Lockheed-California Earth-to-space shuttle of 1964

[hesham]

Hi,

Lockheed-California was carrying out studies into Earth-to-space "shuttle" vehicles for
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. In this proposal the three-stage recoverable
vehicle was launched by a hot-water propulsion rocket sled.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1964/1964%20-%200493.html

 

[hesham]

My dears and my friends,

can anybody make a sketch or drawing to this Lockheed project ?,or
may be one can ID it,Lockheed CL-?.

 

[Michel Van]

Patience please hesham
i need time to dig true my databank

from Marcus Lindroos - "death" homepage

Lockheed investigated the economics of reusable launch vehicles for crews and light space station cargo during the early 1960s. Anticipated space activites in the 1970s included a two-phase Earth-orbital space station program, a lunar base, and early Mars mission plus later Mars/Venus mission... Since the baseline "System I" 6-man Apollo CSM/Saturn-IB vehicle appeared to be uneconomical as a high-volume manned transportation system even if the crew capsule could be reused 10 times, Lockheed proposed a "System II" that would have retained the Saturn IB booster but replaced the Apollo with a new reusable 10-man spaceplane (below). This third stage spaceplane was standard for Systems III & IV as well.

the Picture show "System IV" airbreathing HTHL TSTO ramjet-rocketplane.

again Marcus Lindroos

System IV is otherwise identical to System III but uses a different booster aircraft with in-flight LOX collection + ramjet propulsion Both vehicles would be launched from a ground accelerator sled and fly orbit-once-around missions to deploy the small DynaSoar-like interorbital third stage "space taxi" containing the crew & cargo. The System III & IV requirements were as follows: 95% mission reliability (0.1% vehicle attrition rate). 2950kg payload & 10 passenger capability. 7.5 day min. turnaround between missions (11-23 days nominal). Mission life of 500 flights. Flight rates of 100-300 missions per year in 1973-80. The estimated costs were in the $6.8M (50 flts/yr.)-$1.275M (400 flts/yr.) range. These figures are in FY 1964 dollars; the inflation-adjusted cost in 1999 would be $6.85M - $36.5M per flight.

source:
"Potential of Recoverable Booster Systems for Orbital Logistics" -- Bailey & Kelly, Astronautics & Aeronautics 1964/January/p.54

 

[OM]

from Marcus Lindroos death home page
...Wait! Is Marcus dead, or did something get lost in the translation again? ??? ???

 

[Michel Van]

from Marcus Lindroos death home page
...Wait! Is Marcus dead, or did something get lost in the translation again? ??? ???

i don't know...
i was referring to his homepage, how is now quite death (404)

 

[Skybolt]

On the Internet, nothing dies...
Thanks to Archibald: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4208.msg33428.html#msg33428

 

[seruriermarshal]

Any information ?

 

[OM]

...Haven't we discussed this on another thread fairly recently? Wish I could recall the topic header so I could (probably unsuccessfully) search for it.

 

[seruriermarshal]

...Haven't we discussed this on another thread fairly recently? Wish I could recall the topic header so I could (probably unsuccessfully) search for it.

thanks , wish take the topic .

 

[Michel Van]

that's Lockheed "System IV" airbreathing HTHL TSTO ramjet-rocketplane.
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,6741.0.html

 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

from Marcus Lindroos - "death" homepage

Lockheed investigated the economics of reusable launch vehicles for crews and light space station cargo during the early 1960s. [...]

To save others searching, Marcus' website was rehosted and the above page can now be found at http://www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytwo/spacelvs/sld004.htm.

 

[OM]

that's Lockheed "System IV" airbreathing HTHL TSTO ramjet-rocketplane.
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,6741.0.html

...Thought so! The memory isn't *quite* failed yet

 

[Caravellarella]

Re: Lockheed-California Earth-to-space shuttle project of 1964......

Dear Boys and Girls, here is a little picture with a caption in French of the Lockheed-California 3-stage shuttle "project" of "1964"......

The picture comes from the 15th September 1963 issue of Aviation Magazine......

Terry (Caravellarella)

 

[hesham]

And from anther site;


http://www.pmview.com/spaceodysseytwo/spacelvs/sld004.htm

 

[carmelo]

But the orbital vehicle is a Dyna Soar?

 

[Michel Van]

But the orbital vehicle is a Dyna Soar?

only in it aerodynamic form
internal it look quite different

 

[Orionblamblam]

Some better versions of the images. A few more images over HERE.

Note that the designs date from 1963, not 1964.

 

[numbers station]

Hi,

Lockheed-California was carrying out studies into Earth-to-space "shuttle" vehicles for
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. In this proposal the three-stage recoverable
vehicle was launched by a hot-water propulsion rocket sled.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1964/1964%20-%200493.html

https://media.defense.gov/2021/Apr/06/2002615074/-1/-1/0/210406-F-ZS999-0014.JPG

 

[blackstar]

And then contractors were looking at something similar 30 years later. Didn't make sense after three decades either.