three types of ablative silcon and carbon-based heat shielding depending upon the expected maximum temperatures on various parts of the vehicle. The centrally-located equipment bay housed the guidance system, telemetry and data units and the recovery parachute system. The equipment bay was surrounded by a cold-wicking system- two plates surrounded a fluid-filled absorbent material. As the heat built up during reentry, the fluid slowly boiled off and was vented overboard as steam.

The only propulsion on the vehicle was a gas jet thruster system for exo-atmospheric maneuvering as well as body flaps for endo-atmospheric maneuvering. The X-23/SV-5D was carried aloft on an Atlas missile launched from Vandenberg AFB in California. Once the Atlas reached apogee, the nose shrouds were jettisoned and the X-23/SV-5D was released to begin its reentry maneuvers.

The first X-23/SV-5D was launched on 12 December 1966 but only pitch maneuvers were demonstrated. However, the recovery system failed at the end of the 30-minute mission and the first vehicle was lost in the Pacific. The second test took place on 5 March 1967 and during reentry at hypersonic speeds, the X-23/SV-5D maneuvered as much as 500 miles on each side of a ballistic reentry path, proving for the first time the work of Dr. Eggers and Martin Aircraft. Unfortunately, it too was lost in the Pacific when it came loose from its flotation collar and sank. The third and last flight took place on 18 April 1967 and the vehicle performed a full series of test maneuvers and was successfully recovered in midair near Kwajalein Island by a Lockheed JC-130B Hercules. The successful recovery of the third X-23/SV-5D allowed NASA and Martin engineers to study the effects of reentry on the different heat shield materials used on the craft. Due to the success of the third test and the partial results from the failed second test, the fourth X-23/SV-5D was never flown.

At one point there was discussion of using the design of the X-23/SV-5D as the basis for an unmanned hypersonic reconnaissance vehicle but the project never went forward. The third X-23/SV-5D is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The data gleaned from the X-23 PRIME project proved immensely useful to NASA and Rockwell's engineers during the design of the Space Shuttle and the USAF used the data in its work on the reentry vehicles for its ICBM force.

Source: The X-Planes- X-1 to X-45 by Jay Miller. Midland Publishing, 2001, p256-259.

http://aviationtrivia.blogspot.com/2010/05/as-early-as-1957-naca-nasas-predecessor.html

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Magazin Time je u julu 1945 objavio ovaj članak o kosmičkom ogledalu koje su Nemci planirali da lansiraju. Rukovodstvu je verovatno rečeno da će moći da njime prže gradove ali to nikada ne bi mogli da postignu jer ne bi mogli da dovoljno fokusiraju zrak. Osvetljavanje pojedinih površina planete je međutim moguće.

 

 

Ovaj cilj je dostignut 1992. godine, lansiranjem kosmičkog ogledala Znamya. Iako je vreme nad Evropom tog dana bilo oblačno, na nekoliko mesta su primetili svetlo. Drugo ogledalo, Znamya 2.5 je lansirano sa Mira 1999 ali je došlo do greške, materijal od koga je ogledalo načinjeno se zakačio za antene stanice i pocepao. Znamya 3 je ostala samo ideja na papiru. Za sada.

 

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Polako se kreće sa novim letelicama. Spremaju se probni letovi kapsule Orion i Angare A5.

 

 

 

 

 

Za sada je sve samo na papiru, ali miriše mi na drugu kosmičku trku, Mars or bust. 

 

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The Chrysler SERV: Thinking Out of the Box for Space Travel

 

Chrysler SERV ascends on its aerospike engine

By the late 1960s, the groundwork was being laid down that would eventually evolve in the Shuttle Transportation System that today is in the twilight of its career. The NASA-led studies that involved the major aerospace contractors of the day was divided into "phases" and at each phase candidate contractors had to demonstrate their concepts to the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) at the Johnson Space Center outside of Houston. Apollo was run out of the NASA headquarters in Washington, but the technical reach of a reusable spacecraft meant that NASA wanted the program leadership to be at a field center run by engineers- and at the time, only Houston and the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, had the technical expertise for such an undertaking. Not wanting to put its eggs in one basket, though, NASA established on 6 July 1970 the Alternate Space Shuttle Concepts (ASCC) study to evaluate alternative concepts and proposals to what was already under development in cooperation with the aerospace industry and the MSC in Houston. Given that the MSC had it hands full, program leadership of the ASCC was assigned to the MSFC in Huntsville. Over 29 configurations were studied and millions in funding were provided. A joint submission by Grumman/Boeing was evaluated, along with one from Lockheed and one from Chrysler, which at the time had a thriving space division that had been in business since 1962 building the first stages for the Saturn I rocket and Saturn IB rocket. Chrysler's ASSC proposal was the recipient of a $1.9 million study contract for what has to be one of the most unorthodox if not outright unique space shuttle concepts ever taken seriously by NASA.

