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The Shuttle-C was a study 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 ...
to turn the
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. ...
launch stack into a dedicated uncrewed cargo launcher. The
Space Shuttle external tank The Space Shuttle external tank (ET) was the component of the Space Shuttle launch vehicle that contained the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. During lift-off and ascent it supplied the fuel and oxidizer under pressure to the ...
and
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) would be combined with a cargo module to take the place of the Shuttle orbiter and include the main engines. Various Shuttle-C concepts were investigated between 1984 and 1995. The Shuttle-C concept would theoretically cut development costs for a heavy launch vehicle by re-using technology developed for the shuttle program. End-of-life and Space Shuttle hardware would also have been used. One proposal even involved converting '' Columbia'' or ''
Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...
'' into a single-use cargo launcher. Before the loss of Space Shuttle ''Challenger'', NASA had expected about 24 shuttle flights a year. In the aftermath of the ''Challenger'' incident, it became clear that this launch rate was not feasible for a variety of reasons. With the Shuttle-C, it was thought that the lower maintenance and safety requirements for the uncrewed vehicle would allow a higher flight rate. The Shuttle-C would have been the main crew launch vehicle for the ILREC Piloted Lander in the International Lunar Resources Exploration Program. In the early 1990s, NASA engineers planning a crewed mission to
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
included a Shuttle-C design to launch six non-reusable, 80-ton segments to create two Mars ships in
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
orbit. After President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
called for the end of the Space Shuttle by 2010, these proposed configurations were put aside. As early as the 1970s, some iteration of the Shuttle-C had been studied (Encyclopedia Astronautica mentions it as "Class 1 SDV"). It was discussed in
Gerard O'Neill Gerard Michael O'Neill (September 1, 1942 – August 22, 2019) was an American journalist, newspaper editor, and writer. A long time investigative reporter for ''The Boston Globe'', he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting ...
's 1976 book '' The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space'', with artwork by Don Davis.


See also

* Shuttle SERV *
Magnum (rocket) The Magnum was a large super-heavy-lift rocket designed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center 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, o ...
* Shuttle-derived vehicle * Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle, a
heavy lift launch vehicle A heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLV) is an orbital launch vehicle capable of lifting payloads between (by NASA classification) or between (by Russian classification) into low Earth orbit (LEO).50t payloads" Heavy-lift launch vehicles often carry ...
with a similar design. * Energia *
List of space launch system designs Even before the launch of Sputnik 1, there were various types of launch vehicle designs. The launch vehicle designs described below are either canceled or never left the drawing board. 20th century 21st century See also *Comparison o ...


References


External links


Encyclopedia Astronautica link on the Shuttle-C
{{Reusable launch systems Space Shuttle program Partially reusable space launch vehicles Shuttle-derived space launch vehicles Cancelled space launch vehicles