Hyperion SSTO - Hyperion SSTO Launch Vehicle Credit: © Mark Wade. 3,013 bytes. 183 x 352 pixels.

Yet another of Philip Bono's single-stage-to-orbit designs of the 1960's, using a plug-nozzle engine for ascent and as a re-entry heat shield. Hyperion would have taken 18,100 kg of payload or 110 passengers to orbit or on 45 minute flights to any point on earth. Hyperion used a sled for launch, which would have seriously hurt its utility. The sled gave a 300 m/s boost to the vehicle before it ascended to orbit. The sled would have 3 km of straight course, followed by 1 km up a mountainside, with a 3 G acceleration.

LEO Payload: 18,100 kg. to: 185 km Orbit. at: 28.0 degrees. Liftoff Thrust: 628,000 kgf. Total Mass: 470,000 kg. Core Diameter: 16.0 m. Total Length: 31.0 m. Development Cost $: 1,500.00 million. in 1968 average dollars. Launch Price $: 0.33 million. in 1968 price dollars. Flyaway Unit Cost $: 40.00 million. in 1968 unit dollars. Cost comments: Costs are those indicated by Bono. For this reason he felt rocket-powered intercontinental transport was competitive with SST's or aircraft.

• Stage Number: 1. 1 x Hyperion SSTO Gross Mass: 450,000 kg. Empty Mass: 44,000 kg. Thrust (vac): 800,000 kgf. Isp: 459 sec. Burn time: 300 sec. Isp(sl): 359 sec. Diameter: 10.0 m. Span: 16.0 m. Length: 18.0 m. Propellants: Lox/LH2 No Engines: 1.

• 36 - Gatland, Kenneth and Bono, Philip, Frontiers of Space, Macmillan, New York, 1969.