Someone said that similar plans were thought about for the Shuttle: Replace solid fuel boosters with liguid fueled, reuseable boosters – but then again: Nobody really believed in landing rocket stages before SpaceX proved it.
For Ariane 6 (and Vulcan), the main problem remains: Late staging makes reuse of first stage reuse very hard.Â
The whole “Shuttle design”, with hydrolox central core stage and side boosters to get off the ground, is an odd design overall. Saturn V with RP1 first stage and hydrolox second (and third) is much more aligned with the physics of a rockey launch: High trust, low ISP to get of the ground, high ISP low trust later on.Â
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Someone said that similar plans were thought about for the Shuttle: Replace solid fuel boosters with liguid fueled, reuseable boosters – but then again: Nobody really believed in landing rocket stages before SpaceX proved it.
For Ariane 6 (and Vulcan), the main problem remains: Late staging makes reuse of first stage reuse very hard.Â
The whole “Shuttle design”, with hydrolox central core stage and side boosters to get off the ground, is an odd design overall. Saturn V with RP1 first stage and hydrolox second (and third) is much more aligned with the physics of a rockey launch: High trust, low ISP to get of the ground, high ISP low trust later on.Â