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OOST
Credit - © Mark Wade
SSTO orbital launch vehicle. Family:
VTOVL. Country: USA. Status: Study 1963. Other Designations: One stage Orbital Space Truck.

Bono's earliest design for an expendable single-stage-to-orbit LH2/Lox booster. The baseline version used conventional engines.

Douglas Aircraft Co. engineer Phil Bono did much to promote the concept of reusable ballistic space vehicles during the 1960s. Bono and his team at Douglas Aircraft examined fifteen different Nova concepts during 1962-64, including two nuclear powered vehicles. Safety considerations would however rule out the possibility of using nuclear power on vertical takeoff-&-landing SSTOs such as the RITA concept. HTHL SSTOs were also rejected as impractically large since they require a very large wing area to keep wing loading within acceptable limits; the total area will be bigger than is needed to store the liquid hydrogen fuel. Smaller wings, on the other hand, would produce prohibitive landing velocities. Consequently, the only realistic SSTO launch and landing configuration appeared to be VTVL.

Among the reusable chemical rocket concepts, winged two-stage vehicles such as ASTRO would have to be impractically large for heavy-lift missions. The preferred reusable concept was ROOST (Recoverable One Stage Orbital Space Truck, left), which would have used an inflatable blunt-body drag cone for recovery at sea. ROOST would have impacted the water at 33.5 meters per second so the refurbishment cost would have been high. An alternative "buoyant" ROOST would have incorporated a buoyancy torus and ballute/balloon inflated by warm residual hydrogen to reduce the landing speed, but the additional mass of the recovery system naturally increased the gross liftoff weight too. Another possibility was that the vehicle could be recovered in air by a helicopter and towed, under aerostatic lift, to a refurbishment site. ROOST would have cost $16/lb (7-8 reuses) vs. $250/lb for the Saturn V at 1962 rates. The equivalent costs in 1999 dollars would be $195/kg for ROOST and $3,040/kg for the Saturn V.

Bono concluded that high pressure LOX/LH2 engines and a 7-1 oxygen/hydrogen mixture ratio would reduce the size & weight of the vehicles. Disposable tanks & parallel staging were initially rejected since complex cross-plumbing would be required, but Douglas would rather return to the drop tank concept in order to achieve greater weight margins for its future SSTO designs.

Manufacturer: Douglas. LEO Payload: 454,500 kg (1,002,000 lb). to: 325 km Orbit. Liftoff Thrust: 103,660.800 kN (23,303,875 lbf). Total Mass: 8,527,400 kg (18,799,600 lb). Core Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Total Length: 102.00 m (334.00 ft).

  • Stage1: 1 x OOST. Gross Mass: 7,982,000 kg (17,597,000 lb). Empty Mass: 431,000 kg (950,000 lb). Motor: 4 x 5 mlbf. Thrust (vac): 123,191.000 kN (27,694,438 lbf). Isp: 410 sec. Burn time: 242 sec. Length: 85.40 m (280.10 ft). Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Propellants: Lox/LH2.
Version:

OOST ISI. Status: Study 1963. Other Designations: One stage Orbital Space Truck.

Alternate version of OOST using Improved Specific Impulse approach: many engines feeding into single large nozzle.

LEO Payload: 454,500 kg (1,002,000 lb). to: 325 km Orbit. Liftoff Thrust: 68,496.900 kN (15,398,716 lbf). Total Mass: 5,670,400 kg (12,501,000 lb). Core Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Total Length: 69.00 m (226.00 ft). Flyaway Unit Cost $: 117.600 million. in: 1985 unit dollars.

  • Stage1: 1 x OOST ISI. Gross Mass: 5,125,000 kg (11,298,000 lb). Empty Mass: 292,000 kg (643,000 lb). Motor: 15 x Chamber/single nozzle. Thrust (vac): 85,386.000 kN (19,195,536 lbf). Isp: 455 sec. Burn time: 248 sec. Length: 57.90 m (189.90 ft). Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Propellants: Lox/LH2.
Version:

ROOST.
ROOST and Astro
Credit - NASA
Status: Study 1963. Other Designations: Reusable One stage Orbital Space Truck.

Bono's first design for a reusable single stage to orbit LH2/Lox booster, using conventional engines.

LEO Payload: 454,500 kg (1,002,000 lb). to: 325 km Orbit. Liftoff Thrust: 139,218.400 kN (31,297,541 lbf). Total Mass: 11,443,400 kg (25,228,300 lb). Core Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Total Length: 128.00 m (419.00 ft).

  • Stage1: 1 x ROOST. Gross Mass: 10,898,000 kg (24,025,000 lb). Empty Mass: 608,000 kg (1,340,000 lb). Motor: 4 x 5 mlbf. Thrust (vac): 165,447.000 kN (37,193,965 lbf). Isp: 410 sec. Burn time: 246 sec. Length: 106.70 m (350.00 ft). Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Propellants: Lox/LH2.
Version:

ROOST ISI.
ROOST Improved
Credit - © Mark Wade
Status: Study 1963. Other Designations: Reusable One stage Orbital Space Truck.

Bono's first design for a reusable single stage to orbit LH2/Lox booster, using Improved Specific Impulse approach: many engines feeding into single large nozzle.

LEO Payload: 454,500 kg (1,002,000 lb). to: 325 km Orbit. Liftoff Thrust: 81,697.400 kN (18,366,306 lbf). Total Mass: 6,763,400 kg (14,910,700 lb). Core Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Total Length: 81.00 m (265.00 ft). Flyaway Unit Cost $: 154.000 million. in: 1985 unit dollars.

  • Stage1: 1 x ROOST ISI. Gross Mass: 6,218,000 kg (13,708,000 lb). Empty Mass: 435,000 kg (959,000 lb). Motor: 18 x Chamber/single nozzle. Thrust (vac): 101,842.000 kN (22,894,992 lbf). Isp: 455 sec. Burn time: 249 sec. Length: 67.10 m (220.10 ft). Diameter: 21.30 m (69.80 ft). Propellants: Lox/LH2.

Bibliography:

  • Bono, Philip, Advanced in the Astronautical Sciences, "Design Objectives for Tomorow's Big Boosters", 1963.


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ROOST
Credit- © Mark Wade
ROOST - Reusable One-stage Orbital Space Truck