"Fly a little, break a little"
INTRO
The Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X) demonstration vehicle (later renamed "Clipper Graham in honor of Lt. General Daniel O. Graham) was constructed by McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach, California.
It's purpose was to show the feasibility of vertical take-off-and-landing for a future generation of space launchers, and possibly lead to the eventual advent of Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO).
This vertical launch and landing technology is now used by SpaceX for their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket boosters, and by Blue Origin for their New Shepard.
However, the idea of SSTO has yet to be achieved.
Fifth Flight
This flight was unique in that a hydrogen cloud exploded at liftoff, and blew a huge hole in the side of the vehicle. Instead of completing the intended mission, an auto abort was initiated by Flight Director Pete Conrad.
The DC-X returned safely to land. Any other rocket would have almost certainly been lost.
"I said at the time it happened, that this would be the type of rocket I would want to ride on, where you can blow a giant hole in the side and yet still land safely!"
NASA had taken on the project grudgingly after having been "shamed" by its very public success under the direction of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO).
Its continued success was cause for considerable political in-fighting within NASA due to it competing with the Lockheed Martin Venturestar project.
DC-X Flew 6 more times, before breaking apart after falling over on Flight 12.
Pete Conrad priced a new DC-X at $50 million, cheap by NASA standards, but NASA decided not to rebuild the craft in light of "budget constraints".
Just a few years later, the repeated failure of the Venturestar project, especially the composite tanks, led to program cancellation.
MEDIA
Dedicated to the DC-X Team.
Special thanks to Mach 25 Media for the pictures and information.
NOTES
- The landing legs are particularly weak. Be careful with landing!
- There is an action group for "Close ground flames", these were generated by the low thrust of the RL-10 engines during landings.
- It doesn't fly all too well, but I found it quite fun to try and "tame" it for a successful landing.
GENERAL INFO
- This craft has been featured
- Created On: Windows
- Game Version: 1.2.103.0
- Price: $16,517k
- Number of Parts: 354
- Dimensions: 13 m x 4 m x 4 m
PERFORMANCE
- Total Delta V: 2.9km/s
- Total Thrust: 577kN
- Engines: 8
- Wet Mass: 40,881kg
- Dry Mass: 17,347kg
STAGES
| Stage | Engines | Delta V | Thrust | Burn | Mass |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 2.9km/s | 577kN | 2.4m | 40,881kg |
19 Comments
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2,877 W4RP1.2 years ago
that hydrogen cloud got a hole in one. Btw this is a very nice craft I must say
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1,811 starmango+2 1.2 years ago
love watching as the comments thinks that this is supposed to be an ssto that can get into orbit and have good control
its flying exactly how it should be.
the dc-xa was a small hop demonstrator to help pave the way for sstos, not be an ssto -
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13.7k CardZlol+1 1.2 years ago
I also have no issues with induced roll. I dont recall any fins being angled to induce a roll either.
To me, it flies pretty decently (as far as a traffic cone can fly), can glide and can land like the real thing. -
13.7k CardZlol+2 1.2 years ago
@sacr3dbac0n0 It is not meant to reach orbit. DC-X was only an experimental hopper.
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4,712 sacr3dbac0n0+1 1.2 years ago
It doesn't fly well and can't reach orbit. You could have used thrust differential to enhance controllability. Although the actual reason that it's not controllable at higher speeds is because all the fins are orientated to induce a roll. Fixing that and changing the propellant to kerolox results something controllable and capable of SSTO. At its current proportions it wouldn't be capable of landing so I scaled it up 1.5x too.
https://www.simplerockets.com/c/0AEUwo/Fixed -
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