XPost: rec.aviation.military   
   From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Mr. Man-wai Chang"  wrote in message   
   news:10nk4m8$3r7ml$4@toylet.eternal-september.org...   
      
   > Building a huge space-ship that can both land and fly to space indeed   
   > sounds impossible, right now. SpaceX Starship is just the beginning??? :)   
      
   The Shuttle did both with some help. The trip up required it to carry about   
   9 times its weight in fuel which was too impractical to consider without   
   boosters for extra initial lift, though once they burned out (2 minutes,   
   45~48 km, 1500 m/S) and separated its fuel mass had decreased enough that   
   its internal engine thrust could continue accelerating it, reaching ~8000   
   m/S orbital velocity on the fuel remaining in its huge external drop tank.   
   The engines were tilted up so their thrust line could pass through the   
   combined center of gravity.   
      
   The big problem in reaching orbital velocity is that the rocket has to carry   
   and accelerate the fuel and oxidizer it will burn later. Typically they are   
   90% or more of liftoff weight.   
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsiolkovsky_rocket_equation   
      
   Those Shuttle engines now power Artemis.   
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program   
   "For many Artemis program missions, the Space Launch System's two solid   
   rocket boosters' engines and casings and four main engines and the Orion   
   spacecraft's main engine will all be previously flown Space Shuttle main   
   engines, solid rocket boosters, and Orbital Maneuvering System engines. They   
   are refurbished legacy engines from the Space Shuttle program, some of which   
   even date back to the early 1980s."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)