Value chain · CLM-1023
In plain terms
The programme's last word on its rockets describes a launcher of about 11,000 tonnes at liftoff flying about once a day, gives fleet sizes and turnaround times, deliberately gives no costs, and ends by recommending a launcher with a quarter to a third of the payload.
The claim as recorded
NASA's consolidated 1981 space transportation volume states the reference HLLV as a two-stage winged series-burn vehicle of 11,040 t gross liftoff mass and 424 t payload to LEO (Table 1.1-1 GLOW 10,978,400 kg), with 375 HLLV flights per year for two silicon 5-GW satellites (225 GaAs), a fleet of 4 boosters and 5 orbiters (3 and 3 GaAs), 23 COTVs (8) and 2 POTVs, turnaround of 97 hours for the booster and 127 for the orbiter, and 60 satellites over 30 years; it states in its introduction that "Specific transportation systems costs are, therefore, not included in this volume", and concludes that "the selection of a smaller payload HLLV configuration (i.e., between 100,000 and 150,000 kg) would be more desirable".
Evidence behind this: T3-programme summary volume, which states no costs by design.
Scope and limits
A summary volume that carries the reference vehicle and its alternates side by side without choosing; its own summary and section 2 disagree on the COTV figures (CLM-1026). The fleet of 4+5 differs from JSC's 6 and the Workshop's 5-6+6-7 for the same traffic.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF p.7 / v: "Specific transportation systems costs are, therefore, not included in this volume." PDF p.9 / vii: "The gross liftoff weight of the HLLV is 11,040 metric tons with a payload to LEO of 424 metric tons." PDF p.12 / x: "The silicon SPS option requires 375 HLLV flights and the GaAlAs option requires 225 HLLV flights to transport construction material for 10-GW (two 5-GW units) capability." Table 1 (PDF 15 / xiii), render read: HLLV boosters 4 (3), orbiters 5 (3), PLV 2, COTV 23 (8), POTV 2 (1). Table 3.1-1 (PDF 100 / 3-4): booster 97 hours, orbiter 127 hours total turnaround. PDF p.115 / 4-1: "The consensus at this time indicates that the selection of a smaller payload HLLV configuration (i.e., between 100,000 and 150,000 kg) would be more desirable from the standpoint of lower nonrecurring cost and commonality with the STS, reduced noise and sonic over-pressure, thus eliminating the need for off-shore launch pads, and the potential for alternate programs application."
Basis: tonnes; flights per year; vehicles; hours
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-003 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1023
CLM-1023, Energy Aperture, as of 1981-11.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-555
- CLM-1025In 1980 the people building the case set themselves a goal of thirty dollars a kilogram to low orbit, hoped for fifteen later, and said in...CLM-1026The electric ferry takes half a year to climb to geostationary orbit but burns about an eighth of a kilogram of argon for every kilogram it...CLM-1027Getting a crew from low orbit up to the construction site took half a day and a stage the size of a small airliner, refuelled at the top...CLM-1029In 1980 the programme's own accounting had rockets at roughly one dollar in four of a satellite's cost and nearly one in two of the money...CLM-1031A launcher a third the size of the reference one would cost about a fifth more per kilogram to fly and need four launches a day instead of...CLM-1033At the higher of NASA's two peak figures, the launches would have needed about 6 per cent of US daily hydrogen output and 30 per cent of...CLM-1034The programme's transportation workshop said the schedule was probably unrealistic, and the programme's cost reviewer said the launcher...