SpaceX's Elon Musk has announced plans for its new Falcon Heavy rocket, the largest seen since the Saturn V. The rocket is scheduled to be rolled out to launchpad by end of 2012, and launched in 2013.
Capable of lifting 53 tons to Low Earth Orbit (half the payload capacity of Saturn V), the Falcon Heavy rocket will be composed of a Falcon-9 core first stage, with 2 flanking Falcon-9 first stages as boosters. A key noteable feature is that the vehicle uses propellant cross-feed to allow the boosters to top up the central core stage. In some ways, it looks a bit like GSLV-Mk3, except it has liquid-fueled boosters instead of Mk-3's solid rocket boosters.
Besides its huge lifting capacity, a key attraction is its resulting low cost-per-pound to orbit, which SpaceX touts as being $1000/pound.
Meanwhile, India's dreams of gaining a foothold in the launch market has been put in a tailspin with the successive failure of GSLV-D3, as well as ISRO's involvement in an ugly telecom corruption scandal.
No comments:
Post a Comment