[AR] Re: Long March 5 SSTO 23,000 kg
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2016 22:34:27 -0500 (EST)
(Apologies for old topic -- catching up on some backlog.)
On Sat, 29 Oct 2016, Ed Kelleher wrote:
The LEO version is described as SSTO, 23 tons worth.
...
With boosters though, is it really SSTO? I think not.
Definitely not. That's like calling Sputnik's launcher an SSTO -- after
all, it was just one stage plus those boosters on the side -- or John
Glenn's Atlas. This is an artifact of the somewhat silly Western practice
of not counting parallel-burn boosters as a separate stage, even if
they're big and a mandatory part of the vehicle. (The Russians call the
boosters on a Soyuz the first stage and the core the second, which makes
much more sense.)
And if its all expendable, does it really matter? Still a lot of moving
parts.
If it really were SSTO -- no staging events -- that would matter to some
degree, making it simpler and with *fewer* things to fail.
Henry
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