The Magnum was a large
super-heavy-lift rocket
A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...
designed by
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 ...
's
Marshall Space Flight Center
Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...
during the mid-1990s. The Magnum, which never made it past the preliminary design phase, would have been a launcher some 96 meters (315 feet) tall, on the scale of 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 ...
and was originally designed to carry a
human expedition to Mars. It was to have used two strap-on side boosters, similar to the
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster
The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was the first solid-propellant rocket to be used for primary propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight. A pair of them provided 85% of the Space Shuttle's thrust at liftoff and for the first ...
s (SRBs), but using liquid fuel instead. Some designs had the strap-on boosters using wings and jet engines, which would enable them to fly back to the launch area after they were jettisoned in flight.
[Information about 6 variants of Magnum]
/ref> The Magnum was designed to carry around 80 tons of payload into low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...
(LEO).
See also
* Shuttle-C
* Shuttle-derived vehicle
** Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle presented 2009
* National Launch System, studied from 1991 to 1993
* Constellation program
The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a " ...
, developed from 2005 to 2009 - cancelled
* Space Launch System
The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American Super heavy-lift launch vehicle, super heavy-lift Expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis program, Artemis Moon landing progra ...
, developed and built from 2010 onwards
* Studied Space Shuttle Variations and Derivatives
During the lifetime of the Space Shuttle, Rockwell International and many other organizations studied various Space Shuttle designs. These involved different ways of increasing cargo and crew capacity, as well as investigating further reusability ...
References
External links
Information about variants of Magnum
''Low Cost Large Core Vehicle Structures Assessment - final report'' March 1998
re Magnum Launch Vehicle and Liquid Fly Back Booster.
Cancelled space launch vehicles
Space launch vehicles of the United States
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