McDONNELL-DOUGLAS CONCEPT-B “FR-3C” [SHUTTLE PHASE-A]

Slide 23 of 125

Notes:

Like North American Rockwell, McDonnell-Douglas devoted the early part of its shuttle phase-A studies to semi-reusable concepts such as the ILRV. The company then received a $0.225-million contract extension in July 1969 to investigate the NASA Langley Research Center's HL-10 lifting body. NASA/Langley would monitor the contract. The end result (pictured above) was presented four months later. Its consisted of a fully reusable booster and lifting body orbiter mated bottom-to-bottom. The gross liftoff mass was 1,542.214t. The 32.6-meter long orbiter's lifting-body shape was derived from the HL-10 and featured two 1,847-KN thrust rocket engines. Its baseline payload capability was 11,340kg but the design could be scaled up to accomodate 22,680kg payloads if required. The 59.5m long booster was a fairly conventional delta-wing design. It would have been powered by ten 1,847-KN engines and the staging maneuver would have occurred at an altitude of 64km and 2,730 m/s velocity. The staging velocity is slightly lower than for the North American concept since the HL-10 derived orbiter has a slightly higher propellant mass fraction due to its lightweight design. But the lifting body still turned out to be a dead end since it would be difficult to install a large cargo bay and propellant tanks in the complex double curvature of the body. The design would also have been difficult to manufacture, e.g. because it could not easily be divided into subassemblies. The relatively poor lift-to-drag ratio also produced a dangerously high landing speed. McDonnell-Douglas estimated that a 3-year development program would have cost $5.946 billion, i.e. $27B at 1999 rates. The recurring launch cost would have been $67-119/lb. (=$670-$1190 per kilogram at 1999 rates) for flight rates of 100 and 12 missions per year, respectively.

Stage Number: 1. 1 x Shuttle MDC-A-1 Gross Mass: 1,242,630 kg. Empty Mass: 220,254 kg. Thrust (vac): 1,933,000 kgf. Isp: 442 sec. Burn time: 230 sec. Isp(sl): 392 sec. Diameter: 8.0 m. Span: 46.0 m. Length: 59.5 m. Propellants: Lox/LH2 No Engines: 10. SSME Study

Stage Number: 2. 1 x Shuttle MDC-A-2 Gross Mass: 335,601 kg. Empty Mass: 73,442 kg. Thrust (vac): 313,100 kgf. Isp: 459 sec. Burn time: 379 sec. Isp(sl): 359 sec. Diameter: 7.0 m. Span: 23.1 m. Length: 32.6 m. Propellants: Lox/LH2 No Engines: 2. SSME Study

“Characteristics of the Space Shuttle” -- Jean & Scott, AAS 1970/vol.28/p.141

”Space Shuttle” -- Dennis R. Jenkins, 1981, ISBN: 0963397451