/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15753226
this thing
basically smart reuse: shittle edition
only the engines in the pod return so the heatshield is much smaller and no wings mean you can have relatively decent payload
you don't risk scattering 7 astronauts over all 50 states each time you want to put a satelite in orbit in the first place
you don't need to completely rework the whole ET manufacturing process and build a new launch pad
methalox would have been better but that would mean designing new engines and ET
>>15753235
the original ET had stringers and was far cheaper to make
SLS is using isomemes to take vertical loads