 

Schematic diagram of the Chrysler SERV

Chrysler's design was called the SERV- Single-stage Earth-orbital Reusable Vehicle- and it looked like nothing else under study at the time. It was a large conical vehicle that looked like a supersized Apollo command module. It was 65 feet high and 90 feet in diameter with a central payload bay 23 feet wide and 60 feet long. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks then surrounded the payload bay to fill the rest of the volume of the SERV. Its propulsion engine was highly innovative and developed with assistance from Rocketdyne- the SERV had a 12-module liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen aerospike engine integral to the base of the SERV that was 87.4 feet in diameter and just over 8 feet long. The engine developed an astounding 5.4 million pounds of thrust (by comparison, each Space Shuttle Main Engine develops about 400,000 lbs of thrust at launch). Each of the 12 modules were interconnected and each had a set of turbine driven fuel pumps that could run as high as 120% to compensate for the failure of any pair of pumps in the 12 modules. The engines designed were so powerful, that the SERV's aerospike had to be throttled back to 20% just before reaching "max-Q"- the point of highest aerodynamic stress to prevent overstressing the SERV during its ascent to orbit. A series of doors could close over the aerospike modules to protect them during re-entry.

 

SERV with the MURP spaceplane. Note the doors for the jet engines.

At launch, the SERV weighed in at approximately 4.5 million lbs and different modules could be attached to the top of the SERV- the most studied were an external extension to the payload bay and the other was what was called the MURP- Manned Upper Reusable Payload, which was a small orbiter design with flick-out wings on return to Earth. The MURP could carry up to ten astronauts. Launches would have taken place from large concrete pads as the SERV had its own landing legs to support its weight. To return to the Earth, the SERV would re-enter the same way as the Apollo command module did, with the blunt end first and protected by thermal tiles. But instead of a water landing, at an altitude of 25,000 feet, a set of intakes and exhaust ports opened and four banks of seven jet engines (that's right, twenty eight engines!) powered by JP-4 fuel would start up and provide deceleration and maneuver capability that would bring the SERV back home for a soft landing on its own landing legs. The planned landing site for the SERV would have been on the skid strip at Cape Canaveral adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center.

Chrysler's space division would have built the SERV at the Michoud facility that today has been responsible for the Space Shuttle's external tank. A specially-modified transport ship would then take the completed SERV to the Kennedy Space Center. Chrysler estimated that each SERV would cost $350 million each. However, by the time the ASCC studies were winding down, the Chrysler SERV got little attention as the design submissions from Lockheed and Grumman/Boeing were decidedly much more "conventional" than the SERV- but the SERV is a fascinating exercise in aerospace development when preconceived notions are cast aside and an innovative solution is found to meet an exacting set of requirements!

Source: Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System- The First 100 Missions by Dennis R. Jenkins. Specialty Press, 2001, p123-125.

http://aviationtrivia.blogspot.com/2010/12/chrysler-serv-thinking-out-of-box-for.html

 

Nešto slično je pokušano i na sovjetskoj mesečevoj N1 raketi, kada jedan motor odapne gasi se i njegov parnjak na drugoj strani kruga ali za razliku od N1 ovde motori imaju mnogo više snage u rezervi kako bi kompenzovali rad ugašenih. 

[Zaz_pi]

Polako se kreće sa novim letelicama. Spremaju se probni letovi kapsule Orion i Angare A5.

 

Za sada je sve samo na papiru, ali miriše mi na drugu kosmičku trku, Mars or bust. 

 

 

 

Rusima nikakav Mars nije u planu. Jedino misija ExoMars(Exobiology on Mars) koju rade sa ESA, koja jeste velika i treba da bude u dva stepena 2016 i 2018 ali nije samostalna i mislim da nema veze sa Angarom. Rusi trenutno trose dosta novca na gradnju infrastrukture na Dalekom istoku, Kosmodrom "Vastocni", $10 milijardi. Posle toga, treba da bude zavrsen 2015-16, krece se na Mesec sa mogucom kolonizacijom i tu Angara treba da igra veliku ulogu. To je plan ali to dosta zavisi od novca. Jedino Kinezi i SAD, ne verujem da ce Rusi bez bas velikog priliva novca bilo sta tako raditi. Imaju sa time malo negativno iskustvo pa ima je vazniji balansiran budzet od letenja u nebesa :)

Edited November 17, 2014 by Zaz_pi

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Na onoj slici su samo američke i kineske rakete, nema Rusa u trci. 

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Ima rusi u trci, ako en direktno ali onda indirektno. Ali ti si stavio Angaru na pocetku, sto moze svako videti, ali ako nisi tako mislio ja se izvinjavam.

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Kada sam rekao trka, mislio sam samo na poslednju sliku, gde se vide rakete za Mesec i Mars. Problem sa SLS-om i CZ9 je što su to užasno skupi sistemi koji se ne mogu lako unapređivati. Rusi imaju drugačiji pristup, tj. ponavljaju priču koju su ranije imali sa Protonom. UR 500 Proton je građen samo kao prva stepenica slagalica koje se zovu UR700 (obična i nuklearna raketa za let na Mesec) i UR 700M (raketa za Mars, ta beštija je trebalo da podigne 750 tona na nisku orbitu). 

