Magnum (rocket)

NASA illustration of Magnum booster.

The Magnum was a large super-heavy-lift rocket designed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center during the mid-1990s. The Magnum, which never made it past the preliminary design phase, would have been a launcher some 96 meters (315 feet) tall, on the scale of the Saturn V and was originally designed to carry a human expedition to Mars. It was to have used two strap-on side boosters, similar to the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), but using liquid fuel instead. Some designs had the strap-on boosters using wings and jet engines, which would enable them to fly back to the launch area after they were jettisoned in flight.[1] The Magnum was designed to carry around 80 tons of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO).[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Information about 6 variants of Magnum
  2. ^ "NASA Draws Up Big Booster for Mars". Space.com. 2000-03-10. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-18.