DIRECT Launcher

[GreatExterminator]

This may be a dumb question, but if and when the J-2X is built, could it be used as a cheaper alternative to SSMEs?

I know you'd need more, but wouldn't it save money?

[SailorBarsoom]

@tjohn6041

No reason you couldn't reuse the SSMEs. That "aft skirt and thrust structure" could easily have a heat shield and a parachute.

[epicuniversal]

I never did like the Ares rockets, they are VERY expensive as well as reinventing the wheel. The DIRECT design makes the most out of everything while doing it inexpensive, with proven flight hardware, less time, using the same fabrication facility's and much more. This is the best way to go while implementing the Orion capsule and Altair lunar lander. GO DIRECT!

[tjohn6041]

@epicuniversal this has been proposed in the past, but it was shot down because it does not re-use the SSMEs. If you think Constellation was expensive, wait till they have to buy 9 or more every year. This pretty much combines the worst technology from Apollo and the Shuttle. SSMEs would be transferred from the shuttle for the fist DIRECT flights, but after that they would cost almost a billion per year in engines alone, While the Ares I is cheaper, safer, and more advanced.

[monkeygrass22]

That is really cool with the cancelations of constellation they should start making the ur rocket

[mengstudent]

It's a beautiful thing.

A real shuttle derived launch vehicle capable of sustaining robust human space flight and exploration. This is how to get to the moon and beyond. Not the current Ares I V, 1.5 architecture.

Goodluck DIRECT