Hyperion Interplanet Hyperion Interplanetary Spacecraft Credit: © Mark Wade. 2,530 bytes. 455 x 125 pixels.

Hyperion was considered in 1958 as a ca. 1970 Saturn follow-on. It used a small jettisonable chemical booster stage that contained chemical engines and the LOX oxidizer for the conventional engines. This booster stage surrounded the nuclear core vehicle with its large liquid hydrogen tank. The conventional stage would draw fuel from the main hydrogen tank until burnout. Hyperion would have doubled the translunar trajectory performance of the Saturn V and less than one third of the liftoff mass.

LEO Payload: 145,000 kg. to: 485 km Orbit. at: 28.0 degrees. Payload: 82,000 kg. to a: parabolic escape trajectory. Liftoff Thrust: 1,090,000 kgf. Total Mass: 850,000 kg. Core Diameter: 8.5 m. Total Length: 85.4 m.

• Stage Number: 0. 1 x Hyperion Booster Gross Mass: 394,625 kg. Empty Mass: 18,144 kg. Thrust (vac): 1,400,000 kgf. Isp: 457 sec. Burn time: 70 sec. Isp(sl): 365 sec. Diameter: 8.5 m. Span: 13.0 m. Length: 12.0 m. Propellants: Lox/LH2 No Engines: 4.

• Stage Number: 1. 1 x Hyperion Sustainer Gross Mass: 453,592 kg. Empty Mass: 110,000 kg. Thrust (vac): 589,670 kgf. Isp: 800 sec. Burn time: 460 sec. Diameter: 8.5 m. Span: 8.5 m. Length: 51.0 m. Propellants: Nuclear/LH2 No Engines: 2. Nerva 12 GW

• Hyperion nuclear rocket design.

  Hyperion was considered as a ca. 1970 Saturn follow-on. Hyperion would have doubled the translunar trajectory performance of the Saturn V at less than one third of the liftoff mass.

• 45 - Koelle, Heinz Hermann,, Handbook of Astronautical Engineering, McGraw-Hill,New York, 1961.