 

Veće rakete su se zasnivale na Protonu što je u teoriji trebalo da pojednostavi i pojeftini razvoj. Ta serija univerzalnih raketa je bila delo Vladimira Čelomeja, glavnog konstruktora OKB-52. 

 

Proton

 

UR700

 

 

nuklearni UR700

 

 

UR700M

 

 

Angara A1 je osnovni model za 21. vek. Ona bi trebalo da se takmiči u segmentu koji su tako uspešno pokrivale Arijane 1-4, sas vojim brojnim varijantama, dok bi A5 trebalo da zameni Proton. Kao i njihovi preci, Angare se zasnivaju na URM 1 i 2 (univerzalni raketni modul), standardizovanim stepenima rakete koji se mogu slagati kao lego kocke, po potrebi. 

 

Pošto neće biti jeftinog puta u svemir dokle god se po svakom lansiranju bacaju stotine tona skupe gvožđurije svi rade na tome kako da ponovo upotrebe deo opreme. Amerikanci testiraju sistem sa mekim sletanjem prvog stepena dok Rusi razvijaju prvi stepen Angare koji bi se od običnih razlikovao po tome što ima dodatni mlazni motor, pa r skupljenih krila i točkove. To je projekat Bajkal.

 

 

 

Ako budu imali potrebe i novca, Rusi mogu da od ovih komponenti sagrade raketu u najmanju ruku ekvivalentnu SLS-u i CZ devetki, uz mogućnost proširenja do UR700M kapaciteta (to je dovoljno za slanje broda na Mars, sa posadom i svim zalihama u jednom lansiranju, bez ikakve gradnje na orbiti). 

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Martin Astrorocket iz 1963. godine. Dvostepeni višekratni sistem, kosmički brod se odvaja od krilate rakete nosača na 64km visine i nosi tri astronauta i 2,27 tone tereta (cifre koje su jako blizu onima koje su kao zahtev postavljene za evropski mini šatl Hermes) na visinu od 555km gde su mogli da se zadrže najviše dve nedelje. Koristio bi toksična hipergolična goriva, poput Protona. Prvi stepen koristi klaster manjih motora, rešenje koje je kasnije upotrebljeno na sovjetskoj mesečevoj raketi N1. Cena je bagatela, za cenu jedne Ariane 5/6 dobiješ dve višekratne letelice (čak i da se cena tokom razvoja upetostručila, i dalje bi bila bagatela jer je koncept superiorniji od klasičnih raketa). 

 

 

Liftoff Thrust: 1,320,820 kgf. Total Mass: 1,133,786 kg. Core Diameter: 7.0 m. Total Length: 78.0 m. Flyaway Unit Cost $: 36.00 million. in 1985 unit dollars.

Stage Number: 1. 1 x Astrorocket-1 Gross Mass: 981,859 kg. Empty Mass: 132,000 kg. Thrust (vac): 1,500,000 kgf. Isp: 293 sec. Burn time: 164 sec. Isp(sl): 258 sec. Diameter: 7.0 m. Span: 40.0 m. Length: 65.0 m. Propellants: N2O4/Aerozine-50 No Engines: 9. LR87+

Stage Number: 2. 1 x Astrorocket-2 Gross Mass: 151,927 kg. Empty Mass: 23,500 kg. Thrust (vac): 220,000 kgf. Isp: 345 sec. Burn time: 181 sec. Isp(sl): 230 sec. Diameter: 3.0 m. Span: 20.0m. Length: 30.0 m. Propellants: N2O4/Aerozine-50 No Engines: 1. LR87+

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TSTO (two stage to orbit) dizajn Luiđija Kolanija i jedna "Flaš Gordon" raketa.

 

 

 

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Indija se polako uključuje u grupu zemalja koje mogu da vrše misije sa ljudskom posadom. GSLV mark III sa kapsulom na vrhu je uspešno lansiran. Uzgred, svemirski kari je odavno napravljen. :)

 

 

Max Faget o šatlu, rane sedamdesete. Ono što je meni fascinantno u ovom klipu je animacija šatla i sklapanja orbitalne stanice. Oprema na kojoj je to tada rađeno (vrlo verovatno bez mikroprocesora) se pisala sa sedam ili verovatnije osam nula. 

 

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Jedan interesantan sovjetski koncept. WIG klase 3 bi poleteo sa morske površine (verovatno ekvator) podigao orbiter do nekih 10+ kilometara visine gde bi se izvršilo odvajanje. Plan je bio i da se po povratku sa misije orbiter ponovo zakači za ekranoplan, bez sletanja. Cena razvoja bi bila visoka, ali bi se dobio dvostepeni lansirni sistem kome nisu trebali aerodromi ili kosmodromi.