SRC-499

Solar Power Satellite System Definition Study, Volume 5, Phase III Final Report: Space Transportation Analysis -- D180-25969-5; NASA CR-160746; June 1980

Boeing Aerospace Company (G. R. Woodcock named on the documentation form; subcontractors Grumman and Math Sciences Northwest) ·1980 · T3 government or agency report · VC02 VC10

Commissioned by Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Contract NAS9-15636 (renders as "NAS9-16536"); technical monitor Harold Benson. Who paid for a study is recorded because it bears on how its conclusions should be read, not because it makes them wrong.

D180-25969-5; NASA CR-160746; no NTRS N-number printed on pp.1-4 the identifier this document is registered under

Published claims resting on this source

CLM-1031 A 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 one, but would save five billion dollars up front and add only three per cent to the cost of each satellite. By 1981 everyone involved wanted it.
CLM-1032 If the ferry's solar cells could not be repaired in flight it would wear out in three trips and the cost per kilogram would rise by about a third; thicker glass would fix that. A ten-minute delay restarting the engines every orbit cost more than the heat of being near Earth, and a chemical ferry would cost twice as much.

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SRC-499 , recorded 2026-09-17.