Jarvis was a proposed American medium-lift

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

for

space launch Space launch is the earliest part of a flight that reaches space. Space launch involves liftoff, when a rocket or other space launch vehicle leaves the ground, floating ship or midair aircraft at the start of a flight. Liftoff is of two main ...

, designed by

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace company, aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes ...

and

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

during the mid-1980s as part of the joint

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

(USAF)/

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...

(NASA) Advanced Launch System (ALS) study. Intended to utilize engines and tooling in storage from the

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

rocket program along with

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

components, and projected to be capable of carrying up to six satellites into multiple orbits using a single launch (e.g. GPS constellation), the proposal failed to meet the ALS requirements, and the Jarvis rocket was never built.

History

Jointly proposed by Hughes and Boeing as a heavy-lift rocket, using propulsion systems and equipment built for the

rocket and placed in storage at the end of the

Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

, as well as

components, Jarvis was intended to be capable of launching multiple GPS satellites, major components of the planned

Space Station Freedom Space Station ''Freedom'' was a NASA-led multi-national project proposed in the 1980s to construct a permanently crewed space station in low Earth orbit. Despite initial approval by President Ronald Reagan and a public announcement in the 1984 ...

and commercial satellites. The rocket was named after Hughes employee and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

mission specialist

Gregory Jarvis Gregory Bruce Jarvis (August 24, 1944 – January 28, 1986) was an American engineer and astronaut who died during the January 28, 1986 destruction of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as payload spec ...

, who died in the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster in January 1986.Smith 1989, p.280 Submitted as part of the Advanced Launch System studies jointly conducted by the

and NASA for a new heavy-lift rocket system capable of substituting for the Space Shuttle and expanding upon its capabilities, Jarvis was planned as a three-stage rocket capable of launching a payload of up to to low Earth orbit, or to

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...

; the rocket was projected to cost under $300 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

per launch; some estimates had a per-launch cost of the Jarvis vehicle at a cost as low as $150 million each, with $1 billion being cited as the projected development cost of the rocket system. The first stage of the Jarvis vehicle was designed to use two

Rocketdyne F-1 The F-1 is a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne. The engine uses a gas-generator cycle developed in the United States in the late 1950s and was used in the Saturn V rocket in the 1960s and early 1970s. Five F-1 engines were used in the S ...

engines, powered by

RP-1 RP-1 (Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) and similar fuels like RG-1 and T-1 are highly refined kerosene formulations used as rocket fuel. Liquid-fueled rockets that use RP-1 as fuel are known as kerolox rockets. In their engines, RP- ...

rocket fuel and

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical ...

(LOX); these were the same engines used by the Saturn V's first stage. The second stage would use a single

Rocketdyne J-2 The J-2, commonly known as Rocketdyne J-2, was a liquid-fuel rocket, liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine used on NASA's Saturn IB and Saturn V launch vehicles. Built in the United States by Rocketdyne, the J-2 burned Cryogenic fuel, cryogenic liqu ...

LOX/

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule, molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point (thermodynamics), critical point of 33 Kelvins, ...

(LH2) engine, while the third stage was intended to utilise eight Marquardt R-4D

reaction control system A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses Thrusters (spacecraft), thrusters to provide Spacecraft attitude control, attitude control and translation (physics), translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels can be used for at ...

thrusters, fueled by a

hypergolic A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other. The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. The ...

mix of

nitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russian rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

and

monomethylhydrazine Monomethylhydrazine (MMH) is a highly toxic, volatile hydrazine derivative with the chemical formula . It is used as a rocket propellant in bipropellant rocket engines because it is hypergolic with various oxidizers such as nitrogen tetroxide () ...

(N₂O₄/MMH), to provide final boost, and to allow for the deployment of multiple payloads into different orbits. Jarvis was designed to be capable of carrying payloads of up to in diameter; as many as six satellites could be carried on a single rocket, and it was suggested that the

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide ge ...

(GPS) constellation be deployed in this manner. While the Hughes proposal for the "Jarvis" would have been powered by a pair of Saturn V F-1 engines, when Boeing joined the proposal they quickly shifted the proposal toward a Shuttle-derived in-line design consisting of an External Tank powered by a single aft-mounted Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) augmented by a pair of Solid Rocket Boosters. This Revised Jarvis would be able to lift to LEO. Although Hughes received an Air Force contract to study the Jarvis vehicle, the Jarvis failed to meet the Air Force's requirements for the ALS, being too large in size compared to the specification. In 1986, Hughes stated that the rocket could be operational by the 1990s, with launches beginning two years after project go-ahead; however the U.S. Air Force rejected the Hughes-Boeing proposal. Consideration was given to continuing the Jarvis project as a private venture, and the Jarvis was mentioned as meeting the requirements for a launch vehicle to be used in the establishment of a

lunar base A moonbase (or lunar base) is a human outpost on or below the surface of the Moon. More than a mere site of activity or temporary camp, moonbases are extraterrestrial bases, supporting robotic or human activity, by providing surface infrastructu ...

in a 1992 conference on the subject, however nothing further came of the proposal, while the entire Advanced Launch System development effort was scaled back into the

National Launch System The National Launch System (or New Launch System) was a study authorized in 1991 by President George H. W. Bush to outline alternatives to the Space Shuttle for access to Earth orbit. Shortly thereafter, NASA asked Lockheed Missiles and Space, ...

before being cancelled in 1992.Henry 2003, p. 10

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * Dowling, Richard; Robert L. Staehle, and Tomas Svitek
"A Lunar Polar Expedition"
. ''in'' * * * * *

External links

at Encyclopedia Astronautica {{Saturns Space launch vehicles of the United States Expendable space launch systems Cancelled space launch vehicles Saturn V

History

See also

References

External links