Category Archives: Launchers

SpaceX Did It – What It Should Do Next

Posted on Wed, 2015-12-23 by gravityloss

Congratulations to SpaceX who landed the first stage intact. Assuming cost is roughly related to stage mass and engine count, reusing the first stage saves 9/10 of the whole rocket cost. If they can run the stage ten times, that … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Depot, Design, engines, industry, Launchers, Lunar, RLV:s, Spacecraft, SpaceX, Transportation | Leave a comment

Building rockets like disposable gloves

Posted on Wed, 2014-07-09 by gravityloss

There’s two fundamental approaches to lower space launch cost: K-strategy: Building sophisticated reusable rockets that can fly quickly again after landing. r-strategy: Instead building simple expendable rockets by the mass as cheaply as possible. Firefly, looks to do just the … Continue reading →

Posted in industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Tomorrow is theirs

Posted on Mon, 2011-05-09 by gravityloss

A fascinating BOAC (British government airline) advertisement film from the fifties. Tomorrow was not theirs, but that of plastics, the jet engine and the transistor, which made almost all of these jobs obsolete. The British mindset of bringing luxurious services … Continue reading →

Posted in airplane, Architecture, industry, Launchers, Motivation, Transportation | Leave a comment

Why precool but not liquify – Skylon and SABRE

Posted on Fri, 2010-10-29 by gravityloss

Well, I thought maybe I could add some content. Everybody’s heard about the British Hotol follower Skylon and its airbreathing SABRE engines. What’s special about them? My understandin’s based on this excellent document from Reaction Engines explaining why the system … Continue reading →

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Design, Energy, engines, ESA, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital, Transportation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Gravity Assist Competition

Posted on Wed, 2010-10-06 by gravityloss

Or The Space Game, by ESA. This is a nice javascript webpage where a probe is shot from Earth to Jupiter with gravity assists at Venus (twice), Earth and Mars. You try to achieve the lowest propulsive delta vee. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Astronomy, Depot, Design, Energy, ESA, Homebuilt, industry, Launchers, Lunar, Models, Motivation, Science Links, Spacecraft | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Turn-Boost-Glide-Back approach for first stages

Posted on Sun, 2010-09-26 by gravityloss

In a patent by the famous Barnaby Wainfan. EDIT: corrected the link. This patent was filed in 2006 and granted in 2008.

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Art, Design, engines, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

On Pressure Fed Rockets and Scaling

Posted on Sat, 2010-09-18 by gravityloss

Well, scaling seems to be my pet issue. I recently wrote something not entirely well reasoned in a comment at Paul Breed’s. (For some reason Chrome complains about blogrolling.com malware there so continue if you’re sure you’re safe.) So let’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Design, engines, Launchers, RLV:s, Spacecraft, Suborbital, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

There's No Such Thing As A Reasonable Price Launch

Posted on Tue, 2010-08-31 by gravityloss

All these people had to get paid. Even when there wasn’t a launch. Well, to be exact: until the money was spent and there weren’t gonna be any more launches, which was a few years from this photo. From the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Demotivation, industry, Launchers, NASA, RLV:s | 4 Comments

British Rocketry Relics

Posted on Mon, 2010-05-03 by gravityloss

At the Science and Society picture library. Note the many small independently hinging peroxide/kerosene Gamma chambers, the large but cancelled Larch engine, the washing machine / musical box guidance computer with a rotary drum that has bumps, and many other … Continue reading →

Posted in ESA, industry, Launchers | Leave a comment