Could Sea Dragon be built?

Could Sea Dragon be built?

The cutbacks that occurred to the space program starting in the mid-1960s forestalled any notion of actually building a Sea Dragon. Unfortunately, no conceivable space effort would justify a super rocket capable of putting 550 metric tons into low Earth orbit in a single launch flying that often.

Why was sea dragon Cancelled?

conducted a program review and validated the design and its expected costs. However, budget pressures led to the closing of the Future Projects Branch, ending work on the super-heavy launchers they had proposed for a crewed mission to Mars.

How much thrust would the sea dragon have?

The Sea Dragon rocket has 42,000,000 pounds of thrust as for the Saturn V has 9.5 million pounds of thrust.

Is a Sea Dragon a fish?

The common seadragon or weedy seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) is a marine fish related to the seahorses. Adult common seadragons are a reddish colour, with yellow and purple markings; they have small leaf-like appendages that resemble kelp fronds providing camouflage and a number of short spines for protection.

Was the Sea Dragon reusable?

The system would be at least partially reusable with passive reentry and recovery of rocket sections for refurbishment and relaunch. The first stage was to be powered by a single 36,000,000 kgf (350 MN; 79,000,000 lbf) thrust engine burning RP-1 and LOX (liquid oxygen).

Why does Sea Dragon launch from underwater?

To keep costs low, Sea Dragon was designed to be built from inexpensive sheet steel, launched from the ocean to reduce launch infrastructure, and operate using simple, reliable engineering principles.

Why did Ed Fire on Sea Dragon?

During a standoff with Buran, Ed Baldwin launched missiles toward Sea Dragon to prevent further escalation. NASA covered it up as a malfunction and further Sea Dragon production was halted as a result.

Could the Sea Dragon rocket have been built?

A study produced by Aerojet the following year demonstrated that there were no technical obstacles for building such a launch vehicle, even considering the state of rocket design in the early 1960s. As conceived, Sea Dragon would have consisted of two stages.

Why was the Sea Dragon never used in space?

The Sea Dragon never made it out of the concept stage in the 1960s. It was not needed for anything that either NASA or the military was doing in space at the time. The Saturn V was quite sufficient for the moon program. The Air Force has an inventory of expendable rockets such as the Atlas and the Titan that it used for satellite launches.

Could the Sea Dragon take humans to the Moon?

The Sea Dragon could loft the equivalent of one International Space Station in a single launch. It could deploy all or most of a ship designed to send humans to Mars and back at once. The number of people and amount of cargo it could send to the moon is staggering to imagine.

How much would it cost to build a modern sea dragon?

An analysis by Citizens in Space suggests that the price of building a modern Sea Dragon would be $22 billion in modern dollars. The trick to making such a rocket economical would be a flight rate of somewhere between 12 and 24 launches per year.