Re:SpaceX Starship 36 Anomaly
by aredox on Thursday June 19, 2025 @03:19AM
(#44316302)
Also, both Saturn V and the Space Shuttle were dual-purpose programs - they had military goals on top of the scientific ones.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Well the military purpose was why the Shuttle was so crappy. The original design was smaller and meant to sit on top of its rocket. This would have probably prevented loss of crew in both of the instances where shuttle failed.
Eventually Starship will also be bid for military programs.
And Saturn V never had a military mission, neither had Shuttle.
Re:SpaceX Starship 36 Anomaly
by dotancohen on Thursday June 19, 2025 @05:02AM
(#44316778)
The Space Shuttle never had a combat mission, in the sense that it was never used to drop bombs via polar orbit over the Soviet Union. But of course it had tens of military missions, the Shuttle launched many department of defense satellites.
Shuttle regularly launched spy sats and was designed to grab an enemy one in a single orbit mission. Also Soviets believed it would nuke Moscow by sudden plane change via its wings & build their own version as a result.
That sounds military enough for me.
Re:SpaceX Starship 36 Anomaly
by dotancohen on Thursday June 19, 2025 @05:05AM
(#44316792)
The bombing of the Soviet Union was to happen via polar launch. The wings were there not for plane change, rather for cross range landing after the single orbit polar mission.
Interesting - I was never sure about the exact mechanism m, just that the orbital speed & lift provided by wings were part of it. :)
Re:SpaceX Starship 36 Anomaly
by TheOtherHobbes on Thursday June 19, 2025 @04:58AM
(#44316759)