/sci/ - Science & Math

Thinking about what in retrospect NASA should have done instead of the space shuttle.

IMO the big problem with the shuttle was trying to do everything with one vehicle: medium/heavy lift, orbital laboratory, crew transport ect.

I think NASA should have focused instead on a large re-usable booster design, that could be used for medium/heavy lift with an expendable second stage a bit like a larger falcon 9, maybe with optional solids for extra large payloads.

To start with this could be paired with a capsule for crew missions, but later they could develop a more reusable orbiter potentially to replace the entire second stage, or just the capsule for smaller payloads or crew missions.
The orbiter would be designed from the get-go to fly unmanned and would use a podded crew module for manned missions, which could be jettisoned for better abort capability.

The booster would likely have to be flyback rather than VTVL, but that would be fine IMO, the bigger challenge would probably be the engine and fuel, ideally methalox, which was proposed even back then, but otherwise Kerolox would be workable.

This way you would have the optional heavy lift capability and the high cadence, lower cost smaller payload and crew capability.
You would probably lose the orbital lab capability of the shuttle, but with a better heavy lift rocket you can instead operate a large station with Skylab like modules for orbital science.