So now we see that some parts of the media are getting all excited about the Shuttle derived Heavy Lift Vehicle. This presentation is, Hyperbola thinks, from the NASA technical team that is reviewing the original work carried out by the Space Shuttle Programme (SSP) office. The presentation contains material previously seen by Hyperbola from briefings that were provided prior to the 17 June Augustine meeting presentation but not included within that presentation
NASA’s SSP manager John Shannon told Flightglobal last week that a NASA team and a Aerospace Corporation team would look over the work started by SSP. Notes from the interview that were not used for the Flight International magazine spaceflight page HLV special, now online, will be posted on this blog soon
No doubt lots of fun will be had by various individuals leaking material to various journalists over the weeks and months to come, and all augmented by the grapevine. While HLV certainly hits a host of buttons what should be remembered is that it doesn’t give NASA the same capability to go to the Moon as Constellation, the HLV crewed version has big questions hovering over it, as big as Ares I crew launch vehicle’s oscillations, such as external tank proximity, and even the cargo version will still need to meet International Space Station human rating requirements
