The ever-irritating al.com (sorry -- any site that forces me to drop ALL of my security features to get at an article doesn't get a link) reports on Boeing's heavy-lift dreams:

Getting NASA back to the moon could depend on building a spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, much like the International Space Station has been assembled, space experts say. Right now, the Boeing Delta IV heavy-lift rocket is the only commercial expendable rocket available to loft payloads into space. Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 has not been designed for a multiple-booster capability.

What???

One: Boeing announced last July that they weren't going to market the Delta IV for commercial launches. Not much of a commercial rocket if it's not being commercially marketed.

Two: the "only commercial expendible rocket available to loft payloads into space"? What about this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? (Umm, maybe not.) And this? And several others I haven't obsessive-compulsively linked to here? If the Delta IV Heavy is the only vehicle that can get payloads to space, we've got problems...it hasn't even flown yet.

Three: the assertion that Atlas V hasn't been designed for multiple-booster capability is a bit too...mmmmm...categorical, shall we say...?

The Delta booster rocket is built by Boeing in Decatur at its massive 1.5-million-square-foot plant...The Delta plant was designed to build about 40 boosters a year, but downturns in the commercial launch market put the plant production rate at less than 10 per year.

Which, of course, has nothing whatever to do with Boeing employees pitching a Boeing-built Saturn-class HLV.

Even with an enhanced capability, Boeing's Delta rockets probably couldn't get humans back to the moon, she said.

"The Delta may or may not be the best option for a return flight to the moon, but it's a pretty good one for putting large payloads into orbit right now," LeRoy said. "Eventually, to get to the lunar surface and most certainly to Mars, (NASA) will probably have to consider building a heavy-lift vehicle like a Saturn V."

Unless it considers other options...like multiple launches of existing large vehicles or nascent private alternatives. Of course, that's not quite as glamorous as using a giant rocket.

Options for returning to the moon could mean building a spacecraft in Earth orbit, and then putting a crew on at a later time by using commercial rockets such as the Boeing Delta IV. To do this, Boeing would have to get more "bang for the buck" out of the Delta launch vehicles, LeRoy said, and be able to move large payloads that could be assembled in orbit.

There would, of course, be change orders involved...

One plan would be to cluster up to seven of the Delta boosters in a circular fashion - similar to the first stage of the Saturn IB on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center - in order to move about 100,000 pounds into orbit.

Umm...not quite. Saturn Ib was a cluster of tanks, adapted from other rockets (Redstone and Jupiter), not a cluster of individual boosters. It's not a trivial difference.

Beyond rocket-booster clustering, the next option would be to redesign the Delta's size - a move that would mean changes to the Decatur plant.

But not dramatic changes, from the descriptions I've heard, since portions of the facility and tooling are apparently built to accommodate 27.5' diameter tankage. (Gee, that dimension seems curiously familiar for some reason...)

A next-generation Delta could be accomplished by increasing the size of the booster from a 16.5-foot diameter to about a 23-foot diameter and adding improved engines to the first and second stages.

In other words, by completely redesigning it so that it has about as much in common with the existing Deltas as the Atlas V has with the Atlas II and III families.

Posted by T.L. James on November 15, 2004 07:26 PM