![]() Oxygen os dense, but an enormous quantity was needed. The end result was striking: the internal tankage orbiter gets punished twice. On top of that, while oxygen is very dense, hydrogen density is abysmal: 200 grams of liquid hydrogen takes as much volume as 1 kg of oxygen. Crucially, it takes 6 tons of oxygen to burn 1 ton of hydrogen, so you need a lot of oxygen. Hydrogen has the most energy (specific impulse) while being reasonably non toxic but, if not deep cryogen, still needs to be stored hundreds of degree below zero which risks making metal brittle. Why Liquid Hydrogen, incidentally? Because everything else sucks, except for in density, where it is Liquid Hydrogen that is awful compared to other options. In the days of internal tankage, the orbiter was to be packed full with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Basically the Shuttle went from the first image to the second image.īy this point one is left scratching their head and wondering, how the frack did THIS happen? Where was the huge tank in the original design? (Even if that orbiter looks bigger, there is seemingly no way to ram the final, colossal external tank into it).Īnd what on Earth happened to the booster(s)? Same for the orbiter, it had a pack of jet engines – which were still used until 1974 ! As well as jet engines to flyback to the launch site. Also because the SSME lacked raw thrust (blame LH2 again), while the orbiter would take only take 3 of them, the booster would need twelve or F-1s. Incidentally, F-1s were considered expendables, although they had been fired for astonishingly lengths of time, for a rocket engine – many minutes or even one hour. The first stage was the size of a 747 and somewhat like a hybrid of the (Boeing) S-IC, X-15, and Jumbo Jet. The original Shuttle (from the summer of 1968 to the summer of 1971) was fully reusable. So have a drink or, better yet, a shot of dark brown coffee and fasten your seat belts.
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